Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

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Biographical Notes

Hercules Segar, also known as Hector, was the fourth of the fourteen children of Arthur Edgar and Isabella (née Harkess) Segar, and their second son. He was born on 28 February 1884 at Timaru and baptised on 27 April 1884 at St Mary’s Anglican Church, his parents the sponsors. Arthur and Isabella married in 1877. Two of their children died young. In 1884, the family lived in Buchanan’s paddock, and Arthur Edgar Segar was a mariner. Hercules started at Timaru South School (a Side School of Timaru Main) two weeks after his fifth birthday and transferred to Timaru Main School a month later. In May 1896 he returned to Timaru South School and left for work in August 1898. The annual distribution of prizes at St Mary’s Sunday School was held on 9 December 1900, and there among the recipients was Hercules Segar (Standard IV). “Proceedings began with a hymn and prayer, after which the Archdeacon . . . . . . . . warmly congratulated the teachers and scholars on doing so well, and was very proud of the position the school had attained among the schools of the Diocese of Canterbury.” At the Century Baths on 17 December 1900, a swimming race for boys under 15 years of age was won, by six inches, by S. Steventon, H. Segar being second. This was perhaps Hercules, or his brother Herbert. The trophy was given by the caretaker, and there was good competition for it. Mr Arthur Segar, engineer on the Harbour Board’s dredge Taniwha, met with a nasty accident on Saturday, 13 June 1903. “A blowout occurred in one of the steam fittings, with the result that both his arms were severely scalded. The sufferer is, we learn, doing as well as can be expected.”

By August 1904, Hercules Segar was in Southland, application being made to transfer land in the Tautuku district to him. Indeed, in 1905, he was a sawmill hand at Niagara, Southland. Then from 1908 he was a cheese-maker and dairy factory assistant in Taranaki. H. Segar was already a member of the General Committee and of the Concert and Dance Committee of the Oaonui Sports Club in the Taranaki, in January 1910, and he was re-elected at the annual meeting in February of that year. In June 1911 he was selected as fullback in the Oaonui football team. It was at St Nicholas Anglican Church, Rahotu, that he married Elizabeth Neilson Rookes (known as Lizzie) on 16 July 1913. Lizzie who was born in Scotland and came to New Zealand in 1907 with her parents, was an assistant teacher at Rahotu School, while Hercules was of Oanonui. “About 80 relatives and friends attended at the bride’s parents’ home after the ceremony, when the customary toasts were proposed, heartily drank and responded to. A large number of valuable and useful presents were displayed, including several cheques. The bridegroom presented the bridesmaids and flower girls each with very handsome brooches. Later Mr and Mrs Segar left by motor for Hawera en route for Timaru, where the honeymoon will be spent.” On 5 August about 60 people assembled to welcome Mr and Mrs Segar back from their honeymoon. Songs and a step dance were given. During the evening the Arawhata Road suppliers presented Mr and Mrs Segar with a very handsome silver tea and coffee service and conveyed very good wishes for their future happiness. Mr Segar responding, thanked them very much on behalf of his wife and himself for their present. Toasts were given and given again until they were lost count of. After supper was served, the party concluded with “For they are jolly good fellows” and “Auld Lang Syne”. Hercules and Lizzie lived thereafter at Opunake and Pihama, where their children attended school. Their son Arthur John Segar was born on 10 May 1914 at New Plymouth. Hercules spent the rest of his working life in the dairy factory, being for many years factory manger and retiring in the early 1950s. His sister Myrtle married a returned soldier in August 1919 at St Mary’s Church, Timaru, his brother Percy married in March 1921 at St Mary’s, and his sister Ivy married another returned soldier in September 1921 at St Mary’s.

