Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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He was, in her view, “a very meticulous person” and she explains that “although he did
a good job of farming” it was not his first love. He had begun to study accountancy at
Victoria University just before the War and she believes he would have made a very
good accountant because “he liked figures, he was meticulous, he was careful”. The
reason for his becoming a farmer after the War was that he had had very bad pleurisy
and had been told he had to work outside, so “farming was the obvious thing”. 244
Ingrid’s view of her father was that he was “very solid and reliable and kind […]. He
had a certain code that you didn’t cross”, as well as being “a bit of a perfectionist, and a
“romantic”, who tended to romanticize things, about his children in particular. She
feels that Ward took after Pat in the respect of being something of a “romantic” and
recalls that her father was very proud of him - very early on, after Ward had won an
award, he referred to him as “the young master”. Claiming that her father “always had
a soft spot for Vincent”, she feels that he was “treated a bit like an only child […], a bit
spoilt”. She ascribes this in part to her parents being more relaxed about their youngest
child, although her father “was always fairly relaxed about the upbringing generally of
children.” Another contributing factor to Vincent being “slightly indulged”, in Ingrid’s
view, was that “he was very outgoing, he was actually very charming as a little baby.
He was so cute”. 245 His mother concurs that he was indeed “so cute, such a sweet
looking little boy”, but does not agree that he was spoilt, maintaining she was “too
Germanic to tolerate cheekiness”. 246
Ingrid remembers Vincent as being “creative” (rather than artistic) and recounts the
story of how when he was about eight or nine, she did a stage make-up course and
Vincent “used to beg me every afternoon to put the stage makeup on him. And he
absolutely adored it […]. I had to part his hair in the middle and paint a moustache or
put other make-up on him and turn him into somebody else”. She also recalls that when
he was about four, he came to her and asked her to draw him a lion. She attempted to
draw a lion, thinking, “this’ll do for a four-year-old”, but Vincent was disgusted with
her drawing and told her one of the boys at school “could draw a whole lot better” than
she could. She concedes that: “he obviously had some idea of artistry that I didn’t
have”. While Ingrid did not see him as being ‘artistic’, she describes him as being “a
244 Lynette Read, interview with Ingrid Ward, 15 April 1999.
245 Lynette Read, interview with Ingrid Ward, 15 April 1999.
246 Lynette Read, interview with Judy Ward, 15 April 1999.