IN MEMORY: Gordon Noel Elliston (1925-2016)

Gordon was born on 23rd July 1925 in Auckland, New Zealand. He died 11 March 2016 in Katikati, NZ. His parents were married in 1920 in Suva, Fiji. His father was Australian and his mother was a New Zealander and chose to return to New Zealand for the birth of each of her two sons so that they would be New Zealanders. Gordon spent his early life on the Island of Taveuni in Fiji where His father managed a Copra Plantation. In the school term Gordon and his older brother, Warwick, went to New Zealand to attend school and while there the two boys lived at the home of their Uncle, Gordon Fagan, in Birkenhead on the North Shore in Auckland The boys went back home to Fiji for the school holidays. During the term time while at his Uncle's house Gordon would get up before dawn every morning to deliver the daily newspaper "The New Zealand Herald". He knew all the "old families" in the district. His friend Wilf Dil of Hinemoa Street founded Dil's Funeral Services in 1960.

He married Twice. In 1953 he married Addeen Forlong Snow in Auckland, daughter of Hastings Snow & Dorothy Gledstanes. Addeen was descended through her mother from Irish Gentry. She was very interested in discovering ancestors.
         Dunbar & Gledstanes Heritage          Snow Heritage

Gordon was a Land Surveyor and it was Addeen who encouraged him to apply for the position of Tutor at Auckland Techhnical Institute and he was still teaching there when he and I were married in 1981 in Glenfield, Auckland. We lived at the property that I already owned prior to our marriage. He was my third cousin once removed. (My grandmother was Ada Muriel Elliston). We often went for drives to Birkenhead where he would enjoy gazing in fond memory at the house that once belonged to his *Uncle Gordon (Fagan - see link below)). He had sentimental memories of Tavenui and he used to talk about it to me. His family were close friends with the man who ran the local Radio Station on the Island and when Averill, his wife, returned to New Zealand she rang us without fail every week and told me many stories of Gordon as a young boy. He surveyed a great deal of the land in Northland and Albany including the land belonging to the Wright family & also Sid Clemow's land. Sid and Gordon were at school together and later they were both in Rotary. Gordon & I often visited the Orchard before Sid sold the land that was developed for housing.
*Uncle Gordon Fagan - I nursed Uncle Gordon in our home during his last illness.  (He brought with him his prize-winning  Pekingese Dog).

                    Below is a link to Uncle Gordon's Heritage:

                                             John Fagan