Arthur Edgar Segar, senior, husband of Isabella and father of a large family, died at his Craigie Avenue residence on 15 October 1915, after a long and painful illness. He had joined the Timaru Harbour Board’s staff in 1882 and was held in high esteem by the brethren of the Loyal Orange Institution. He was much loved and much mourned. Hercules’ sister, Myrtle Segar, had received a Royal Humane Society certificate for rescuing another 14-year-old girl from drowning at Timaru on 4 March 1911. In February 1915, Hercules was placed first for both his broad beans (12 pods) and his parsnips (6 roots) at the Opunake Horticultural Society’s show. He was elected a new member of the Opunake Racing Club in September 1916. For the year ending 31 March 1918, the Patiki Branch of the Pihama Company, of which Mr. Hector Segar was the manager, tied for sixth place in cheese grading.

It was in April 1918 that H. Segar, factory manager, Opunake, was called up. Attesting on 8 June 1918 at Hawera, as Hector Segar, he named his wife as next of kin – Mrs E. N. Segar (or Mrs L. N. Segar), Rahotu, Taranaki. Factory manager for the Pihama Dairy Company, his address was Pihama, Taranaki. He was 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighed 130 pounds, had a chest measurement of 36-38½ inches, was of dark complexion, with blue eyes and black skin. His sight, hearing, colour vision, heart and lungs were all normal, his limbs and chest well formed. He was free of diseases, was in good bodily and mental health, had had no notifications for consumption or treatment in a sanatorium or mental institution. He had suffered an injury to his left hand 20 years prior, the 3rd finger of his left hand being contracted. He bore a tattoo on both forearms. The Hawera Draft of the 46th Reinforcements, which included H. Segar, entrained on 11 September 1918. Entering camp the next day, Private Segar was posted to the 48th Reinforcements. He spent seven days in hospital at Trentham – 29 September to 5 October – with influenza. Then on 28 November 1918 at Featherston he was granted leave without pay until further orders on Demobilisation. He was of good character. Demobilisation was finalised on 6 March 1919.

In May 1919, Segar was selected in the Opunake A team to play in a football match against the B Team as a benefit for an old Taranaki rep who was very ill. The following month, he was selected in the Returned Soldiers Team to play all-comers. At the annual general meeting of the Opunake Football Club in early 1922, H. Segar was elected a vice-president; and again in 1923 and 1924. At the July 1920 cheese awards, the Pihama Dairy Co (H. Segar) was placed second in the Crate Pasteurised Export Cheese category. At the annual meeting of the Pihama Dairy Company in September 1920, Mr Segar was congratulated for his splendid management and for good cheese sent out. More dairy awards followed in 1925. It appears that he was into bowling for the Pihama Club by November 1921, meeting with considerable success in following years. Meanwhile, Mrs H. Segar was involved in judging dancing competitions. In 1924 Hercules (Hector) was elected to the committee of the Pihama Bowling Club, and again in following years, being elected to the selection committee in 1929. Was he the Segar who was elected an honorary member of the South Taranaki Returned Soldiers’ Association in April 1925? In May 1929, Mr H. Segar was elected to the Pihama School committee, a position he filled in subsequent years. At the autumn flower show at Opunake in February 1931, Mr H. Segar enjoyed success with his asters in three categories and Mrs Segar with her gladioli. That same month saw him donating to the Earthquake Relief Fund.

In June 1932, Mr H. Segar visited Timaru, probably to catch up with his mother and siblings following the death of his brother Percy. At the beginning of December 1932, Mr H. Segar, of Pihama, was an inmate of the New Plymouth Hospital. By mid-January 1933, he was still unable to resume his duties at the factory, having been in indifferent health for some time. In February Mr H. Segar, accompanied by Mrs Segar, spent his annual leave on holiday in Napier. By early March he was able to resume duty as manager of the Skeet Road factory; Later, he was back on the Pihama School committee and the Opunake Racing Club committee. In March 1934, Mrs Segar was an inmate of the Kaponga Hospital. She had been very ill back in 1927. Mr H. Segar visited the South Island again in June 1935. After the war, four more children were born to Hercules and Lizzie – Doreen Thelma in 1919, Ivan Hector in 1923, Colin who died on 18 May 1927 at 3 months, and William George in 1930.

