OLIVE

First born. It was not discovered by the Hawker family until January 1996 that Edith had a daughter, OLIVE, before she married Alfred King Hawker. It is unknown whether A K Hawker was the father of Olive and they had been driven by convention to not bring up a child born outside marriage. Olive was born in 1895 when Edith was 23 and working as a housemaid for a prominent farming family on their estate at Wainui, near Wellington.

Olive was brought up by the family as their own child. She married a man named Mence, and her grand daughter Lois, brought this information to light when researching her family tree in 1996. She said her family was happy to let sleeping dogs lie and was therefore reluctant to supply any family details. BACK