Ida Isabelle was born on 7 August 1885 (birth certificate number 1884/066597) in Aratapu in the northern Kaipara region.

Much of her early childhood is unknown other than she did learn to play the piano and well enough to become a teacher of the piano.

By 1909 she had caught the eye of a young sea captain, Charles Daniel, who at the time was sailing up and down the West coast between Hokianga and Manukau stopping in at Kaipara moving mainly milled timber and other goods.

On 7 August 1910 at the age of 25 Ida marries Captain Charles Bamford Daniel (27) at the Church of Holy Sepulchre on Khyber Pass Road in Auckland (Marriage Certificate number 1910/3945). She is listed as a Music Teacher and Charles is a Master Mariner. They are residing with her parents at 69 Symonds Street, Auckland.

Charles Bamford Daniel was born in London on 6 July 1883, the son of Thomas Daniel and Clara Emma Holmes. At the age of one he immigrate to New Zealand with his family and settle in Riverhead north of Auckland. At a very early age (about 13) Charles starts working life on the sea and quickly works his way up to be a coastal Captain shipping flax and timber up and down the west coast of the North Island. It is on one stop into the Kaipara Harbour he meets Ida Stanaway. (A full history on Captain Charles Bamford Daniel is available in another publication by the same author). At the time Charles had finished Trans-Tasman sailing and was sailing in scows around the New Zealand coast.

By the end of 1911 Ida is living with her parents at 69 Symonds Street, Auckland, as Charles is often away for long periods of time. This same year on 21 May 1911 Ida gives birth to their first child Barney Thomas Daniel, by all accounts it was a hard birth as Barney was a large baby. We have a letter written by Ida straight after Barney’s birth to her husband, who was in charge of the scow Rambler at Mercury Bay at the time, the hand writing is weak and she describes the birth as follows;

“Dearest, I suppose you got a surprise about me but labour set yesterday morning and at 10 past baby was born. I had a bad time it was me or baby but you must thank God we are both here getting on slowly nana wrote the other day. Can’t write more. Your loving wife Ida. He is a little darling, weighs a stone I had chloroform and it took the nurse and doctor all their time to bring him. Love.”

Barney Daniel described his birth in his book “A Kiwi Journal”;

“My first breath of life was at 69 Symonds Street in Auckland, according to my mother at 8 o’clock in the evening of the 21st of May, 1911. I gave my mother (her first) a terrible time being 10lbs of red-faced blubber and she only a tiny woman. There is a letter amongst my papers verifying this, written by my mother in pencil and addressed to her husband, my father, at that time loading sawn timber from the mill at Mercury Bay into the scow `The Rambler’, of which he was Master.“

“Mother incidentally was living with her parents at the address above and I imagine at that stage for the reason that her husband was away so often found this convenient.”

From the book Captain Charles Bamford Daniel by Barney Thomas Daniel;

“I am none too sure but the days of Capt. Daniel’s voyaging in scows around the coast were drawing to a close, and whether my mother had put her foot down I do not know but it was obvious to the Captain that as there was a strong possibility of the family increasing more settled a regime was looming up as another child was expected.”

From 1912 till 1915 Captain Charles was employed by the Devonport Steam Ferry Company as master of most of their ships at one time or another, all of which were steam. The Daniel family during this time based themselves in Devonport.

On 7 May 1913 John James (Jimmy) Daniel is born at Devonport on the North Shore of Auckland.

On 13 March 1914, May Kakutu Daniel is born at Devonport on the North Shore of Auckland.

On 23 March 1915 Charles Frederick Daniel is born at Devonport on the North Shore of Auckland, on 12 May 1915 Charles Frederick dies of Spinal Befita, and is buried at the Waikumete Cemetery Anglican Division F Row 8, Plot 42. His grandfather William Stanaway in 1916, and Uncle Montrose Stanaway in 1918, will be buried in the plot next to him.