Hercules Segar died on 11 February 1958 at Wellington, aged 73 years. Some stories note that he died at the Wellington Railway Station. An inquest was ruled unnecessary. Elizabeth Neilson – beloved wife of the late Hercules Segar – died on 26 February 1968, aged 74 years, and was buried at Opunake. Hercules’ mother, Isabella Segar who had lived on in Timaru died on 11 July 1940. She was predeceased by six of her family (including the two who died in infancy). The eldest daughter, Elizabeth Ann Segar, had married in 1901 and died in January 1906, probably in childbirth. Her third daughter (Anne) Louisa Segar, who had married in 1910 and had a young family, died in March 1924 at Christchurch Hospital; her husband Harry Leicester Roberts died in 1931. Percy Victor Segar died in January 1932, while the youngest son, George White Segar, died in July 1935 at Timaru.

Albert Edward Segar served overseas with the New Zealand Forces in the war. Percy Victor Segar, an electrician of Timaru, re-enlisted at the Defence Office, Timaru, in late January 1917. Bandsman P. Segar played the “Last Post” at the 1917 Anzac Day commemorations. And in May 1917 he was present at the annual meeting of the Band of the 2nd (South Canterbury) Regiment. Tom Segar, a flour miller of Timaru, was drawn in the Eighth Ballot for service with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in June 1917. Herbert Goliath Segar, a lock and gunsmith of Timaru was called up from Class B of the Second Division for the South Canterbury Recruiting District by ballot in April 1918; an ambulance officer, he lost his wife to influenza in November 1918, he himself also being down with influenza. Arthur Edgar Segar, a baker of Waimate, was drawn by ballot from the members of Class C, Second Division in June 1918; a married man with two children, he was classed C2 in late August. Ivan Hector Segar, the son of Hercules and Lizzie Neilson Segar, served in World War Two. Several nephews and one niece also saw service in World War Two – Arthur White, the son of Eleanor Eliza Segar and Arthur Bennett White; Walter Schofield Roberts, who was the son of (Anne) Louisa Segar and Herry Leicester Roberts, was taken prisoner of war; Ida Isabella Segar, who was the daughter of Tom and Nellie Segar, served with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force; Harold Vernon Segar, who was the only son of Percy Victor and Elsie Segar (later Brophy), served with the Royal New Zealand Navy; and Noel Keith Whitehead, who was the son of Myrtle Evelyn Segar and Walter Joseph Whitehead, also served with the Royal New Zealand Navy.

Sources

NZ Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives New Zealand Collections Record number 0103076) [15 April 2024]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [01 April 2024]; Karori Cemetery headstone image (Wellington City Council) [15 April 2024]; Karori Cemetery headstone transcription [15 April 2024]; Opunake Cemetery headstone transcription [15 April 2024]; St Mary’s Timaru baptism record (South Canterbury Genealogy Society records) [16 April 2024]; School Admission records (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [16 April 2024]; Timaru Herald, 10 & 18 December 1900, South Canterbury Times, 10 December 1900, Otago Witness, 24 August 1904, Opunake Times, 21 January 1910, 25 February 1910, 27 June 1911, 22 July 1913, 12 August 1913, 19 February 1915, 5 September 1916, 7 May 1918, 19, 21 & 22 November 1918, 20 & 27 May 1919, 17 June 1919, 29 November 1921, 3 February 1922, 20 May 1924, 20 May 1927, 24 February 1931, 8 August 1947, Hawera & Normanby Star, 25 April 1918, 18 June 1918, 31 August 1918, 6 July 1920, 21 September 1920, 29 April 1925, 8 June 1925, 19 May 1927, 6 & 27 May 1929, 27 February 1931, 18 June 1932, 3 December 1932, Taranaki Daily News, 6 February 1919, 13 May 1919, 21 January 1933, 21 February 1933, 7 March 1933, 31 March 1934 (Papers Past) [15 & 16 April 2024]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [15 & 16 April 2024]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record

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