As we were unable to gather to honour our ancestors for ANZAC Day WGG decided to create a display to remind us of the effect any war has had on people's lives.
This was originally to be a display in Wanaka Library but in light of our current situation we decided to have an online display instead.
All story contributions are from members of Wanaka Genealogy Group.
This was originally to be a display in Wanaka Library but in light of our current situation we decided to have an online display instead.
All story contributions are from members of Wanaka Genealogy Group.
FAMILIES AT WAR
NEW ZEALAND WARS 1845-1847
Alexander WHISKER Private,
58th Rutlandshire Regiment of Foot from 1838 - 1849
By Margaret Thomlinson
Family stories told of a WHISKER ancestor who wrote a song about the “Dirty 58th” – the regiment that missed the Battle of Waterloo because they had stopped to do their washing. Then a relative heard a radio interview with Michael Barthorp, author of the book “To Face the Daring Maoris” recording the battles in Northland against Hōne Heke and Kawiti. One of his sources was a Memorandum Book kept by Alexander Whisker, private in the 58th Rutlandshire Regiment, and held by the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
The book gave Alexander’s date of enlistment as 26 May 1838 – well after the Battle of Waterloo as it happens - but did record that he had some talent for rhyming and had written a ‘song’ describing the war.
This information was given to us just before our family visited Auckland in 1981. We visited the museum and were able to see and hold Alexander’s Book and order a typed transcript. By this time I had determined that Alexander was my G.G.Grandfather and that his daughter Mary Jean married my G.Grandfather William Wilkinson.
This information was given to us just before our family visited Auckland in 1981. We visited the museum and were able to see and hold Alexander’s Book and order a typed transcript. By this time I had determined that Alexander was my G.G.Grandfather and that his daughter Mary Jean married my G.Grandfather William Wilkinson.
We also managed to order a copy of a photo of Alexander thanks to information from Janice MOGFORD, historical researcher and author.
Alexander’s Memorandum Book starts on 8 Oct 1844 when he marched with the regiment to Gravesend. There he boarded the Sir George Seymour with his wife Flora (nee COOK) and his daughter Mary Jean and 4 month old son Charles. The regiment was escorting convicts to Australia and having handed them over joined the 58th headquarters at Paramatta, Sydney.
Then, on the 11 Mar 1845 Hōne Heke cut down the flagstaff at Kororāreka and sacked the town. Alexander’s regiment was ordered to New Zealand as reinforcements, arriving in Auckland on 22 April where Alexander met Māori for the first time. They traded with them for fish, cabbage, potatoes and onions – and we had great fun making bargains with them for we could not understand them. On 27 April they sailed for the Bay of Islands
Then, on the 11 Mar 1845 Hōne Heke cut down the flagstaff at Kororāreka and sacked the town. Alexander’s regiment was ordered to New Zealand as reinforcements, arriving in Auckland on 22 April where Alexander met Māori for the first time. They traded with them for fish, cabbage, potatoes and onions – and we had great fun making bargains with them for we could not understand them. On 27 April they sailed for the Bay of Islands
The numbers below correspond to the numbers on the map
1. 27 April – The Regiment arrives in Kororāreka. The officers went ashore and raised the English colour the “North Star” fired a Royal Salute then the sailors and soldiers on Board of all the ships joined in giving three cheers.
2. 29/30 April - Sailed to Pōmare’s pā – as soon as he (Pōmare) seen us going to land he hoisted the flag of truce we landed and took him prisoner and put his men to flight when we plundered and burnt the whole place. His men had not surrendered their arms.
3. 3/4 May – started for Heke’s pā at Lake Ōmapare . They marched the whole day over mountains. We had to lie in the open fields with nothing to cover us but our coats – it commenced raining at 10 o’clock and kept raining to the next morning when we had to march through three rivers to above our kneese. They detoured to Kerikeri to recover.
4. 6/7 May –marched to Wāka Nene’s pā at Ōkaihau to prepare for battle.