All the children were born while they lived in Devonport. About this time Captain Charles decided to join the Public Service as a Signalman at Hokianga Heads. From Barney’s journal;

“Hokianga was a rather dangerous bar harbour and had a Harbour Master whose name I think was Martin, and the old man became Signalman in sole charge at the Heads. This was a pleasant place for kids, tons of room, a pony, a cow, and of course many interesting people from ships awaiting a change in weather and the bar.”

“We children were well acquainted with the rural scene having ducks, fowls, cats, a dog, a goat, cows, also there were plenty of growing things the old man having made a garden hacked out of the bush of which I well remember luscious grapes, much of which when ripe my mother converted to jam. I have never tasted it or heard of it since those days.”

“This brief period must have been terminated about the time I was 7 years old because our next move was to St Albans Avenue in and off Dominion Road, where in due course I was indoctrinated to the school system. This was the Mangawhau School which in those days was really in the back block.”

“Our next move was to 87 Eden Terrace, a two-storey barn of a place which imposed its frontage right on the main street. Dad’s situation must have improved by this time as we had a telephone in the house plus a piano. The telephone was the means of calling him at all kinds of hours to locate or assemble by force or cajolery the recalcitrant members of some ship held up by their non-appearance at sailing time. Through these efforts he became known as `Shanghai Daniel’.”

The Daniel Family – Barney, May, Charles, Ida, John about 1920. – Barney Daniel Collection.

It was about 1919 when the family relocated to Auckland, after a few years the family had made a further move to Panmure on the then outskirts of Auckland. This move was specifically for Captain Daniel’s’ new position as a Fisheries Inspector. The Panmure lagoon was an ideal anchourage and had easy access to the Waitamata Harbour. From “A Kiwi Journal” Barney Daniel recounts;

The Lagoon as it was commonly called was possibly two to three hundred acres in extent, being tidal, uncovering a vast expanse of mud flats and banks at low water. The outlet to the Tamaki was narrow and the tides ebbing or flowing took quite a bit of stemming in a row boat and careful navigation in a power or sail vessel. This was a wonderful place for children and for that matter adults also, being safe for sailing, bathing, and various other forms of aquatic pastimes. To me of course this was heaven, such a vast playground wherein to try out any idea that came into my head, plunder all around just for the taking, sea battles and invasions, voyages of discovery, shipwreck and castaways, that great delight of all boys, fishing, something that even today holds as much pleasure now as then.

As the land my father now leased had no dwelling upon it, he had acquired for £40 an old four-roomed cottage that had been part of the early settlement of Panmure by the Irish Constabulary. This was situated on the corner of Cleary Road and had to be removed from this site to our section via Cleary Road, firstly up a gentle slope over the brow of the hill and down the opposite side where our land fronted part way on Cleary Road at the bottom.

The great day came for the removal of the cottage, it was the Christmas Holiday period and the Captain had some leave from duty and made a start on this project. Meanwhile he hired from Sam White’s bottle screws and timber Jacks, wire rope, blocks, and a big Kedge Anchor and a couple of long baulks of oregon timber about 12″ x 10″, these being the base of a sledge, as it was by this means, using these as runners, that the house was to be shifted. When these were placed under the house after it had been jacked up high enough, he proceeded to bury the big Kedge Anchor in the ground, rigged the blocks to the house runners and anchor, rove off the wire the fall of the wire going to a set of single trees attached to two great big draught horses belonging to the teamster, Mr Boakes.

Well, those horses plus my old man’s ingenuity with the gear, walked away with that old house, so as soon as the tackle was “two blocks” the anchor was dug up and resited again for another heave. As can be imagined this was great fun to us kids, fancy living in a house like gypsies on the road. It took three days to get that house shifted. First day the house was turned and moved onto the road and made ready for the first small rise up to Duffins Place on the morrow which was accomplished by knock-off time, the horses having performed magnificently and the Captain busy digging that great anchor well down to give the necessary purchase to the blocks. The old brick chimney had been removed leaving a sizeable hole in the floor, and my brother and I took great delight in peeing into this area before returning to bed, the things that amuse children when it’s a question of the unorthodox usually relate to matters of modesty that are taboo under certain conditions but are not noticed in cases such as this.

