Cash, Ronald

Ronald George Cash was born on 10 December 1919, the oldest of four children of George Hewitt Cash (1878-1945) and Annie Cash (nee Hodges) (1881-1958).

Ronald attended Fitzroy School and was a keen motorcyclist who was working as a farmhand on Tate Road in Brixton when the Second World War began. His name appeared on the ballot list in August 1941 but his employer James Allan Budden – himself a member of the Waitara Home Guard – petitioned the Armed Forces Appeal Board to have Ronald exempted from service owing to the “impossibility of securing additional labour” with so many other young men in uniform. The board took pity and ruled that Ronald was not to be called before 31 May 1942, at which point it appears that Budden again appealed.

Ronald was eventually called up in 1944 and served as a Private in the Infantry Brigade with the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He was reported wounded in December 1944 and invalided back to New Plymouth on board a mail train from Wellington with 20 other injured men on 1 March 1945. Friends and family welcomed Ronald home with a dance and supper at Hillsborough Hall on 5 April 1945, Mackay’s Orchestra providing the entertainment. He was later awarded the War Medal 1939-1945 and the New Zealand Service War Medal.

Ronald went back to being a farmhand after the war but by 1957 was driving a taxi in New Plymouth. He married Shirley Nita Hatcher (1927-2010) in June 1951 and had four children: Sharolyn, Rowene, Naomi and Bruce.

Ronald Cash died on 14 April 1991 aged 71 and his ashes are interred at Awanui Cemetery.