5. 8 May – Hōni Heke’s Puketutu Pā attacked. It was stronger than they expected and they also came under attack from Kawiti’s force from outside the pā. They retreated leaving 7 of our men lying dead --- and we could not get them. They returned to Ōkaihau where they were given –sweet yams and pork and beef – cooked in a hole in the ground and then marched back to Kororāreka.
6. 13 May – rowed 12 miles up the Waikare River using rough made paddles same as the Mowreys use in an attack against Kopotai’s pā. It rained heavily. Some boats got stuck in the mud and others got lost but Alexander’s group reached the pā and fought alongside friendly Māori. The Kopotai abandoned their pa and the soldiers plundered and burnt it.
7. The army returned to Auckland on 29 May carrying a letter from Heke complaining of British policy and conduct but offering peace or war. The tone of the letter decided Fitzroy on war. Meanwhile on the 30th Alexander went ashore with the Rest of the servants and Married Men – Hooks Duffey and me got drunk and remained ashore from Friday to Sunday. He lost his job as servant to Cpt. Thompson and ended up on garrison duty in Auckland. As a result he missed the disastrous attack on Heke’s pa at Ōhaeawai.
8. 24 June - Colonel Despard began an assault against a very strong Ōhaeawai Pā (commanded by Kawiti as Heke was recovering from a wound), haveing 2 sthrong rows of Pailing about 50 to 60 inches thick then large holes to lie in then another Row of Pailings in side they haveing holes in the ground covered over level with the ground and Port holes to fire through. On 1 July Despard ordered the pā to be attacked even though it had not been breached. 200 men stormed the pā but -
men been few the Pah was strong we could not rightly stand
For in 7 minutes and a half we lost 100 men.
9. 14 July - after burning the abandoned pā the army moved to Waimate where they stayed in camp at the Mission House until the end of September.
10 Oct - 7 Dec – they were camped at Kororāreka. On the 24 November they were visited by Captain George Grey who had replaced Fitzroy as governor.
11. Between 7 and 11 Dec they moved to near Pukututu Pā to prepare for a battle against Kawiti’s Ruapekepeka Pā (The Bats Nest).
12. 24 Dec - Attack against Ruapekapeka began. There was ‘some firing of rockets’ from a position 8 miles away on the 24th. After a wet night being Christmas Day we had a fine breakfast of dry biscuits and then moved to a new position in front the pā. The attack from here lasted to 11 January 1846 with firing kept up during most days. When it rained they had Ferrin Warries to sleep in and all of them let in the rain. Heavy fire from the pā on the 10 Jan was answered with an all out artillery bombardment with three breaches made. Wāka Nene stopped Despard, who thought the pā was abandoned, making an assault. Hōne Heke had joined Kawiti in the pā and they commenced firing as the storming party withdrew. The next day all was quiet in the pa and the soldiers entered it – Kawiti’s and Heke’s men had disappeared into the bush. The last battle had ended.
13. 12 January – The army moved to a camp at Victoria (Waitangi) while peace was made with Hōne Heki and Kawiti. The officers were established in Busby’s old house and Alexander attended Cpt. Thompson there. On 2 March Kawiti visited the officers and was taken in and treated by them mutch better than aney of us that fought long and hard and endangered our lives for what they please to call the honour of old England.
2. 29/30 April - Sailed to Pōmare’s pā – as soon as he (Pōmare) seen us going to land he hoisted the flag of truce we landed and took him prisoner and put his men to flight when we plundered and burnt the whole place. His men had not surrendered their arms.
3. 3/4 May – started for Heke’s pā at Lake Ōmapare . They marched the whole day over mountains. We had to lie in the open fields with nothing to cover us but our coats – it commenced raining at 10 o’clock and kept raining to the next morning when we had to march through three rivers to above our kneese. They detoured to Kerikeri to recover.
4. 6/7 May –marched to Wāka Nene’s pā at Ōkaihau to prepare for battle.
