Good things take time… At last we have a complete explanation for info on Bruno Kemball from the Red Spinner tackle shop in Hatepe. From the response received TRM know many Taupo anglers were keen to know more… Every older Hine angler has a tale to tell about buying their flies from Bruno…what a character!

In April TRM blog posted the following request:

Dear Sir/Madam

I am an angling historian and live in Durham in the UK. I recently bought a packet of flies   that were tied by 'Bruno' Kemball, owner of The Red Spinner Tackle Shop at Hatepe. He was actually called Arnold Vero Shaw Gerard Kemble, so where 'Bruno came from is a mystery He was born in India in 1906 and died at Taupo in 1985. From  the information on your website he would appear to have been quite a character. I am thinking of writing an article about him to  hopefully be published here in the UK. Would it be possible to use some of the photos on your web  site. I  have attached photos of the fly packet and contents to your email address, that I didn't notice when I typed this out!
Regards,

He subsequently sent:

Hi Ross,
Thanks for that. Hope you got the photos of 'Bruno's' flies OK, are you going to put them on your website? as I don't think that there will be many of his flies or packets still in existence, particularly after what you have said about his flies! The flies in the packet are what we call North Country hackle or spider flies that were used in the fast flowing rocky rivers in the north. I thought that 'Bruno' would have been more into tying dry flies that were popular in more sedate chalk streams the south of England where he lived before emigrating to NZ.I see that Bruno is mentioned in Hickling's book ,as well as a few others that I found on google books. and replied:Is The Red Spinner tackle shop still on the go and do you know who runs it now? Also did you know the name of Bruno's wife? His wife, who he married in 1934 in China, was called Vera ,but it looks like she emigrated from the UK to Shanghai ,with their daughter Judith, in 1947. I would think that this was the time when Bruno emigrated to NZ. It states on the fly packet Mr and Mrs A V Kemball. In the Taupo cemetery records it lists Bruno's grave ,but there is no Mrs Kemball. He could have been divorced and married again, or was just co-habiting and didn't want people to know that they weren't married. These questions are because I have a suspicious retired policeman's mind !


Last week TRM blog repeated the request and we received the best most comprehensive reply and historic explanation that we could have imagined:

Hi there

I noticed your call for information about Bruno Kemball. Bruno was my grandfather.

Bruno was born in India into a military family, was sent to boarding school in the UK aged seven, spent time in the British cavalry, and moved to China in the 1920s to work for a mining company, where he met and married my grandmother Joe. He was called Bruno because of his olive skin and brown eyes and hair. 

He was a solo agent trained in unarmed combat in the Special Operations Executive in WW2, working in Burma among other locations. The family story went that he broke his ankle four times, every time he parachuted. I believe he may have suffered PTSD from his experiences, but following the British stiff upper lip tradition he would not discuss the war.

After the Communist takeover of China, a few old China hands moved to NZ, many to Kerikeri. NZ was far from conflict for a traumatised family. (My mother and grandmother had been interred in a Japanese camp in China while Bruno was fighting.) Bruno chose Taupo because it reminded him of northern India in the foothills of the Himalaya where he had hunted and fished. He leased land off the iwi to build the Red Spinner and a small bach next to it. He and Joe worked seven days a week in the Red Spinner tying flies. The workroom was lined with green-painted biscuit tins labelled with all sorts of fabulous names that contained feathers and other materials, but I was absolutely not allowed to touch them.

Bruno was a black sheep–born to an influential colonial family but not interested in that life, and he married outside his posh circle and never lived for long in the UK. He and my grandmother maintained their prewar English habits though: Bruno always wore a tie, drinks were always at 5pm, Prince Charles accent and chain smoking Benson and Hedges to the end.

The Red Spinner is I believe still used as a bach closer to the lake in Hatepe.

Hope this helps.