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New Zealand Forces Club in Cairo (interview)

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Sound: playing sport during North African Campaign

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Campaign memories: Sport

Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence Wright was a doctor in the Medical Corps. He left New Zealand for the Middle East on board the hospital ship Maunganui in August 1941. After a short time at Maadi Camp near Cairo, Lawrence was posted to 2 NZ General Hospital at Helwan, before the hospital moved to Gerawla, near Mersa Matruh on the Mediterranean coast. At Gerawla he helped set up the hospital, but was also sports officer, responsible for making a rugby field as he describes here:

Listen now to Lawrence Wright discussing playing sport 'in the field'.

Sound: going to the pictures at Maadi Camp

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Campaign memories: Maadi

Jim Barclay fought with the 27 Machine Gun Battalion all through the North African campaign, returning home on furlough in February 1944. He returned to the war in Italy, returning home finally in 1945. Jim was fortunate in meeting a Swiss ex-patriate couple, Jules and Lilian Chabloz, in Cairo and spent much time while on leave at their flat in Heliopolis. Here, though, he recalls going to the pictures at the infamous Shafto's cinema at Maadi Camp.

Listen now to Jim Barclay discussing his experiences at Maadi.

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Wellington café culture

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Suzy's Café, Wellington

Sound: POW camp entertainment

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

POW memories: Camp Entertainment, George Trundle

Hear George Trundle talking about how POWs kept themselves entertained.

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Overview - Wellington cafe culture

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Wellington city centre is today renowned for its flourishing café scene and the culture surrounding it. But that hasn't always been the case. Prior to the 1950s there was little sign of the sparkling capital that exists today. The café culture that emerged that decade declined in the 1960s and 70s, before rallying strongly in the 1980s and 90s.

Time out - life in the 20th century

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Time out: recreation and leisure

Design and technology

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Influence of design and technology on milk bars and cafés

Changes in layout

Milk bars were often fitted into the ground floor of long, narrow Victorian or Edwardian buildings. Individual booths began to appear, giving greater privacy for patrons. The bar generally stretched almost the entire length of the establishment, replicating the classic American public bar made familiar through exposure to Hollywood films.

Immigration and Society

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200

Coffee houses in Wellington from the 1940s

A menu from the French Maid Coffee House

From the mid to late 1940s an affinity for coffee, and the places that dispensed it, spread through Wellington and continued into the 1960s. From the mid 1970s until the late 1980s, though, the café scene all but disappeared.

Relaxing in a dugout during North African Campaign

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 12:00:00 +1200