F.Francis (Frank) Croft Huddleston

• I. Frank's family background
• II. Frank and the Mt Cook Hermitage
• III. Doctor T. Harold Pettit's memories of Frank
• IV. Dr. T. Harold Pettit.
• V. References

Frank Huddleston’s father, Frederick Huddleston (b.1810 d.1886) was born in England but went to Canada (Woodstock) 1834 - 41. He then went to live in St Malo France until 1854. His son, Fortesque Francis (Frank) Huddleston, was born in France on 31st March 1846.

Frederick married Mary Coles Graham (b.1817 d.1885) on 23rd Oct 1834 in Woodstock, Canada. Mary was born in Dunkirk, France. On the 3rd of September 1855 the family sailed from Gravesend UK to Nelson on the "China" arriving in New Zealand on the 4th Jan 1856. They settled at Nelson living at Maitai House, 207 Nile St East, Nelson.

By 1886 Frederick Huddleston was the secretary of the Acclimatization Society, and he wrote to the Nelson Provincial Council suggesting that a fish hatchery be established in the city to ‘bring within our reach ... an ample supply of wholesome and agreeable nourishment’. The council agreed to give the society all possible help to achieve 'so praiseworthy an object’ and Huddleston immediately began to construct a hatchery (primarily for introducing trout to New Zealand) to plans he had obtained from the then leading English expert on the subject, Frank Buckland [1826-1880].

The next reference to Frank Huddleston I can find is in the building of the Mt Cook Hermitage in 1884. By this time Frank would be 38 years old and his father Frederick Huddleston died in 1885. Thus there is enough time for Frank to have become trained as a Surveyor and to have worked in Timaru. It is also entirely feasible that he would have been “appointed Ranger for the Mount Cook area due to fears that grazing and burning would destroy local vegetation, especially the bush and the native lilies and daisies.” The surveyor is also stated to have been a water colour artist.

Considering that Frank’s father had been the secretary of the Nelson Acclimatization Society, he would have had the right contacts for acquiring the job as Ranger. Frank's family appears to have been well off so it is probable that he would have been in a position to obtain sufficient funds to build the first Hermitage.

The reason for the argument above is that a M.C. Huddleston is also purported to be the first owner of the Hermitage. Thus he is also considered as ‘Frank’. I consider this very unlikely because Francis was a name that ran in the Huddleston/Hudleston Family and many of its bearers preferred to call themselves ‘Frank’. M.C. Huddleston is obviously not a ‘Francis’. My own grandfather Francis Josiah Hudleston (The War Office Principal Librarian) also called himself ‘Frank’.

In early Colonial New Zealand I do not think that men would have liked to be called Fortesque (far too pompous) or Francis (girl or boy’s name?), thus ‘Frank’ was the recipient’s choice. I was somewhat amused when an Italian gentleman (in an email to Audrey) thought that my fraternal twin Audrey was a man! He had never met her.

After spending some time thinking about whom M.C.Huddleston could be - water colour artist and apparently associated with the founding of the Hermitage - I think I have found the solution.

M.C. Huddleston is an abbreviation of Mary Coles Huddleston b.1817 d. 1885 and was F.F.C. (Frank) Huddleston’s mother.

On the 22 May 1878 Frank's sister Eugenie Elizabeth Huddleston married Captain Francis Hayter, RN in Nelson. On Elizabeth's grave it is stated that she lived at the Rollesby estate (in close proximity to Mt Cook) from 1882 to 1936. Thus both Frank and his mother probably visited Rollesby before the construction of the Hermitage. As I am unable to access the title deeds I postulate that Mary may have bought the 30 acres on Frank's behalf for the construction of the Hermitage. Captain Hayter was later on the Hermitage Board.

Mary died on 7th November 1885 at which stage the property may have passed to Frank, if it was not his already.

It is highly probable that Frank acquired some of his water colour painting skills from his mother, who whilst staying with her daughter at Rollesby may have painted scenes of the Mt Cook region.

