Wickham, Clara

Clara Dulcie Wickham was born in Pātea on 8 July 1916, the fourth daughter of butcher Walter Wickham (1875-1961) and his wife Aimee Darling Wickham (nee Morrison) (1882-1963). Clara had eight siblings and was known to her large family as Ek or Eky. She attended Stratford Primary School then Stratford High School and enjoyed swimming and tennis.

Clara served in the Royal New Zealand Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) during the Second World War, enlisting in New Plymouth on 9 March 1942 and leaving the family home on Bird Road a few days later. She finished the war with the rank of Women’s Auxiliary Leader (WAL), returning to Stratford in October 1945. She and ten other service personnel were welcomed with a party at Ngaere Hall thrown by the local patriotic committee, with euchre and Harry Scott’s Orchestra providing the entertainment.

Clara helped her sister Laura run a florist shop in Stratford until marrying returned serviceman Kenneth Huntley Crabtree, known as Chips (1913-1988), on 6 September 1947. Kenneth, a carpenter from Napier, volunteered to fight just a few days after war was declared and initially served as a Bombadier in North Africa but was taken prisoner by the Germans in Crete in May 1941 and spent the rest of the war in Stalag 383 in Bavaria. His family finally received word that he had been rescued and taken to England in May 1945. Kenneth’s health was badly damaged by his time as a POW and he had trouble speaking for the rest of his life. Clara and Kenneth made their home in Hawke’s Bay and had two children but eventually divorced in the 1970s.

Clara Crabtree died in Kataia on 29 September 2014 at the age of 98 and is buried in the Services area of Kataia Public Cemetery.