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At the
ages of both 19 and 29 Mick Whelan's occupation was recorded as 'miner', so we
assume he was working in the Tuapeka gold fields area.
At 29 Mick answered the call for volunteers for the Boer War, and joined the second contingent to leave New Zealand.
Being discharged from the army in 1900, Mick moved to New Plymouth, where he became a baker, and on 14 March 1907 he married Elizabeth Greenway at All saints Church, Burwood, Christchurch. Mick and Elizabeth made their home in Okato, Taranaki.
When World War I broke out Mick enlisted as a member of the Auckland Mounted Rifles. In 1916 the Regiment became part of the Australian and New Zealand Mounted Division which was based in Egypt and fought against Turkish troops in the Middle East. Mick was discharged from the army in 1916.
His marriage to Elizabeth was dissolved in the New Plymouth court in 1929 and Mick went to live with his sister Mary and her husband Hugh O'Neill at 'Meadowbank', their Palmerston farm. Mick did much beautiful work in the garden, building trellis and gardens. He used to get up about 5 am, put his trousers on over his pyjamas, work in the garden for a couple of hours, then go back to bed.
Stories abound concerning the colourful life that Mick led in his younger days. Family history relates that during his service in WW I he met and married another woman in Egypt, and sent photos home to his first wife !
When World War II broke out Mick, well into his 60's and known as the 'Old Soldier', was the first to volunteer. He was told to go home and tend his garden !
Neither of his two wives stayed with Mick, and he passed away in Dunedin on 27 October 1942, aged 71.