5. 8 May – Hōni Heke’s Puketutu Pā attacked. It was stronger than they expected and they also came under attack from Kawiti’s force from outside the pā. They retreated leaving 7 of our men lying dead --- and we could not get them. They returned to Ōkaihau where they were given –sweet yams and pork and beef – cooked in a hole in the ground and then marched back to Kororāreka.
6. 13 May – rowed 12 miles up the Waikare River using rough made paddles same as the Mowreys use in an attack against Kopotai’s pā. It rained heavily. Some boats got stuck in the mud and others got lost but Alexander’s group reached the pā and fought alongside friendly Māori. The Kopotai abandoned their pa and the soldiers plundered and burnt it.
7. The army returned to Auckland on 29 May carrying a letter from Heke complaining of British policy and conduct but offering peace or war. The tone of the letter decided Fitzroy on war. Meanwhile on the 30th Alexander went ashore with the Rest of the servants and Married Men – Hooks Duffey and me got drunk and remained ashore from Friday to Sunday. He lost his job as servant to Cpt. Thompson and ended up on garrison duty in Auckland. As a result he missed the disastrous attack on Heke’s pa at Ōhaeawai.
8. 24 June - Colonel Despard began an assault against a very strong Ōhaeawai Pā (commanded by Kawiti as Heke was recovering from a wound), haveing 2 sthrong rows of Pailing about 50 to 60 inches thick then large holes to lie in then another Row of Pailings in side they haveing holes in the ground covered over level with the ground and Port holes to fire through. On 1 July Despard ordered the pā to be attacked even though it had not been breached. 200 men stormed the pā but -
men been few the Pah was strong we could not rightly stand
For in 7 minutes and a half we lost 100 men.
9. 14 July - after burning the abandoned pā the army moved to Waimate where they stayed in camp at the Mission House until the end of September.
10 Oct - 7 Dec – they were camped at Kororāreka. On the 24 November they were visited by Captain George Grey who had replaced Fitzroy as governor.
11. Between 7 and 11 Dec they moved to near Pukututu Pā to prepare for a battle against Kawiti’s Ruapekepeka Pā (The Bats Nest).
12. 24 Dec - Attack against Ruapekapeka began. There was ‘some firing of rockets’ from a position 8 miles away on the 24th. After a wet night being Christmas Day we had a fine breakfast of dry biscuits and then moved to a new position in front the pā. The attack from here lasted to 11 January 1846 with firing kept up during most days. When it rained they had Ferrin Warries to sleep in and all of them let in the rain. Heavy fire from the pā on the 10 Jan was answered with an all out artillery bombardment with three breaches made. Wāka Nene stopped Despard, who thought the pā was abandoned, making an assault. Hōne Heke had joined Kawiti in the pā and they commenced firing as the storming party withdrew. The next day all was quiet in the pa and the soldiers entered it – Kawiti’s and Heke’s men had disappeared into the bush. The last battle had ended.
13. 12 January – The army moved to a camp at Victoria (Waitangi) while peace was made with Hōne Heki and Kawiti. The officers were established in Busby’s old house and Alexander attended Cpt. Thompson there. On 2 March Kawiti visited the officers and was taken in and treated by them mutch better than aney of us that fought long and hard and endangered our lives for what they please to call the honour of old England.
In November 1846 the 58th Regiment returned to their headquarters in Paramatta, Australia. Alexander was reunited with Flora and his family and records a Merry Christmas and that he spent a happy New Year the happiest I had spent for some time. I got into no trouble.
In July 1847 the regiment returned Auckland to take up Garrison Duty and Alexander continued his service there until his discharge from the army on 1 January 1850.
In July 1847 the regiment returned Auckland to take up Garrison Duty and Alexander continued his service there until his discharge from the army on 1 January 1850.
CRIMEAN WAR 1853-1856
Alfred BUTTON, Crimean War veteran
Alfred was 17 years old when he joined the Merchant Navy on 26 November 1847 as Boy 2nd Class. His Mariner’s Register Ticket #358,525, issued on 26 December 1847 describes him as having brown hair, hazel eyes, a fresh complexion and standing 4’10” tall.
