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Mary Watson
1896-1968
Mary Isaline Watson kick-started her mobile home-help service into existence
in 1938.
After hearing that the farm wives in the district were having difficulty in
getting domestic help, she dreamed up the idea of a traveling home help as
the most logical answer. As she was the eldest of 10 children of a Scottish
pioneering family, and later the wife of a farm laborer, she was no stranger
to hard work.
She bought an Alldays Alton two-stroke motorcycle which earned her the
nickname Two-Stroke Watson from the local people. For this she designed a
side-car on which she mounted a National washing-machine. Advertising
herself as "Happy Day Washer", she would be seen five days a week, in
leather coat and goggles, driving between farms n the Grassmere-Seddon
district of Malborough, New Zealand.. She did all her own motorcycle
maintenance.
Upon arrival at the farmhouse she would park as close as possible to the
laundry, run out a lead form the washer to the power point in the house,
and, with a hose for the hot water, was ready to do the washing. A vacuum
cleaner and iron were also carried in the side-car.
She was fast and efficient. Once finished, she would move on to her next
customer. Over the years she had four motor cycles, her last being a yellow
Indian Scout. Because of its striking color her nieces and nephews called
her Aunty Canary.
On becoming an agent for the National washing-machine, her work load
increased. When the ordered washers arrived at the depot in Blenheim, she
would have to pick up and deliver them to her customers in the Seddon
district. During the Second World War she took on the weekly rural mail
service. One day was devoted entirely to delivering ‘His Majesty’s Mail’.
Mary Watson took this responsibility very seriously, and did not see that
carrying the mail in the washing machine, along with some small grocery
orders for the housewives, presented a somewhat comical picture. Another
‘duty’ she took seriously was that of dispatch –rider as part of the local
Emergency Precaution Service during the same war.
By 1950 she had given up her home help service. From her earnings she had
bought a house for herself and her husband, Herbert. Her housekeeping had
always been, and still was, impeccable, with her linen starched and her
floors gleaming. Though she never had children of her own, she devoted many
hours to children, by working as a Red Cross leader in Seddon for many years
and teaching local children sewing and embroidery. Her work in this craft
was of such a high standard that she won 142 first prizes around the
country. Her pieces included two portraits in silks, one of Charles
Kingsford-Smith and the other of Jean Batten, of which it was said that it
was difficult to tell the reverse side. The embroidery she did for St
Andrews Church in Seddon is still in use today.
Mary Watson gave unstintingly of her time to causes, particularly to her
church of which she was a dedicated member, right up till the illness that
hospitalized her shortly before her death on 19th April 1968, aged
seventy-one. |
