George Schofield of Leith Valley, aka "Bokak."

Photo, W H Davidson, courtesy of the Hocken Library.

George Schofield jr was born in England in 1867, without an upper palate. That condition defined his life in a way which would be inconceivable today.  He arrived in New Zealand aged 12.

He could not speak and so did not go to school.  Therefore he was completely illiterate, no matter how intelligent he might actually have been.  His condition meant that he could not speak intelligible English - although he could understand it - and his spoken approximation became a language used by those who knew him.  Those who did not know him simply thought him a half-wit.

Photo, W H Davidson, courtesy of the Hocken Library.

He worked for his neighbours, the Booth sawmilling and farming family for most of his life, his language understood by them but not by himself if spoken to in it.

He lost en eye when young and, either for reasons personal or financial, never got a glass one for better looks.  But he had little need to look good in public - he mostly kept to the farm and the bush.  On the few occasions he went into the city he he would tend to get lost, once being locked up - admittedly after a few beers - by a policeman who was unaware of his condition.  But he was generally well known in North Dunedin and could be seen in the Botanical Gardens on many a Sunday when the bands were playing.  But listening to a band at the Gardens was a rare highlight in what was essentially a sordid life - always being given the jobs that others didn't want to do and generally being treated as barely human, especially by local children who, would "tease him incessantly."

He was known as Geordie - probably because he had the same first name as his father - and also as "Bokak."  This was, according the W H Davidson "because someone remarked that he smelt like a polecat, but he retorted that he didn't smell like a bokak."  His appetite was legendary in the Valley, he was known to put away a large meal at a nearby home and go on to another and do the same.  He went to all the local dances and, after the dancers had had their supper, Geordie was allowed to help himself.  There were never any leftovers when he was there.

Photo, W H Davidson, courtesy of the Hocken Library.

Davidson's photos of George Schofield jr show him in later years, bent and lame from years of labour.  He would walk down the Valley on a Sunday with a sugar bag of clothes for his sister to watch on his way to listen to the band at the Gardens.  Eventually his strength failed him and he spent his last days at the Talboys home at Caversham.  He was given false teeth to see if it improved his speech - it did not.  I suppose he had arrived in a place where no one could understand his particular command of English.

An earlier photo by Davidson, too degraded by photocopying to include here, shows quite a well-dressed man, with collar, tie and waistcoat, and prominent watch chain.  Geordie lived in a fern-tree hut and, says Davidson, "the hut was burnt one night and Geordie lost his gold watch. He was very distressed and cried for a long time as it was his most prized possession."  I can imagine that, dressed with collar and tie, with gold watch and chain, Geordie could mingle with the Sunday afternoon crowds, listen to the band, and pretend that his life was one in which he was respected.

George Schofield jr died in his sleep at the Talboys Home in 1944, aged 77.  He lies in Andersons Bay Cemetery, Dunedin.

Photo, W H Davidson, courtesy of the Hocken Library.