SONS TOOK COMMAND

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20921, 28 September 1939, Page 2

SONS TOOK COMMAND

MRS CHRISTIE DID NOT COOK Sixty-eight-year-old Mrs Archibald Christie was pottering about the other night in the kitchen of the little house ill Canterbury, in which she and her husband have lived for 37 years, and in which all her 15 children were born, says a writer in a London paper. It was an occasion for Mrs Christie —she has the most abundant silver hair and alert brown eyes—for she and her 75-year-old husband have just celebrated their golden wedding. Her husband is an old soldier. He enlisted in the Buffs at Canterbury Barracks in the 'eighties. He was a very proud young soldier' then. He served in China, India, and Egypt. Moreover, when the last war broke out, Mr Christie—he was then well over 50 and the father of serving soldiers —insisted on being re-en-listed. It is a way these Christies have. Seven Sons in Guards But those serving soldiers—sons and now grandsons—took the golden wedding celebration into their own hands. Mrs Christie wanted to all the balling for her little party. But the rooster of attendance would be too large—so the serving Christies said. Accordingly, they hired the neighbouring parish hall for the party. No fewer than seven of the Christies —and not a man under 6ft Uin. —are serving, or have served, in the Royal Horse Guards (Blues). Thre other sons are in the Royal Air Force and the Lancashire Fusiliers. The strain persists. The Christie daughters all married Service men. Daughter Rose, for example, has two sons—one in the Army, one in His ! Majesty's Jollies. Daughter Marie, likewise, has two sons—one in the Royal Air Force, the other has just joined H.M.S. Arethusa. There is also a great-grandson, i ! who said that, in spite of the fact ! that he was attracted to the great | game of the anti-aircraft guns, he ! | would, in all probability, enlist in . j the Blues. But he is a very little boy. There was a great parade of gali lantrv in the little Wincheap Street house. [ Mrs Christie said how much she , wanted to cook for her soldier sons and grandsons, but one fell that she was pretending just a little. You can . see the pride as she talked of her , "little boys." There is Jim. He is now sergeant- , : instructor in musketry to the Blues. , There is Wally, who is corporali major drill-instructor in the same proud regiment. Mrs Christie walked Irons the age

of thirteen in a mackintosh factory. "We made mackintoshes for Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales,” said Mrs Christie, “but he was so pernickety.” Young Archie Christie, private in the Buffs, met her when he was on furlough in London. They courted in their walks along Wapping Wall. They parted, related Mrs Christie, for two years. And then they met again; Private Christie had earned his honourable discharge. They were married in the Church of St. Paul's and St. George’s in East London. The young Christies came back to Mr Christie’s native town of Canterbury. He flourished in a fish business. The sons and the daughters were born to them. Letter from the King: In 1936, King George V. had a letter written to them from Buckingham Palace expressing the King's appreciation of “the remarkable record of your sons in the service of the Crown.” The letter hangs now in a frame in Mrs Christie’s kitchen. As for Mr Christie, he is the proudest man in Canterbury. Isn’t one of his sons sergeant in the Blues, and another corporalmajor? And hasn't his grandson just joined Arethusa.