Taranaki historian publishes novel about Eltham’s first mayor and his family

Brian Beer has written a novel about Eltham's George Washington-Tayler and his family. Photo / Alyssa Smith

Researching an Eltham street name inspired a Taranaki author’s new novel.

Brian Beer spent six years writing his latest novel, More Sad Blows Than Usually Fall: The Taylers of Eltham. He says it wasn’t until he researched an Eltham street name that he discovered a family link.

“I looked at a map and noticed Tayler St in Eltham. It was spelled the same way as the last name of George Washington-Tayler, my grandfather’s uncle. I didn’t know about the street before then.”

Brian says his grandfather told him about George when he was younger.

“There was a time when my grandfather took me to see the Alton family farm. We then visited the local cemetery and he showed me George’s grave. He told me about him being Eltham’s first mayor and that when he died, the public organised a subscription to pay for his headstone.”

The Eltham Borough Council was established in 1901 and George was the first mayor. There were five more mayors following George before the council was disestablished in 1989 to become part of the wider South Taranaki District Council.

Brian says he spent many hours in New Plymouth and Eltham finding information on the family.

“I looked at the newspaper of that time, the Eltham Argus. Since George was the mayor the papers focused a lot on his family. The more I discovered, the more I realised the whole family had an interesting story.”

This is the fourth book Brian has written. Prior to this Brian had written three books about Taranaki’s cricket history.

“I always knew I wanted to write a book. It took me eight years to find a topic. Once I found a topic in 2013 I was away. In 2015 I published my first novel on the cricket club, The Honours Board. After that, I wrote two more books about the club before deciding to write about the Tayler family in 2018.”

Brian says in researching the cricket books, he spent so much time at the Taranaki Research Centre they offered him a job.

“I was there four to five days a week, writing about the cricket club. It’s been 10 years and I still work there, which was helpful when I researched the Tayler family.”

The name of his newest novel, More Sad Blows Than Usually Fall: The Taylers of Eltham, comes from a quote by Eltham Argus editor Walter Carncross when he wrote about the murder of one of George’s daughters.

“The sympathy of the people is all the greater because it is known to everyone that Mr and Mrs Tayler have had more sad blows than usually fall to the lot of one family.”

Brian says the quote is fitting to the book.

“It’s the truth. George Junior died during the battle of Chunuk Bair on August 8. George Washington-Tayler’s daughter Minnie died giving birth to her fourth child and his other daughter Glad (Gladys) was killed in a murder-suicide case. The more I discovered about the family, the more this book became about them.”

The story he was most invested to tell was Glad’s, he says.

“Glad was murdered by her husband, Percy. Percy fought in the war and then managed a farm on Frazer Rd. The pressure of farm management and the economic state sent him into a nervous depression. No one saw it coming. I was quite shocked at how candid the reports were. You wouldn’t read about these sorts of cases in that length of detail these days.”

Brian released the book late last month and says he’s pleased with the outcome.

“I’m pleased with what I’ve researched. I’ve had a few family descendants come to me and thank me for writing the book. They mentioned it was factual and accurate which was a big compliment.”

Brian says this won’t be his last book.

“I’ve already planned my next novel, which will be based on Waitara boxer Tommy Donovan. The thing is, I love history.”