Leslie and Maud: Capturing a love story

Adkin’s main outlet for his images was the forty-nine or more photo albums he compiled over his lifetime.

Leslie Adkin and Maud Herd’s six-year courtship yielded some of Adkin’s best photographs. It was one thing to record images of the world about him, or even picturesque images for the weekly magazines; another to try and immortalise some of the happiest moments of his life.

Home again – a siesta, 28 February 1914, Hastings, by Leslie Adkin. Gift of G. L. Adkin family estate, 1964. Te Papa (A.008594)

The courtship pushed Adkin into taking photographs that really mattered as he strove to capture the woman for whom he cared passionately at her very best. In this sense, and because she became the person he photographed most often throughout his life, Maud lies at the centre of Adkin’s photography. If not the central subject in the image, she often appears in Adkin’s excursions, usually as a small figure off to one side to provide pictorial interest or scale.

Amazing maize , 24 March 1913, Levin, by Leslie Adkin. Gift of G. L. Adkin family estate, 1964. Te Papa (B.022638)

No man does it all by himself

Adkin met Maud in October 1909 through her brother Ralph, who had joined the YMCA gymnastics activities. Adkin was twenty-one, she nineteen. Maud’s father, Wellington architect William Herd, had bought a farm on Bruce Road on the south-west margin of Taitoko Levin township, and had installed his sons William and Ralph in charge with Maud and her sister Gertie as housekeepers.

Leslie and Maud soon began seeing each other in mixed social groups, and the two Methodist families developed a friendship that involved picnics at the beach or river and gatherings at their homes.

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It is easy to imagine the attraction between Leslie and Maud: they were both lively and intelligent, equally comfortable in town and country, and more sophisticated than their local peers; she came with an English refinement and artistic abilities, he with a reputation as an adventurer and published scholar. Soon they were meeting several times a week, at the Herd home, out riding with their siblings, in town, and at church. In December 1910 Adkin wrote in his diary:

Only one side of the story

Mentions of Maud in Adkin’s diary became more frequent and increasingly emotional over the next few years. Unfortunately, we do not have any diaries or letters to tell us how Maud felt, but Adkin wrote enough to give us some indication. We see a tension developing between the couple from October 1911, for example. If Adkin was serious about Maud then she had every right to expect a declaration of feelings, if not a marriage proposal. She was clearly wondering when, if ever, he would make a move.

Daydreams, 24 March 1913, Levin, by Leslie Adkin. Gift of G. L. Adkin family estate, 1964. Te Papa (B.022647)

Throughout the rest of the year and all of 1912, Adkin confided to his diary feelings towards Maud that he could not express directly. Of a musical and literary evening in the Herds’ drawing room he wrote:

What held him back was the feeling that he had:

Although he might one day inherit part of the family farm, that had not yet been discussed within his family. For the moment he was simply a farm labourer with no means of supporting Maud in the manner she might expect.

Running hot and cold

Leslie spent enjoyable times in Maud’s company, but on other occasions she seemed distant and reserved in his presence. A coolness developed between the families as well. On a beach picnic with the two families on 26 December 1912, Adkin’s mother Annie declined to set up next to the Herds, and Leslie wrote:

Nevertheless, a breakthrough soon occurred in their relationship, and events in 1913 saw their future open up. On a late-night drive home from a concert in Ōtaki Adkin felt he wrote:

Things were not exactly resolved, however, for two weeks later Adkin wrote:

By this time Adkin's father had realised that with his advancing age and the exhausting work of running the farm he needed to plan for the future, including an ownership pathway for his eldest son. He purchased a strip of bush-covered land in Leslie’s name, although it would be a while before the land would produce enough income for a wife and children. However, after hearing the news, Adkin was euphoric, displaying a ‘“won’t wash out” sort of smile’ at a church social that evening as he sat beside Maud.

Then, in late June 1913, just when things were finally looking up, a thunderbolt arrived. Maud’s family were going to leave Taitoko Levin for Hastings. Bursting with love for Maud, devastated by her departure and frustrated by his parents’ injunctions to wait until he was able to support her financially, Adkin was galvanised into creating one of his finest photographic efforts: a series that depicted the story of himself and Maud.

The love albums

Where images representing a significant occasion they had spent together did not exist, he went and photographed the spot. He then pasted them into albums, captioned, dated and positioned to convey a narrative.

The first album begins with the group shots of the family picnic at the wreck of the Hydrabad in 1909, and mostly covers group activities or places where Maud and Leslie walked or rode. It ends quite explicitly with an image of them together as a couple on the grass on 24 March.

Dramatis personae. In the orchard at Bruce Road, Levin, 24 March 1913, Levin, by Leslie Adkin. Gift of G. L. Adkin family estate, 1964. Te Papa (B.022645)

Before the Herds departed for Hastings, Adkin was onto the second album, in which Maud comes more into focus as an individual.

The fact that the relationship could continue was in part due to a conversation Adkin felt he needed with Maud’s father, William Herd:

Hooray for Hastings

After the Herds left in early November, Adkin threw himself into making the North Block farmable, pulling out encroaching foxgloves on the cleared land and cutting down bush. On Christmas Eve he was on the train with:

The couple enjoyed four idyllic days. They wandered among the crowds in town, where ‘Maud was most vivacious & gay & proud I was to have her by my side’.

