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Rolfe Hattaway’s grave at Marton.
The family of a man who spent time at Lake Alice Hospital has just discovered his story, 50 years after his death.
Rolfe Hattaway spent more than half of his life in institutions and influenced the work of well-known New Zealand modernist artists Theo Schoon and Gordon Walters.
His family was unaware of his existence until the early 1990s, 20 years after his death as an inmate at Lake Alice Hospital on October 6, 1970.
The search for his grave was not successful until 2017, when a Rangitīkei District Council staff member discovered that his name had been misspelled in the records and found his grave at Mount View Cemetery, Marton.
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Great-nephew Paul Hattaway is from Sydney and has been investigating the “intriguing, complex and tragic” life of his uncle.
Rolfe was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1933 and was admitted to the Auckland Mental Hospital in 1937 by his father and two doctors.
He made many drawings in 1949 and the artist Theo Scoon, who worked as an orderly at the hospital, preserved them.
Later, he and Gordon Walters used Rolfe’s images in their own work.
Schoon left packets of drawings with friends, and more than 200 were donated to the Auckland Art Gallery and remain in the gallery’s research library.
Rolfe was admitted to Lake Alice Hospital, near Marton, in 1958, and lived there until his death in 1970.
Paul Hattaway said it had been a mystery for so long due to the extreme secrecy of Rolfe’s brothers.
“The reasons for the antipathy of Rolfe’s brothers are as unclear as the reasons for his institutionalization, but shame and prevailing cultural attitudes toward mental health and sexuality are likely to have played a role.”
However, it was still unknown why Rolfe was permanently institutionalized at the age of 30.
Hattaway said the headstone was made for the 50th anniversary of Rolfe’s death and featured elements from his drawings and a line taken from one of his poems.
It said “you, … you! – Sing me”.
The family would gather for a ceremony to unveil the tombstone as soon as travel restrictions were relaxed.