After serving for short periods on HMS Ocean, HMS Ganges and HMS Wellington, he was assigned to HMS Spider on 2 July 1848 as Boy 1st Class.
On 15 May 1851 he joined HMS Trafalgar as an Able Seaman under the command of Captain Henry Greville. HMS Trafalgar was a 216’ wooden two-decker with 89 guns. In September 1853 the British fleet was ordered to Constantinople (Istanbul) as part of the combined British, French and Ottoman Turkish fleets.
The Allies were fighting against Russia who were trying to expand territory and power over the Ottoman Empire, thus threatening British commercial and regional strategic interests. Much of the fighting was on land, but in October 1854 HMS Trafalgar took part in the bombardment of the forts protecting the entrance to Sevastopol (Sebastopol) harbour. [The siege of Sevastopol lasted 11 months eventually forcing the Russians out of Sevastopol on 9 Sept 1855.]
HMS Trafalgar returned to Sheerness Docks, Kent, on 27 April 1855, and the crew were paid off.
The following day Alfred signed on for service on HMS Hawke, under the command of Captain Ommanney. HMS Hawke was an older (built in 1820) 176’ wooden ship which in 1855 was converted to a screw-propelled ‘blockship’ carrying 60 guns. Screw-propulsion provided additional protection from gunfire as the screw was below the waterline. HMS Hawke sailed for the Bay of Riga in the Baltic Sea as part of a large British fleet determined to restrict Russian fleet movements in that area. The Allies had successes in capturing a fortress, and destroying the Helsinki dockyard. These naval operations ensured that the Russian capital of St Petersburg was constantly threatened and tied up troops which otherwise could have been sent to defend Sevastopol. Russia was forced to accept defeat and with a ruined economy, many thousands of troops dead (mostly through disease and malnutrition), she sought peace in January 1856.
HMS Hawke returned to Sheerness where the crew were paid off on 19 May 1856.
After serving for short periods on HMS Ocean, HMS Ganges and HMS Wellington, he was assigned to HMS Spider on 2 July 1848 as Boy 1st Class.
On 15 May 1851 he joined HMS Trafalgar as an Able Seaman under the command of Captain Henry Greville. HMS Trafalgar was a 216’ wooden two-decker with 89 guns. In September 1853 the British fleet was ordered to Constantinople (Istanbul) as part of the combined British, French and Ottoman Turkish fleets.
The Allies were fighting against Russia who were trying to expand territory and power over the Ottoman Empire, thus threatening British commercial and regional strategic interests. Much of the fighting was on land, but in October 1854 HMS Trafalgar took part in the bombardment of the forts protecting the entrance to Sevastopol (Sebastopol) harbour. [The siege of Sevastopol lasted 11 months eventually forcing the Russians out of Sevastopol on 9 Sept 1855.]
HMS Trafalgar returned to Sheerness Docks, Kent, on 27 April 1855, and the crew were paid off.
The following day Alfred signed on for service on HMS Hawke, under the command of Captain Ommanney. HMS Hawke was an older (built in 1820) 176’ wooden ship which in 1855 was converted to a screw-propelled ‘blockship’ carrying 60 guns. Screw-propulsion provided additional protection from gunfire as the screw was below the waterline. HMS Hawke sailed for the Bay of Riga in the Baltic Sea as part of a large British fleet determined to restrict Russian fleet movements in that area. The Allies had successes in capturing a fortress, and destroying the Helsinki dockyard. These naval operations ensured that the Russian capital of St Petersburg was constantly threatened and tied up troops which otherwise could have been sent to defend Sevastopol. Russia was forced to accept defeat and with a ruined economy, many thousands of troops dead (mostly through disease and malnutrition), she sought peace in January 1856.
HMS Hawke returned to Sheerness where the crew were paid off on 19 May 1856.