I think the above solves the confusion relating to who the two Huddleston water colour artists associated with paintings of the Mt Cook region were.

I also conjecture that the Huddleston Glacier was named/renamed after F.F.H. (Frank) Huddleston.

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It was 1884 when Frank Huddleston bought 30 acres and carted in 20 tons of timber on horseback for the first hotel at Mt Cook. The following year the Hermitage Hotel was ready for its first 30 guests. From: "100 years of pure progress, 1901 - 2001" - Tourism New Zealand.

Next I would like to quote the following on the Hermitage from chapter one of the book “Mick Bowie the Hermitage years” by Nan Bowie and published in 1969:
 
“TODAY the Hermitage is one of the best-known and most important tourist centres in New Zealand. Visitors come to it from all corners of the world. Some are interested in the mountains and, if the weather is good, they are content to walk and take photographs, spending as much time as possible out of doors. Others seem to prefer the comfort of the hotel, and care little about the weather except that, if poor, it prevents them from taking a ski-plane flight to land on the glacier or cross the Main Divide over to the West Coast.

From the Hermitage windows they have uninterrupted views of the mountains. Mt Cook, the highest, fills the Hooker Valley to the north. The Main Divide peaks lie to the west and the Mt Cook Range, an offshoot from the Main Divide, forms the eastern wall of the valley.

Less than ninety years ago the Hermitage was very different. It catered for only a few people whose main aim was to walk or climb as much as possible in a holiday of two or three weeks, though some would spend a whole climbing season of several months in the area, many of them coming from overseas to try new mountain country.

The first Hermitage was built for a private company, in 1884, by Mr Frank Huddleston. He had been the first government ranger for the district and had seen the possibilities for climbers and tourists. Sited in the centre of New Zealand's highest mountains, with some 27 peaks over 10,000 feet it was a climber's paradise. Frank Huddleston had the vision to see in this great virgin alpine country the tremendous opportunities for the exploration and climbing of these peaks, many of which were still unnamed. In those early years some great ascents were recorded.

The first hotel was sited between two hills, both morainic deposits left by the Hooker and Mueller Glaciers, some 2 miles further up the valley than the present Hermitage and much nearer to the Main Divide.

Originally of cob, as were many of the early dwellings in New Zealand, it was a small building, providing accommodation for II guests. The severe frosts however caused the cob to disintegrate and it was necessary to cover the outside with corrugated iron to keep it dry. This made the building warm, and it was used and enjoyed by guests for several years. The foundations for this first Hermitage were blocks of concrete set in kerosene tins, and the framework was attached to these blocks by number eight fencing wire set in the concrete. Later, a new wing was added.

This new addition had 12 guest-rooms, and a large dining-room, with a bar, a new kitchen, and staff quarters. There was a separate bakehouse and dairy block with a workshop. In front of the building was a pond made where rainwater had filled the hollow from which the clay for the cob had been excavated. It was a homely place, rather like an old farmhouse, and often the bullock wagon and team were seen in front of it, the bullocks resting after their long journey up from Pukaki bringing mail and supplies. Inside, comfort was the aim, and the many guests who stayed there were loud in their praises of the warmth of welcome and the hospitality.

Mr Huddleston was the manager of the Hermitage for many years and made a great success of it. He met all the guests as they arrived and did all he could to make the stay a happy one. He would listen to, and answer, questions about the mountains, the glaciers, and possible excursions the visitors could make.”

One thing everyone seemed to want was to see or hear an avalanche. "Yes," he would say, "there are plenty of avalanches, but they mostly fall at night and wake you up. You're sure to hear some even if you don't see them, as even in the daytime you hear them only after they have fallen."

The guests would come to breakfast with satisfied smiles; they had heard a huge avalanche (or perhaps two) somewhere near. The manager would take them outside to see if they could locate where the avalanche had fallen, and he would point to a scar on the face of Mt Sefton. No one ever suspected that he had a drum filled with rocks, which he shook vigorously once or twice in the night to provide their avalanches!

