William Crooks (12 April 1908 – December 1986) was manager of Eastwoodhill Arboretum, Ngatapa, Gisborne, New Zealand from 1967 to 1974.
He won a Distinguished Service Medal for sinking a German submarine by ramming it with his ship and his name was honoured in Lowestoft as "one of the bravest fishermen of the fleet".
[3] Gertie headed into domestic service, Bill to Flock House, "and that was the last they saw of each other for about the next thirty years".
[1] After a year at Flock House, Bill found a job at a station at Tahunga, in the headwaters of the Hangaroa River, west of Gisborne.
Bill came to live in a small room in the workshop cum was-house on the back lawn of the homestead.
"When the dilapidated structure was demolished in 1992, the linoleum floor coverings were lifted in Bill's old room to reveal copies of The Poverty Bay Herald newspapers from 1912″.
[1] Over the years he served as a farmhand, but also as an assistant plantsman, chauffeur, drinking companion and, above all, as the right-hand man of Douglas Cook.
[2] William Douglas Cook "employed a series of farm managers who came and went, labour relations not being his strong point.
[4] Bill Crooks married Josephine Inez Richardson (Gisborne, 17 December 1910) who was the youngest daughter of a pioneer farmer at Wharekopae, not far from Ngatapa.
Douglas Cook organised Christmas and Guy Fawkes parties at Eastwoodhill, to which the locals were invited.
When Crooks had plucked up enough courage to tell his employer about his marriage, Douglas Cook was furious at first, but after a while he wrote to Jo and said "he would welcome her to Eastwoodhill, that Bill was like a son to him.
Douglas Cook had money to spend on furniture, antiques, trees, rugs, crystal, silver, paintings, book etc.
While Bill attended to much of the farm work, Douglas Cook had more time for such things as planning the arboretum, writing out orders to nurseries, and labeling.
The money was used for making ponds throughout the arboretum and for the development of "Pear Park", "The Circus", "Orchard Hill" and "Glen Douglas".
[8] In the 1960s, when Douglas Cook was aging and desperately seeking ways to secure the future of Eastwoodhill, Bill Crooks still worked for him.
One of the other things Douglas Cook considered was selling to Bill Crooks, knowing the difficulties implied in this solution.