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Jocelyn Dumbleton at
Pilot Bay, c. 1930s-1940s
Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0211/21 |
Many of us remember the splendour
of the great musical shows of the 1950s and 60s such as “My Fair Lady”,
“Oklahoma” and “The King and I”. The latter was the story of the King of Siam’s
desire to modernise and westernise his country, which he had protected from
colonisation, and had an English governess teach his children. This world
attracted Jocelyn Dumbleton, a young English civil engineer who specialized in
designing and building railways, to apply for a position in the Siam (Thai)
State Survey and Railways Departments.
Jocelyn Charles Dumbleton (1877 –
1964) was born in Southsea, Hampshire, educated in England, and died in
Tauranga, New Zealand. He was the son of General Charles Dumbleton and brother
to Arthur Dumbleton, who had arrived in New Zealand some years earlier and
married one of the daughters of George Vesey Stewart in Katikati.
Dumbleton spent the years from
1902 to 1909 in the Siam State Survey Department, and from 1909 to 1917 in the
Siam State Railways, during the reign of King Chulalongkorn of Siam. It was the
King’s father, King Mongkut, who had avoided the power of the European
colonialists and began instituting modernisation in Siam. He is the King on
whom the film ‘The King and I’ was based, and had appeared in the book “Anna
and the king of Siam”. The internal reforms continued during King Chulalongkorn’s
reign included instituting a uniform and centralized system of administration
over the outlying provinces, abolishing slavery, establishing law courts and
reforming the judiciary. He also introduced a modern school system and
constructed railways and telegraph systems.
After several years of successful
work developing the railways, Dumbleton contracted malaria and returned to
England on sick leave. Jocelyn Dumbleton was awarded the Order of the Crown of
Siam third class, by King Chulalongkorn. The law in England required the
permission of the King of England for any subject to accept an award from a
foreign monarch and George V permitted acceptance by Dumbleton.
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Wyke Lodge, Wellington
Tauranga Heritage Collection |
He did not return to Siam, and eventually
resigned from his position, settled in Wellington in 1919, and set up a private
civil engineering practice. Dumbleton married Winifred Alexander (1894 – 1961)
in Auckland in 1918, and they had one child, Phyllis Joyce (1919 - 1986), who
spent most of her life in Tauranga.
In Wellington, he designed and
built a house “Wyke Lodge”, named after the family home in Hampshire. This is
where Phyllis spent her first few years.
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Dumbleton’s Rotorua house
Tauranga Heritage Collection |
By 1923 he was practicing as an
architect in Rotorua where he built his next house in Pukakai Street. Dumbleton
appeared to be listed in the 1930s as a farmer in River Road, Hamilton while
their daughter Phyllis attended the Waikato Diocesan School.
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Dumbleton’s Mount Maunganui house
Tauranga Heritage Collection |
In 1931 Jocelyn Dumbleton
appeared on the Tauranga electoral roll and built the house at Mount Maunganui
on a block in the Cedric Banks subdivision. The house was built in the dunes
facing the sea but the address was then Te Ngaio Road. The address of the current building is 54
Marine Parade, Mount Maunganui and consists of an apartment block.
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Dumbleton’s Mount Maunganui house
Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0179/21 |
The house was built on a timber
frame with weatherboard cladding and a corrugated iron roof. It was a two-story
building with bedrooms and a living room upstairs, all with sea views. He
repeated a feature of his Rotorua house, installing bi-fold windows in the Mount
house. Possibly the use of these windows enhancing air flow may be a carry-over
from his years living in the tropics.
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Dumbleton’s Mount Maunganui house
Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0186/21 |
Dumbleton built another dwelling
he described as a “cottage” on the plan so it is difficult to tell if he
regarded that one as a bach as he had other Tauranga addresses over time in
Ohauiti, and Turrett Road before their last address in Grange Road. This
building has an unusual roof line and from the east elevation, the roof appears
to be mainly a hip roof with a skillion at the rear. The large voids for windows on the seaward (front)
wall may indicate he planned to use the bi-fold window style visible in the
image of his Rotorua house.
As well as being a keen photographer since boyhood,
Jocelyn spent much of his retirement sailing. During World War Two an escaped
prisoner stole Dumbleton’s yacht “Jeanette” and sailed for the East Cape, where
he was apprehended within a few days. Jocelyn Dumbleton may not have been your
average Mount Maunganui retiree but was representative of a class of Englishman
who found returning to the British Isles after working for years overseas
unsatisfactory and chose instead to live in one of the Dominions.
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Plans of Dumbleton cottage
Tauranga Heritage Collection |
Max Avery ably told Phyllis
Dumbleton’s story in his article in the Historical Review, Volume 66, No.2
November 2018.
Sources
Dumbleton Collection at Tauranga Museum. (photographs and
documents)
Various NZ newspapers Papers Past
Online British newspapers
Wises NZ Post Office Directories
NZ Electoral Rolls
Bob Scott
