Stratford man Peter Fairclough finds plenty to write about for his memoirs

Peter Fairclough's book is available from Paper Plus Stratford. Photo / Ilona Hanne

Peter Fairclough has undoubtedly led an interesting life.

“When I counted it up, I realised I had lived and worked in seven different countries over the years. It wasn’t planned that way, it’s just how it happened.”

Peter says he originally started writing down notes about his life for his family to read.

“I would be telling someone some story from when I was younger, and they would say you should write it down, so I started doing that, and it turned into a book, still just for family at first.”

After talking to others however, Peter was encouraged to look into having his book published so it could reach a wider audience.

“I suppose people might find it interesting, my childhood on a farm in England, and how I ended up here eventually in New Zealand. I didn’t plan to write a book like this, but it just evolved.”

Peter was born in 1929 in Suffolk in the UK on what he describes as “a mixed farm”.

“My parents milked cows and grew crops on the farm, so it was a mixed farm. My mother made cream, butter and cheese from the milk, and the cows were milked by hand of course.”

His early memories of the traditional farming ways in England might interest farmers and others living in New Zealand today, says Peter.

“It was very different then, not all done by machine, but by hand and foot. We used the horse manure as fertiliser and milk was delivered from the farm to others by pony and cart. We used hand hoes to single out the sugar beet and we used paraffin to keep the bugs away from our turnip crop.”

Born on the farm, it is perhaps unsurprising Peter says he has always loved farming.

“I still love it today, it may have changed over the years, but using land to grow crops and feed animals, it’s still the same concept even if the way it is done has changed.”

Peter remembers WWII vividly, especially working as a messenger boy for the Home Guard in England and serving with the Air Training Corps cadets.

“I remember one day seeing a German Heinkel bomber flying low across our garden one day. Aircraft were always in the sky, we would see hundreds of them.”

From helping as a messenger during the war to D-Day, when Peter recalls the sky being full of gliders and planes, the early chapters of Peter’s book take the reader through his memories of that time.

“I think people might find it interesting, what the war was like for someone who was living through it, in England.”

Perhaps it was watching all those planes fly above him that inspired Peter to join the Royal Air Force after school, or perhaps he chose the RAF for different reasons, as he recalls in his book.

“The army was too muddy and the navy was too wet.”

It was while he was in the RAF that Peter first began his travels, spending his 21st birthday on duty in Egypt. From there he spent time in Nairobi, before coming back to the UK.

“I enjoyed meeting people from different countries, I never had a problem getting on with them. I was always interested in their life, and they in mine I think.”

After leaving the air force, Peter continued his travels, setting out for New Zealand.

“I thought going to New Zealand was the chance of a lifetime, and it was. I love it here, and I am glad it’s where I ended up settling.”

Peter has lived in the Stratford district since around 1957 and says he enjoys the friendliness of the town.

In writing his memoirs, Peter enjoyed reliving his memories.

“The more I wrote, the more I remembered. Having it published is a nice way to share those memories with other people, perhaps they have also travelled, perhaps not, but I hope they will find something of interest in my book, be it my farming stories or my RAF ones, my time in Africa or my time in New Zealand.”

Peter’s book is available from Paper Plus Stratford.