Headstone in Taradale Cemetery: IN LOVING MEMORY OF // BILL GRANT / LOVED HUSBAND OF VALERIE // DIED 19TH JUNE 1984 AGED 63

Birth: Bid GRANT (Ern GRANT's birthday book). Death: Bid GRANT, Headstone.

Colin Alfred William GRANT (known as Bill all his life) was born in Napier on 19/11/1920 to Amy and Ernest GRANT, the third child in the family. He had a good family life living out at Awatoto, with his grandparents William and Mary GRANT living a few doors down the road. Both properties were situated behind the main road that followed the beachfront out through Clive to Hastings. Bill went to Hastings Street School until the earthquake, but when the school closed he went to Te Awa School, and then Napier Boys' High School. He loved working with timber, so eventually he took on a joinery apprenticeship with Holts, and spent his whole working life with that firm. He eventually became joinery manager. At the time he retired, the firm had become known as Carter Holts. In 1939 war was declared and at the age of 19 Bill went into the army territorials in the Medical Corps. He later transferred into the NZ Airforce as an aircraftsman and was transferred to a number of aircraft stations throughout NZ, eventually being posted overseas to the Pacific where he was stationed when the war finally ended. In 1940 he met Valerie Evans at the Te Awa School Ball, and they were married in the Napier Baptist Church on the 14th November 1946. He always loved working in various areas of the Church, and the family attended church services. He was a deacon for many years. Bill developed a heart problem and died suddenly in the St Columba's Presbyterian Church, Taradale, on June 19 1984, where he had been helping give out pamphlets at a funeral. He was aged 63 years. [Val STUART]