{"id":349508,"date":"2026-03-26T22:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T22:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/349508\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T22:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T22:33:13","slug":"sunlive-win-mcgregor-deals-with-her-demons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/349508\/","title":{"rendered":"SunLive – Win McGregor deals with her demons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI was too busy staying alive to die!\u201d But three of Winifred McGregor\u2019s schoolmates did die that day \u2013 at a gnarly, untamed and isolated Allans Beach, 25km out of Dunedin on the Otago Peninsula. It was a Saturday afternoon \u2013 February 21, 1949, to be exact.<\/p>\n

That day, 16-year-olds Wynsome Taylor and Heather Copland, and 14-year-old Robin Ramsay, drowned on a school outing at a beach notorious for high-energy breaks, strong southerly swells and hazardous rips.<\/p>\n

The beach is known as dangerous but dramatic \u2013 there\u2019s more wildlife than human traffic on the sand. Think sealions and penguins.<\/p>\n

Local wisdom nowadays would probably suggest a safer, patrolled beach in Dunedin if unsure in the surf. But that wisdom might not have been readily available in 1949 when a bus of 71 school boarders and five staff set out on a sunny afternoon for a beach picnic and swim. \u201c[My] Second week at boarding school,\u201d remembers Winifred or Win, Winnie or Freddy, depending on who you talk to. \u201cWe were pretty excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

But high excitement turned to tragedy \u2013 only 68 pupils climbed back on the bus home that afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u2018Deadly\u2019 or \u2018disastrous\u2019 <\/p>\n

Now, 77 years after that black Saturday, Win, a resident at Arvida\u2019s Bethlehem Views Rest Home on Cambridge Rd, has committed her \u201cvery vivid\u201d memories of the tragedy to paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Boarding School Experience\u201d, it\u2019s headed. If she\u2019d woven the word \u201cdeadly\u201d or \u201cdisastrous\u201d into that banner, it would not have been sensationalising the memory. Then she agreed to share it with The Weekend Sun.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s family history \u2013 something I can never forget. So, it\u2019s important when I depart, the kids know a little bit more about me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The schoolgirls scrambled into their togs among the sand dune tussock grass and sprinted down the beach into a calm sea with gently breaking waves.<\/p>\n

\"There\u2019s

\nThere\u2019s more wildlife than people traffic on Dunedin\u2019s notorious Allans Beach. Photo \/ Dunedin NZ <\/p>\n

But Allans Beach is as treacherous as it is inviting. It\u2019s moody, and can turn on you. And it did. One of the trademark swells swept along the beach. \u201cI had my back to it \u2013 I didn\u2019t see it coming,\u201d Win said. \u201cOne minute calm, next a huge rogue wave and undertow.\u201d Suddenly Win and 12 of her colleagues were floundering out of their depth, in a panic, in a wild surf.<\/p>\n

\u2018Shoved my bum\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe breakers kept coming \u2013 they\u2019d pick me up, roll me in a ball and dump me. I\u2019d come up in a trough.\u201d One huge wave just gone, another one coming. \u201cI could only see walls of water, spume, the sky. Couldn\u2019t see land. I didn\u2019t know where I was,\u201d Win said.<\/p>\n

She was well served by her upbringing. The strong swimmer knew breakers and could body surf from her family\u2019s daytrips to Raglan from their farm at Knewstead near Hamiton. She was equipped to survive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have time to be afraid, or think of dying. I was too busy,\u201d Win said. \u201cBut these Dunedin monsters\u2026I had never experienced anything like that before.\u201d<\/p>\n

She had a drill, a procedure to cope in such a crisis. Mouth closed, head down, arms outstretched trying to surf away from the rolling demons. Because they were after her. \u201cI tumbled every which way. Then miraculously I\u2019d pop to the surface in time to take a breath before another wave smashed on top of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then the heroine, sports mistress Miss Bembridge emerged from the churning surf. \u201cShe gave me a big shove on my bum, towards shore I presumed. And yelled at me to \u2018keep going, keep going\u2019. She was so encouraging.\u201d Then Miss Bainbridge was gone. She had other lives to save.<\/p>\n

Win\u2019s most enduring memory was time. \u201cWas I in the surf for five minutes or half an hour? I have no idea. It just seemed like a very long time\u201d<\/p>\n

Then a toe touched sand. \u201cMy God, what a relief! I had made it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearby was her friend Margeret \u2013 \u201cfloating on her back\u201d. \u201cShe had a big nose and it looked like a shark\u2019s fin.\u201d Win can giggle about it now. \u201cShe didn\u2019t realise she was in shallow water again.\u201d She too had been saved.<\/p>\n

Silent grief, suffering <\/p>\n

On the beach stood another school mistress. \u201cShe looked terrible, hair wet and straggly, dress tucked in her bloomers. Absolutely distraught.\u201d She, like Win and her friend, had no idea what was happening with the rest of the boarders out in the surf. \u201cWe were out, we were safe, and that was all we could worry about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The school mistress marshalled them to a nearby farmhouse where they were wrapped in blankets in front of an open fire. \u201cWe didn\u2019t talk about what had happened. We didn\u2019t discuss it.\u201d Perhaps they were traumatised into silence? Three schoolmates dead. Silent grief, silent suffering.<\/p>\n

\"

\nA 13-year-old Win McGregor came home in 1949, but three classmates didn\u2019t. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cThen these haunting screams of anguish from down the hallway [of the farmhouse].\u201d Somone confronted with the reality of events perhaps? Win shrugs \u2013 she can only imagine.<\/p>\n

And a tiny distraction is introduced. A newborn baby. It belonged to the owners of the house and was passed lovingly between the girls. They giggle, the baby gurgles. They take some comfort.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven on the bus home that evening, we didn\u2019t talk about what had happened.\u201d Perhaps it just didn\u2019t seem right. Nor, said Win, was it ever discussed, never broached. And there was no such thing as counselling or therapy. \u201cWe attended a memorial service at college and then just got on with life.\u201d They quietly set three lives aside.<\/p>\n

\u2018I was that baby\u2019<\/p>\n

Then, 63 years later, a strange coincidence. \u201cA moment that makes you wonder about life,\u201d Win said.<\/p>\n

She and husband Mac were touring the South Island when she had an impulsive urge to revisit Allan\u2019s Beach. While there, a man with three Border Collie dogs emerged from the farmhouse driveway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI explained to him I was one of the 13 girls swept away by the rip in \u201949. And he said, \u2018I was that baby that was passed around that day\u2019. It was so lovely knowing that I had cuddled him at a time when I desperately needed someone, or something, to cuddle. And I could say \u2018thank you\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Win supposed she was deeply affected by the drownings. \u201cBecause I\u2019ve never stopped thinking about it. Talking about it. And I needed to write about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 13-year-old \u201cbit of a tomboy\u201d had been sent to finishing school in Dunedin, to \u201cbecome a lady\u201d. And it just about did finish her. She stayed two years. And for whatever reason, she never returned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI was too busy staying alive to die!\u201d But three of Winifred McGregor\u2019s schoolmates did die that day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-349508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}