Carol and George Murcott
Carole Anne Murcott .....(nee Cutbush)
Carole Anne Murcott (nee Cutbush), was born in Reefton on 11 April 1938. Her mother was Elizabeth Anne Dennison,(formerly Cutbush nee Barkle), who was born at Progress Junction on 8 October 1915. Her Father was Edward William Cutbush, who was born in Crushington on 4th August 1919. He died on 6 August 1941 as the result of an accident at the Peerless coal mine.
Her mother later re-married to Eric Russell Dennison. Carole’s brothers and sisters were
William Franchot Cutbush, Barbara Margaret Holley - (nee Cutbush), Mervya Donna Phillips - (nee Dennison)
Kaye Elizabeth Johnson - (nee Dennison)
Carole lived for her first year at Buller Road, Reefton, and then at Sinnamon Street till her marriage. She then moved to Coal Street.
Carole belonged to several sporting clubs after leaving school including;
Athletic Basketball Club - (called Netball Today) Inangahua Basketball /Netball - (B rep team) Reeftonaires Senior Marching team.
Carole worked at “Millers” and “T.A Dellaca Ltd”.She assisted with supervising at Reefton Playcentre, when she married and three of her own children were at school. She was Treasurer at the Playcentre for one year and was also on the Reefton Plunket Committee.
George Murcott
George Francis Murcott was born in Reefton on 6th November 1936. He was an only child. His mother was Sybil Murcott -(nee Mellett), who was born in Nelson on 10th November 1915. Her family came to farm at Oweka -(near Inangahua Junction), when she was eighteen months old. She lived there till she married. Her father was Charles Francis Murcott, who was born in Reefton on 10th June 1872, and died on 17 March 1887. They lived in Rotokohu on the family farm. When they married they moved to Reefton.
George lived at Walsh Street and Hattie Street and then to Coal Street when he married.
After leaving school his main sport was Boxing– George worked for “Adams & Hughes”, and then “Robert Yellowlees”, as an apprentice carpenter. He worked with Joe Hunt, Gray Newcombe, Tommie Farrell, Les Nicol, Frank Kearns and Athol McKenzie ... just to name a few.
George was also a member of the Reefton Primary School Committee and Home & School Association Committee.
he and Carole served on the Reefton Athletic Club and Reefton Youth Centre Committees for many years.
George worked for NZ Railways from 1956 to 1991 in the bridge and track gang. George worked with a lot of people there. Some of the names locals will relate to include: Harry Clark, Bert Seymour, Frank Graham, Jack Bonner, Joe Hunt, Alf Collins, Colin Davey, Dave Hawes, Brian Terry, Roy Major, Richard Barrington, Ronnie Reeves, Richard Smith and Tony Poulton.
On May 24th 1968, the Inangahua Earthquake struck. George had been working eight hour days on the railway but these were increased to 12 and 14 hour days after the earthquake struck. This wasn’t very good for the men with young families. George’s children were aged from sixteen months to eight years. His boss at the time was Brian Lavery . When Brian returned to Reefton for gear he also checked on workers’ wives and families to see all was well on the home front. Gangs from Greymouth and Christchurch were called to help. A breakdown wagon supplied meals for the workers.
George worked at Reefton Hospital as porter/orderly/ambulance driver until his retirement on 11th April 2003.
George, Kieran , Kyra , Tania , and friend of the family Aaron Cutbush. 1975
25 October 2003