Peter Ronald WATKINS

1957 - 1960  (3 years)

• Name	Peter Ronald WATKINS
  Birth	1957  [1]
  Gender	Male
  Death	01 May 1960	Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand   [1]
  	Cause: Drowned
  Person ID	I20446	NZ Genealogy Project
  Last Modified	19 Jan 2022

  
  

  Father	David Howard WATKINS,   b. 1922, Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand d. 01 May 1960, Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand (Age 38 years)
  Mother	Kathleen Bonita DWYER [Bonnie],   b. 02 Jul 1922   d. 01 Oct 2010, North Shore, Auckland, New Zealand (Age 88 years)
  Marriage	1951	New Zealand   [2, 3]
  Family ID	F2122	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map		Death - Cause: Drowned - 01 May 1960 - Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Notes

  CAR'S PLUNGE OVER WHARF Two Boys' Bodies Still Untraced AUCKLAND, May 6. After five days of inquiries, the Takapuna police say they have little doubt that Rodney Watkins, aged six. and his brother, Peter, aged two, were in a car with their father when it plunged over the edge of the Birkenhead wharf last Sunday night. The body of their father, David Howard Watkins, aged 37, salesman, was recovered from the car later that night. Senior-Sergeant W H. Slater, officer in charge at Takapuna, said today that it had been established that the car left Cambridge about 4.30 p.m. and was next traced to Birkenhead when the boys were still with their father. The fact that the back doors were locked and the boys? clothing, toys and footwear were inside supported the belief that they we're in the car at the time, he said. It was possible they had been forced out of the broken back windows by the inrush of water. Mr Slater said beaches In the vicinity were still being searched. Source: The Press, 7 May 1960, Page 12. INQUEST Wife's Evidence At Inquest On Tragedy At Birkenhead AUCKLAND, Sept 9. The bodies of two children believed to have been in the car driven by their father over the Birkenhead wharf on May 1 have never been found, but today at an inquest into their deaths the Coroner (Mr W. S. Spence, S.M.) found that they were drowned. He said there was not the same direct evidence of their deaths as in the case of their father, but the inference that they had drowned was irresistible. He found that David Howard Watkins, aged 37, bus driver, of Takapuna, died by drowning on May 1 after driving his car over the Birkenhead wharf into the Waitemata harbour. He also found that the two boys, Rodney James Watkins, aged 5, and Peter Ronald Watkins, aged 2, died by drowning through being in a car driven by their father over the wharf. The mother of the two boys, Kathleen Bonita Watkins, said she and her husband had entered into a separation agreement earlier In the year. It had been agreed that her husband would leave their house by May 2, 1960. She gave details of three earlier instances when her husband had threatened to take his own life. Mrs Watkins also gave evidence of a number of debts she had had to settle for her husband. She said her husband had taken the children out at 9.30 a.m. on May 1. He had mentioned he was going to Cambridge to see his brother. He telephoned her at 7.50 p.m. "He said that I was going to suffer till the day I died - that the children were with him and they had had a lovely day, that he could not live without them or me, and if I would not go back to live with him completely he knew what he was going to do." Mrs Watkins said she had then notified the police and her solicitor. Mrs Watkins said that on May 21 she found a note placed under the carpet beneath a settee in which her husband had stated: "Rodney and Peter will be with me - I have not acted on the spur of the moment - I have had it planned for some time." Source: The Press, 10 September 1960, Page 14. [4]

  
  

• Sources

  [S503] NZ BDM - Historical Records, (Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, New Zealand). [S172] NZ Marriages 1836-1956, (New Zealand Society of Genealogists, 2006). [S1976] Chris Jackson, Ancestry.com - Public Member Tree - Family Tree, (Ancestry.com). [S691] Papers Past - The Press (Christchurch), (Papers Past - National Library of New Zealand), none.