664A Mt Eden Rd 28.8.60

Dear Donald,

Thank you for your interesting letter, which we all enjoyed. Your time at Canberra is drawing to an end. We are looking forward to seeing you before you take off for your next venture. We hear U.S.A., Israel, U.K. all mentioned. We hope it will be U.K. you go to. We like to think N.Z s best brains go to our own Kingdom for one thing, for another we have a cousin, Ellis Wiblin at Harwell & we think you would like him. He has been there since the early days of the war, when the work done there was very hush hush. We were very fond of his father, who lived all his life at Oxford, & who got Ellis & Margaret up there to meet us one time we were there. Anyway, whatever you do may you be successful & go to the top of the tree say I. Anne sent us all the colour slides she & Dick collected on their journey, & last night Joe Crompton & Muriel his new wife rang to say they had Diana’s(Olga’s daughter and Sarah Thompson’s mother) slides of her trip home. A tour of the Continent etc & would like to bring them over. Joe has a proper projector etc & we had all Anne’s too. A real joy to see. First bits of the flight home, then views of Somerset & the various Greed homes, & best of all pictures of Dick’s parents & family, then lots of the flight back & finally the Canberra pictures with a really first class one of you & of the blocks where you work. The parents will be thrilled when it comes to their turn to see all these. I did wish they could have been here with us last night. Ian was here last Sunday on his way home from Wellington for his holiday. He has a very nice A70 car, nothing like some of his relatives used to drive here, the “before Adam” type! However old Uriah mostly got you there, by dint of filling him up with water at every stream & water hole. Do you remember one glorious trip you had from Auckland to Whangarei Heads, which took all night and then some?

We expect to see Ian again next Sunday when he will be on his way back to Wellington. No doubt the wild pigs behind Langs Beach are having a sorry time this week, that is if Ian’s gun is doing its stuff. That seems like Ian’s favourite sport.

Wedding galas coming up in our family in the next while. We hear Alison Foote is to be married in Nov., Heather Dunn in Jany & Roger Foote in May. Between you & me I don’t think much of any of their choices! However they won’t mind that.

Andrew Wilson (Adelaide) who is arriving in Auckland by the “Iberia” on Oct 1st for one day, on his way back to Australia is going to divide his time between us & some other friends. We hope to have some of our Wilsons here. Also your Father & Mother, who are looking forward to meeting him by reason of his contact with you. His visit should be of interest to us all.

Geoffrey, Mona & Suzanne(Geoffrey, Suzanne & Elaine are Aunt Fanny’s children. Mona is Geoffreys wife) are arriving this evening for a few days, which will be very nice. Mona leaves for Singapore on Sept. 1st & expects to be away 6 or 7 weeks. Elaine & her husband have been there for the past 2 years & like it immensely. Elaine is expecting a baby shortly, hence Mona’s trip there.

No more for this time. We( Aunt Fanny, her daughter Elizabeth, and sister Aunt Eva) all send our love to you & all good wishes for your windup at Canberra.

All the best – Aunt Fanny.

Joe Crompton married Fanny’s niece Olga, who died in 1957.
Corner of MtEden Rd & Balmoral Rd/Green Lane was known as Cromps corner by the family because on his first visit after the traffic light was installed he did not see the red light when turning left into Mt Eden Rd.