Our house now resting temporarily on the brow of the hill on Cleary Road awaiting its descent next day, was the subject of much speculation from the few locals and was not hindering any traffic of man or beast because there was none anyway.

Mr Duffin, outside of whose place we were camped, was leaning over his front gate taking in the scene, engaging the Captain in idle chit-chat asked him “What are you going to do with it Captain”, naturally “Big Ears” had to hear the Captain’s reply which was to the effect that he was going to site it on our land, fix it up with a couple of more rooms added, and live in it. “But” said Mr Duffin “You are not a carpenter”. “No” replied the Captain “But I sleep with a carpenter’s daughter”, leaving our Mr Duffin to ponder on that bit of information.

Next morning Mr Boakes arrived with his horses and by nightfall the house was in position on our section. The seeming ease with which all this had been achieved confirmed my belief that sleeping with someone whose father was an expert carpenter must be correct because the Captain was no slouch when it came to using tools of the trade.

The site of the old house is now the current location of the Panmure Pools.

The New Zealand Herald on 10 August 1935 had the follow notice celebrating Ida’s Silver Wedding Anniversary;

“Daniel – Stanaway, On August 10 1910 at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Khyber Pass, Auckland by the Rev Herbert Reeve, M.A., Charles (Captain) youngest son of the late Thomas and Clara Daniel, Devonport, to Ida, youngest daughter of the late William and Susan Stanaway, Atatapu. – Present address Lagoon, Panmure, S.E.6.”

They family stayed in Panmure until the early 1940’s, at which point they moved to 17 Aberfoyle Street, Mount Eden.

On 5 Feb 1944 aged 60, Captain Charles Daniel dies of a heart attack and was buried in the Hillsborough Cemetery (Death Certificate number 1944/21325). The New Zealand Herald on 9 April 1944 had the following article;

“Death at Sixty – Captain C.B. Daniel – Inspector of Fisheries – The death has occurred at his residence, 17 Aberfoyle Street, Mount Eden, of Captain Charles Bamford Daniel, senior inspector of fisheries at Auckland, at the age of 60. An officer of the Marine Department for the past 23 years, Captain Daniel was one of the best-known identities on the waterfront.

Captain Charles, left Fisheries Inspector sampling oysters – Barney Daniel Collection.

Born in England, he came to New Zealand at the age of two, living with his parents at Devonport for many years. He went to sea when 13, serving in square-rigged sailing vessels in the inter-colonial and island trade, until he gained his mate’s ticket at the age of 20. One year later he secured his master’s certificate, and became a well-known figure in the coastal trade as master of one of the heavy sailing scows used at that period.

When he was 26, Captain Daniel married Miss Ida Isabel Stanaway, of Northern Wairoa, and sometime later joined the Devonport Steam Ferry Company as shipper of a ferry-boat. Three years later he entered the Government Light Service, and was stationed for a further three years at Hokianga. On his return to Auckland he was appointed to the Government Shipping Office, after a short period with the Union Steam Ship Company, being responsible for crews for vessels operating from Auckland. At this period he was jokingly known as “Shanghai Daniel,” by which name old seamen long remembered him.

Six years later he joined the Fisheries Department, in which he remained for about 23 years until his death. His name was known throughout the Dominion for his work in connection with the cultivation of oysters and the conservation of fish. Captain Daniel is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.”

Ida continues to live at 17 Aberfoyle Street, her son Barney lives next door at number 19.

By 1954 she has moved to 28 Staveley Ave, Mt Roskill, until 1963 where she moves to 15 Northland Street, Grey Lynn. Her final move was to the Mosonic Hospital in Mt Roskill where it was said she would remain up until all the other paitents were in bed before she herself would make her own way to her room.

On the last evening of her life she did the same routine, only this time she requested that the nurse get her some cheese, by the time the nurse returned Ida had passed away, the date was 6 August 1977, she was aged 91, only hours away from her 92^nd birthday.

Ida is buried in the same plot as her husband in the Hillsborough Cemetery, she out lived her husband by over 32 years (Death Certificate number 1977/43107).