My great-grandfather Carl Hinrich Andreas Mumme was arrested during WWI. When war was declared, he was arrested at his work place and was imprisoned on Soames Island, Wellington, for about 4 years, when the war ended. He had committed no crime, but at that time all Germans in N.Z. were imprisoned. My Great Grandmother was not told of his arrest and had no idea what had happened to him for 2 days.
My Grandfather, (Harry) Carl Henry Albert Mumme, was at the time about 16 years old and the eldest in the family, so he had to leave his building apprenticeship to get a better paid job to support his Mother and siblings. He managed to get a job as a carpenter, the trade of his father and also making deliveries in a van. He had never driven before, but told his prospective employee that he could drive and as he was shown the route he should take, he watched how the man drove the van and was given the job and soon taught himself how to drive.Apparently, there was an Article written in a Wellington Newspaper about the plight of my poor Great Grandmother, after her husband was arrested.
In World War 2 my Grandfather, Harry Mumme, was a bus driver in Birkenhead, Auckland and he lost his job because of his German background, and was abused by some because he was part German and probably he sympathised with the Germans, because he was bitter over the treatment his father had received in World War I.
Harry married Ivy Edith Pretoria Symons on 12 April 1919 at the Registry Office, Wellington.
Ivy was born 1900 in Napier, NZ. She died giving birth to their son, Ivan who was born 20 July 1919 Lower Hutt, NZ and died of cerebral Haemorrhage on 23 July, 1919. Ivy died two days later on 25 July 1919.
Harry Mumme then met 17 year old Emily White who was born in Sydney, NSW in 1902. They married on August 8, 1922 at the Registry Office, Wellington shortly before her 20th birthday. Harry was almost 24 years old and Emily was just pregnant with Edna when they married and they drove up to Auckland on his motorbike and side cart where they looked for a place to settle. The journey was a long one in those days and the roads were in poor condition.
They lived in 3 different houses in Birkdale before moving to their 17 1/2 acre farm at Karaka Rd (now Kahika Rd) in May 1929. where they kept a small herd of dairy cows, poultry and sold fruit, vegetables and spring flowers.
Harry died of bowel cancer at age 75 on 10 March 1974 in Auckland. Emily continued to live on the farm until shortly after Harry's death. After that she went to live in a 2 bedroom house, built for her, beside her son, Lloyd's house at 82 Paragon Avenue, Beach Haven. She continued to live there for about 10 years and then after becoming rather frail with a crumbling spine, she went to live in the Lady Allum Home at Milford, where she died on July 14 1992, (1 month away from her 90th birthday). In the last years of her life she had become rather depressed and also suffered from Bowel Cancer and finally a broken hip from which she never fully recovered, dying about 10 weeks later.
Source(s): Lorna Fay Howarth Wuthrich