For 11 years the original private company ran the hotel, but in 1895 the Government took it over and the Lands and Survey Department controlled the area until in 1901 it became the responsibility of the Government Tourist Department. The buildings and 29 acres of freehold land were included in the deal, and also the first mountain but to have been built in the area - Ball Hut. This hut was below the junction of the Ball Glacier and the Tasman, some 10 miles up the Tasman Valley after crossing the Hooker River.”

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My mother (Joan Hyde nee Hudleston) wrote to me circa 1985, and copied out parts of two pages from "MICK BOWIE the Hermitage years" by Nan Bowie.
At the end of it she wrote:

"Frank Huddleston was a cousin of Joan Hyde's (herself) grandfather. He was also a talented artist and taught art at one time at Nelson College. Dr. T.H. Petit of Auckland was one of his pupils and remembered him well as an eccentric character."

I would think it probable that Dr. Harold Petit (a family friend) would have heard stories from Frank Hudleston about the Hermitage and discussed these with Joan.

The Tairawhiti Museum holds three works by Frank Huddleston in the Fine Arts collection and they state:
“He attended Nelson College 1863-64, was appointed Drawing Master 1898-1918 and was a member of the Bishopdale Sketching Club, later known as Nelson Suter Art Society. He was a keen naturalist and amassed a wide variety of interests in that field including taming kea. ... At some point he was a resident of Gisborne and is referred to as a local artist in Feb 1900.”

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Dr T.H. Pettit (one of Frank’s pupils) was an interesting person and as I can find very little on him from the search engine, Google, I will include the written material from a two articles, written in 1945, pasted into Joan’s Scrapbook:

Dr T. H. Pettit, of Auckland, has been appointed to command the 6th New Zealand General Hospital, at Kiwa, in Japan. He will join the Second N.Z.E.F. early next month and after a short embarkation leave he will fly to Japan on April 10. The officer commanding the 6th General Hospital at present is Lieutenant-Colonel C. W. Burns, who left New Zealand with the first relief draft. Dr: Pettit will also take over the duties of senior medical officer of the J Force.

During the First World War Dr Pettit served, from 1914 to 1919 as an captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps and the New Zealand Medical Corps. When the last war broke out he was engaged in medical work with the forces in New Zealand and rose to the rank of .lieutenant-colonel He was senior medical officer at the Karitane Hospital and a member of .the medical advisory board of the New Zealand Plunket Society. While attending Nelson College and Otago University he was a champion swimmer of the college and of Nelson. He has continued his interest in the sport and has held several executive positions on swimming organisations. He is also a prominent deep-sea fisherman.
Northern Advocate, March 5th 1945

Weighting 765 lbs. a black marlin caught yesterday off the Hen and Chicken Islands outside the Whangarei Heads, established a record for the Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers' Club.

Fishing from the launch Rongotai, owned by Mr. L. W. Waldron, the president of the New Zealand Deep Sea Anglers' Association (Dr. T. H. Pettit) hooked a black marlin, which took an hour to bring alongside, during the period broaching about six times, and putting up a good display immediately after taking the bait, and again after half an hour had elapsed.

So big was the marlin that it could not be taken aboard the launch, and, roped to the stern, it was brought into the town basin, where scales recorded the weight of the fish as 765 lbs. The fish is thus the biggest caught since the activities of the Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers' Club commenced last year.

The previous day, Dr. Pettit hooked what he thought was another big marlin but this escaped after it had played for only a few minutes.

Dr. Pettit described the big game fishing grounds outside the Whangarei Heads as "splendid" for, with 'the ample cover afforded by the islands, fishing could be carried out in any weather, as shelter was always obtainable no matter from which direction the wind came. School-fish were present in large quantities and thus gave indications of big game fish which also abounded. Dr. Pettit concluded with the remark that the Whangarei Deep-Sea Anglers' Club had a great future ahead of it.

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