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New Zealand's First Refugees: Pahiatua's Polish Children

Popular Scout leader

page 261

Popular Scout leader

My father John Thomson, a private in the New Zealand army, was stationed at the Polish Children's Camp in Pahiatua when the Polish children arrived. He was there to meet their train at Pahiatua Railway Station and the shock he got when he saw the children was, to say the least, unbearable.

He loved the youngsters and hence his Scouting career. He lived for it. In fact, I think he was in his Scout outfit more often than his army uniform. He would take them to Greytown for competitions with other troops and they would have a ball. Dad just could not do enough for them. His reward was seeing the change in them and enjoying their sense of humour.

Our family lived in the camp. My brother Ian and I were children at the time, so we made friends with some of the Polish children. We would go out the back of the camp where a farmer had a barn full of hay and a haystack, and climb up it and slide down. It was great fun. The laughter just rang out. What lovely people.

When my father left the camp in 1948, he received a card from the Polish troop. There were not many dry eyes among the boys and dad also cried. The card read, with its wonderful little spelling mistakes:

30 April 1948

Dear Mr Thompson

We the Scouting group of the Polish camp, Pahiatua, wish to express our sincere gratitude for the wonderful work you have done for our troop. We know you have not spered no effort to make everything worthwhile, four [crossed out] for that we thank you.

We shall miss you much more than you may possibly realise and can assure you we shall always remember you as our friend and fellow Scouter. Parting is not easy at any time but it must be. We wish you and your family every best in your new life and shall hope that we may see you often in the future.

Czuwaj! From Polish Troop, Pahiatua