George Alexander MacDonald Bathgate, the third child & son of George T & Eleanor, was born on 20th July 1923.
Unlike his older brothers, he attended King Edward Technical College instead of King’s High School. Both schools were in Dunedin, some 18 miles away, so it was a long trek in those days.
In March 1944, George married Hazel Patricia Doull. He was working in the railway at the time and boarding with Hazel’s aunt in North East Valley. One day while cycling down the hill to work, the front wheel came out of the bike and he had a nasty accident, fracturing his skull and rupturing an eardrum. Unfortunately, this lead to permanent loss of hearing; he later left the railway for other work.
They moved into a flat of their own in Dundas St, Dunedin and were there when the first children were born. They needed more room than was in the tiny flat and built their own house in Kenmure Rd, one of only three there in those days, (their granddaughter Kate lives in that same road today). Their next move was to Beehive Rd, Outram after George senior asked his son to come and help on the family farm. A new house was built accros the road from the homestead and the land divided into two separate farms, George managing one and Pete the other. George’s section retained the “Kinfauns” title and Pete’s farm was called “Kinfalloch”.
There were four children, Alfred John 21/5/46, Patricia Lorraine 14/11/47, Suzanne Ngaire 12/9/49 & Lesley Elaine 30/5/51. They all attended Outram primary school, then Taieri High School in Mosgiel and later either Otago University or Teachers Training College in Dunedin.
In the early part of 1968 Alfred married Lorraine Aitken and in December Patricia married Russell Hebbard. Alf & Lorraine had two sons, Reuben and James. Both boys now have children of their own.
Patricia and Russell had three daughters, Rhonda, Kathi and Tricia. They initially lived in Dunedin but in 1980, the family relocated to Australia where Russell had obtained work with a mining company in Port Hedland, in the north west of Western Australia. Sadly Rhonda passed away in November of 1981 from Leukaemia though Kathi and Tricia both have children.
Suzanne married Nick Milton approx 1967 – they had one daughter, Kate who married and has one son. Suzie died of a ruptured aneurism on 23/2/1999. Both Nick and Kate still live in Dunedin.
Lesley married Noel Hutton and they had one son, Anton. Anton is married to Amy now, they live in Christchurch with their 2 sons.
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