EXPATS

Fraser Cartwright

I hail from Thorpe and Lofthouse and

went to school in Thorpe and

Outwood, when I was 18 I taught for

one year at Outwood Primary School.

I played soccer for Wrenthorpe and

Wakefield Tech in the Wakefield and

District League. I attended Sheffield

University in 1975 and got an

M.Ed degree and emigrated the

following year to Canada. In Canada

I have a wife and two grown boys.

I taught for 30 years in high school

and at the University of Toronto.

I have written 8 books - mostly for Oxford University Press in Canada. I am a passionate golfer but love to visit the UK. I have a very good friend who lives in Stanley - Ray Saperia. We meet with other guys every year (in Spain, the UK, Canada, or Florida) to play for a golf trophy - the Beaver Pelt. I am still an avid Leeds United supporter (I check their results before the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Blue Jays). Less said about that!!.

I retired from 35 years of teaching in Canada last year. Presently I am working part-time at the University of Toronto (teaching teachers). I occasionally get over to the Wakefield area and love taking nostalgic walks around my old stomping grounds.

Fraser Cartwright

If you feel you would like to contribute anything to our Expats Page

and be part of our community website, archiving memories for future generations.

Please contact me on the link below

It's the place where Expats tell us all about themselves, what they're up to, what they miss, and what are their treasured memories of home.

Hello.. I live in The Netherlands,
in Arnhem to be precise’"A bridge
too far" !! I was brought up in
Outwood during the 1960s and
played out as a kid by the Cuckoo
Steps near the Railway Cottages.

The miners from Lofthouse Collery
used to give us their left over
snap when they came off shift,
that bridge was a sort of "forbidden
zone", when we dared to go over it,
we pinched the lupins on the other side, that would seem silly now, but at the time they were the only thing we could get to take home to mum, we couldn't afford flowers or find anywhere to buy them !!.

I lived in Lingwell Gate Crescent (the houses you see behind the Railway Cottages). there was a Welsh bloke there who worked in the pit and played in the Rugby League Cup Final in about 1964 for Hunslet against Wigan. I met him in the ginnel on the Monday after the final. I saw it on tele, they had lost, he gave me a packet of crisps.

Brad

Brad Downing

Cuckoo Steps & Railway Cottages

Lofthouse Vicarage

Kath O'Sullivan

I was born in Bradford, the daughter

of a foreman woolsorter, but shifted

to Pudsey aged ten.

I attended Pudsey Grammar School,

spent a year working for the Telegraph

and Argus and then joined the

ATS in 1944.

Post war I trained as a teacher and

taught in Fridaythorpe, E Yorks and

at Pudsey Greenside School.

I was always interested in New Zealand and when two aunts moved there I

applied to immigrate.

I left UK three days after the Coronation in 1953. Settled in Auckland, taught, married, had five children and went back to teaching when youngest was aged three.

Left teaching 1980 and worked with refugee resettlement for ten years.

Widowed in 1990, sold up and moved to Waiheke Island, in the Hauraki Gulf, where I had a small holiday cottage. Have been there ever since.

I Have thirteen grandchildren, seven in New Zealand, six in Australia and a great-grandson in Australia. Three daughters in Auckland, a son in Perth, West Australia and eldest son leaving for Queensland soon.

Since I came to the Island I have dabbled in water colours, pastels and acrylics,

not bad, but not brilliant. Then I took up writing. I have had one or two small wins in competitions and a few things published.

This year, to celebrate turning eighty, I published a book of short stories set on this island, and to my surprise this book has been successful.

I bought a computer in 1996 and love access to the net.

My philosophy is, you are never too old to learn.

What I miss is places like Skipton, Richmond etc those small market towns,

that still look medieval and have a market in the centre and of course the Dales.

Kath O'Sullivan nee Margerison

Me with my mum and brother Philip 1934