Daphne Marjoribanks Sew Hoy

Daughter of Henry and Gladys Sew Hoy

Born 4 Nov 1919 in Queenstown

Married Alan Judson in St Kilda Anglican Church, Dunedin in 1948

Lived in Dunedin

Retired to Nelson. Living in Monaco, Nelson

A. Daphne on early days in Queenstown:

"I was born in our house down by the lake, right next to the gas-works. Just a week after we moved to Stanley Street, the gas-works blew up."

B. Daphne on her mother, Gladys Dunlop:

"My mother's family, the Dunlops, ostracised her because she married a Chinese. She always wrote Sew Hoy as Sewhoy, all one word, to make it seem English."

[Henry Sew Hoy (1895-1970) married Gladys Dunlop (1891-1962) in Queenstown in 1917. Henry's Chinese name was Kum Loon: Golden Dragon. He was known as Harry.]

C. Daphne on attitudes to her ancestry:

"Everyone's interested now. Attitudes change as the years go by. In my day, it was all hidden. Young men would say 'I can't marry you, because you're part-Chinese. In Dunedin, after we were married, we were ostracised because I was part-Chinese."

"My grandson Aaron is fascinated.'I'm part-Chinese,' he says. He brought a friend in and said,'This is my grandmother: she's Chinese.'

And his friend said, 'You don't look Chinese.'"

[Daphne and Alan Judson had had two sons, Peter (born 1951) and Jon (born 1954). Peter and his wife Annie have two children, Kelsey (born 1989) and Aaron (born 1991).]

"I had the same thing when I was living in Dunedin. Hugh Sew Hoy always invited me to his children's weddings and sat me at the family table, and people would ask who I was. 'You don't look Chinese,' they'd say."

Source: Phone conversation Daphne Judson (nee Sew Hoy), with Trevor Agnew,

Thursday 13th February 2003.

D. Daphne writes about her Queenstown memories:

"Dad [Henry Sew Hoy] had records of all the Chinese miners, gardeners and labourers, etcetera, who were buried in the Queenstown, Frankton and Glenorchy districts. He looked after our only surviving Chinese gardener, who had a wonderful vegetable garden on the Frankton Road. He couldn't speak English but understood us. He was always kind to us when we went to pick our strawberries, but I had seen him chase off other boys with his fork."

[Daphne is referring to her brothers William (1917-75), Roger (1924-1992) and sister Valerie (born 1927).]

"It was so sad to see him walking down to the village to buy his needs. His shoes always looked several sizes too large. Dad visited him every day when his health deteriorated and put him in hospital, where he died. Then he arranged a nice grave and permanent headstone for him in the Queenstown cemetery, in the Chinese section. His name was Ah Gum. He died in 1937."

[Ah Gum is a term of respect for an older person. It has a meaning similar to Uncle.

Ah Gum is mentioned on p. 328 of ‘Windows on a Chinese Past', Vol 1, by James Ng.]

Source: Daphne Judson, writing in 2003.