Anne MacEwen, born on the 2nd May 1925, was my aunt. She was the second child and only daughter of Margaret Dowell Sackville Hamilton, nee Hester, and Colonel Sackville William Sackville Hamilton, known to us as Pop. James, my father, was her older brother by two years and Peter her younger brother by two years. Sadly Peter died in a piloting accident in 1952.

Pop was Director of the Survey of India, and he was carrying out his duties in the Himalayas when Anne was born. Anne’s mother went everywhere with her husband, so Anne was born in the Himalayas. Dr Andreae, doctor for the expedition, delivered her. There was no cradle to put her in, so Anne was housed in the bottom drawer of a chest of drawers. Pop and Granny lived in Missouri quite close to Simla, where Anne went to school. It was an English school for English boys and girls. Most of the pupils were children of tea planters in Assam or army officials’ children. Miss Halloran was a brilliant teacher and they all learnt the basics. My mother was good friends with Anne at this time while James, Anne’s older brother, was in England. According to my mother, Anne was a very good little girl who worked hard. She and Anne used to ride to school on ponies as, at that time, only the Viceroy was allowed a car. There was much fun when they met up each morning and the ponies were put into the pound till it was time to ride home. They went to various gymkhanas and sports events. My brother has a photograph of Anne on her pony when she won the ‘young rider of the year’ prize and made the local paper. In recent years Anne, when she spoke to my mother on the telephone, often reflected on the ponies which they used to ride and would enjoy remembering the animals and the scenery and my mother’s companionship.

When Anne was about 11, John Andreae, Dr Andreae’s son, began to stay with Anne’s family in England, under the care of Pop and Granny. My mother’s family and Anne’s family continued to be close. In fact, later on Anne’s friend, my mother Grizel, married James (Anne’s older brother) and Anne was a bridesmaid at the wedding. John Andreae became my Godfather and Anne, as well as being my Aunt, became my Godmother.

In England, John Andreae lived with the Sackville Hamilton’s and came to be looked upon as a brother. He is still alive and in New Zealand and has recorded his own reflections on life with Anne, which I quote from:

In 1936 before my ninth birthday, I joined the Sackville Hamilton family on a train in India going to Bombay and on to England. We lived in Bayard House at Upwey in Dorset. I went to school with Peter and after the war, when I was an undergraduate at Imperial College, I spent my holidays at Bayard House. I particularly remember one summer holiday going for walks with Anne and sailing in Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour. Two sailing trips with Anne are still remembered because in one we were becalmed and had to row for hours and in the other we were caught in a storm! We had long discussions on philosophy and religion. Later, our views would diverge as she went deeply into the fascinating history of the Essenes and mystical thinking, while I went into artificial intelligence and moved to New Zealand. In May 1993 Molly and I went to England for Anne’s mother’s memorial service. In February 1996, Anne came to New Zealand and we took her on a 2-week tour of the South Island.

Anne remained quite a traveller in her later years. In 2004, at nearly 80, she went to see my brother and sister in law in the Philippines.

Going back to 1936 and Anne’s young life, after school in India, Anne was not suited to schools in England and was taught by her own mother, doing very well. She always loved sailing and, as well as sailing with John, spent time in her teens sailing with my Father, her brother James. She once visited James at Wellington College, but must have acted outside her normal good behaviour in doing so, because she had to hide in the bushes when staff appeared! Other happy memories of her teens included driving around with Pop when he was working on Air Raid Prevention, for which he got an MBE.

Growing up, Anne worked for a short while as a secretary but, under her mother’s tuition, gained a place to Cambridge to study English. And this is where she met her husband David who was reading agriculture. Anne passed all her exams, but at that time (before 1948) Cambridge was not yet awarding degrees to women. This honour had to wait till later years!

Anne and David were married. David’s mother and father lived on a large Estate in Devon called Stuckeridge and Anne and David lived in one of the houses there. It was there that Helen and Diana were born in the 1950’s. After a few years, David bought a farm in Winterborne Zelstone in Dorset and it was here I used to visit them, with my parents, for my weekend exeats from boarding school. We had good fun going on walks, eating and playing mahjong. I never realised at the time what enormous hard work it must have been for Anne to have us all to stay so regularly but Anne took it all in great good grace and always provided for us very pleasantly and amiably. Helen and Diana were at boarding school, so I didn’t see them, but at some stage during these visiting years Penelope, a lovely and precocious daughter, was born. Anne was a very elegant and correct lady, but she was surprisingly vigorous, loved walking and was able to tuck into hard country work.

In a way which could not happen nowadays, when the local school needed a teacher, Anne started teaching there. Anne loved teaching and from there, she went on to become a very successful English literature teacher at Poole grammar school for girls, where she loved her students and they seemed to love her, and where she was reputed to be an excellent teacher and became Head of Department..

After a while Anne and David sold the farm at Winterbourne Zelstone and moved to Wimborne where we continued to visit them from my school until I went to senior school.

One occasion sticks out in my memory when my whole family went on holiday to the South of France with Anne, David, Helen and Diana. Being army families and often living so far apart, It was probably the only time we spent time altogether. Diana took after her mother and was a very good hardworking schoolgirl. She went on to study Russian. Helen was a bit more of a tomboy. She went on to nursing.

Ann told me that she was converted at a Billy Graham rally. It must have been in her late 20s, when he first visited England. It was the beginning of a Christian journey which was to consume a large part of her life. We had a number of deep conversations about this, when I visited her at Wimborne, as I too was converted in my early 20’s. We didn’t always see eye to eye. As a Bible focused Christian I disapproved of some of her less orthodox ideas and she for her part didn’t like my obsessional enthusiasm and that of charismatics, but peaceful familial relationships prevailed. Anne loved walking and we would go for a walk and get to a place where she could overlook the countryside and she would lift her hands up high and wide, breathe deeply in and let out a big sigh with a smile to show her satisfaction, so it was very difficult later on for her not being able to move. What emerged for me during these visits was the recognition of her deep and strong love for her children. Most of us know what it’s like to be a parent and the treasure that we find in the next generation. Anne’s grandson Mark brought her enormous joy strength and happiness in her older days

Gentleness appears to be a characteristic of the family. Anne’s mother stopped eating meat in her older years, and Anne ate very little meat. Both my father James and Anne seemed to become increasingly gentle. We read from Isaiah 11 at my father’s funeral and I just want to read a few verses (6-9) here as Anne has moved on to her new life.

The Peaceful Kingdom

The wolf shall live with the lamb;
the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the lion will feed[b] together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

Margaret (Anne’s cousin)