On Raupari Road at one of the entrance gates, 25 December 1913, Hastings, by Leslie Adkin. Gift of G. L. Adkin family estate, 1964. Te Papa (A.005829)

They had strawberries and cream at an ice cream parlour, inspected the highly productive Herd farm, followed by a picnic; and watched the Mardi Gras in Napier, after which Adkin showed Maud the sights of the town, as this was her first visit. In the botanical gardens:

Succeeding days were spent picnicking, swimming in the sea, skipping Sunday morning church to be with Maud as she prepared dinner, and laughing until they cried at a picture show.

On the final morning Adkin took special care to preserve his last moments with Maud and her family by having himself photographed on the verandah with his arm round her, then in a self-portrait reflected in a mirror in what he called ‘the carry me back to Tennessee’ pose. They are the first and almost only Adkin images in which the couple is depicted touching each other.

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When Adkin got home it was straight into shearing for the next few days, then haymaking, followed by numerous scrub and bush burnings on the North Block. Adkin returned to Hastings in February 1914 for a nine-day stay and proposed to Maud at the first opportunity.

Fortunately, the ring was able to be resized before Adkin’s last day and he re-staged putting it on for his camera.

A 'return' performance, 06 March 1914, Hastings, by Leslie Adkin. Gift of G. L. Adkin family estate, 1964. Te Papa (A.008628)

The couple spent most days on outings. Adkin took photographs, including a swap-over shot of each other seated by the trap on a picnic rug beneath a willow tree where they talked, Maud read aloud, and they ‘were nice to each other’. In the evenings they sat on the drawing room sofa, Adkin lying with his head on Maud’s lap as they talked or she read to him. It was a relaxed and easy atmosphere at the Herd home; her family simply laughed when Maud sat on Leslie’s lap at the kitchen table.

It was a far cry from the Adkin household: when Maud returned the visit at Easter, Annie found the couple’s expressions of affection distasteful and lectured Leslie about spending so much time with Maud. One evening she shut down their enjoyment when they were on their own in the drawing room by asking Clifford to turn the gas lighting off at the meter.

Meanwhile, the North Block was still a long way from an economic proposition. The rest of 1914 and all of 1915 were spent in back-breaking work consolidating it into a productive unit, with short, blissful breaks spent with Maud.

Maud by a pool on the Ōhau River with the North Block behind her.
Nature's mirror, 3 August 1913, Levin, by Leslie Adkin. Gift of G. L. Adkin family estate, 1964. Te Papa (B.022549)

The barrier of war

Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914. This would mean good prices for farm produce but also that Adkin had to consider enlisting. However, the farm needed his labour. And of course, how could he leave Maud? He recorded getting ‘black looks from people who thought I should enlist’ in October 1915.

The matter was eventually resolved after conscription was introduced and he was turned down on medical grounds as unfit for service, apparently due to a deformed toe. It was a remarkable outcome for a man given to epic tramping trips and strenuous daily work on the farm, and whom his son Clyde claimed could practically run uphill with a five-bar gate on his shoulders.

Leslie and Maud planned to marry in February 1916. When his parents announced in June 1915 that they were opposed to a marriage during wartime he was dumbfounded, but ploughed ahead anyway, bringing the date forward to December and arranging for the wedding to be held at the Herds’ property.

Great and glorious day

The ‘great & glorious day’ finally arrived, and for once Adkin put his camera away; the only photographs recording the couple’s union were taken at the studio of Wallace Poll on Karamu Road.

Wedding of Leslie Adkin and Maud Herd, 14 December 1915, Hastings, by Wallace Poll. Gift of Derek Noble, 1995. Te Papa (O.002133)

He still found the time to record almost 400 words in his diary afterwards, though, and took numerous photographs of Maud posed at the scenic attractions of their honeymoon destination, New Plymouth.

Maud at the port in New Plymouth on their honeymoon.
Her New Plymouth buoy , 17 December 1915, New Plymouth, by Leslie Adkin. Gift of G. L. Adkin family estate, 1964. Te Papa (A.006661)

Their house, on a block behind the Adkin family home the couple called Woodside, was not yet complete when Maud arrived, so they stayed in the whare, which Adkin had improved by constructing a long-drop, adding shelves and widening the bed. It was a rough existence with no running water and cooking done over an open fire.

In her old age, Maud remembered the times at the whare, when they bathed in the stream, listened to the night sounds and watched the moon reflected in the river, as the happiest weeks of her life.

Leslie and Maud Adkin, Petone, attributed to Royce Noble, 25 December 1959. Gift of Adkin Family, 1997. Te Papa (CT.066379)

Te Papa has a large quantity of Adkin photographs in its collection, including three photo albums that focus on the courtship. They begin with Horowhenua scenes (AL.000135), followed by Family photographs (AL.000132), then Family photographs (AL.000139).

This text is an abridged version of the chapter about Leslie and Maud in Leslie Adkin: Farmer Photographer by Athol McCredie. Te Papa Press 2024.