Campaign Medals
Alfred BUTTON was awarded the Crimea Medal, issued to men of British units, and the Sebastopol Clasp, a bar awarded for the siege; the Turkish Medal, issued by the Ottoman Empire to allied military personnel involved in the Crimean War. The Baltic Medal was issued to men of the Royal Navy who served in the Baltic against Russia.
Alfred BUTTON returned to Maidstone, Kent and married Amelia OVENDEN in June 1857. Over the following 14 years the couple had six children. Alfred was initially a labourer, then a tallow melter and finally a carter carrying grain to a mill for flour production.
Migration to NZ
On 9 May 1875 Alfred, Amelia and their five youngest children aged 2-16 years, immigrated to New Zealand on the SS Alumbagh. [William James BUTTON, 9 years old at the time, wrote an excellent article published in the NZ Sea Spray magazine in 1947 describing the sea voyage].
The family settled in Auckland where they remained for 15 years, dairy farming and carting. Alfred and Amelia then moved to Lyttelton where Alfred was the flag signalman for the Lyttelton TimeBall Station from 1892 until 1905.
Alfred BUTTON died 21 October 1911 and his headstone states ‘Late of H.M. Royal Navy’.
His medals and papers are lodged with the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Alfred BUTTON was awarded the Crimea Medal, issued to men of British units, and the Sebastopol Clasp, a bar awarded for the siege; the Turkish Medal, issued by the Ottoman Empire to allied military personnel involved in the Crimean War. The Baltic Medal was issued to men of the Royal Navy who served in the Baltic against Russia.
Alfred BUTTON returned to Maidstone, Kent and married Amelia OVENDEN in June 1857. Over the following 14 years the couple had six children. Alfred was initially a labourer, then a tallow melter and finally a carter carrying grain to a mill for flour production.
Migration to NZ
On 9 May 1875 Alfred, Amelia and their five youngest children aged 2-16 years, immigrated to New Zealand on the SS Alumbagh. [William James BUTTON, 9 years old at the time, wrote an excellent article published in the NZ Sea Spray magazine in 1947 describing the sea voyage].
The family settled in Auckland where they remained for 15 years, dairy farming and carting. Alfred and Amelia then moved to Lyttelton where Alfred was the flag signalman for the Lyttelton TimeBall Station from 1892 until 1905.
Alfred BUTTON died 21 October 1911 and his headstone states ‘Late of H.M. Royal Navy’.
His medals and papers are lodged with the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
WORLD WAR ONE 1914-1918
After Their War Was “Over”
By Ken Allan
Introduction
Both my grandfathers served together in the North Otago Company, No.1 Battalion, Otago Regiment. Little did they know back then, that their children would marry 30 years later! They both joined up in 1915 and Malcolm (Mick), my paternal grandfather, served in Egypt, Gallipoli and France and in some respects was the mischievous colonial. John (Jock), my maternal grandfather, served in Egypt and France and was a serious but well-liked Scotsman, having emigrated to New Zealand by himself in 1913, aged 19.
Both were wounded (more than once) in France and their active service in the frontlines ceased within nine days of each other during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette.
Their lives changed forever thereafter. Jock’s records suggest he suffered from what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for a while. Despite that, the Army tried its best to get him back into the frontlines but gave up at the end of 1917 and sent him back to New Zealand. There was no War Pension for him. Returning to farming life, he recovered, though houseflies were his most hated thing and not many survived his fly-swat – the flies feeding on the dead on the battlefields created this hate.
But it is Mick who I will briefly tell you about. He suffered greatly from his wounds and from the bureaucrats back in New Zealand.
Malcolm Robert Allan 8/2525
Mick had been wounded on 1 May 1916 from a gunshot wound and concussion and ended up in hospital. He recovered and then on or about 25 September 1916, he was in the wrong place when a shell burst nearby and severely damaged his left leg. He lay out in No-Mans land for three days before he was discovered by members of the Canadian Black Watch Regiment. He was eventually sent off to Mercers Hospital in Dublin, but not before a Major White (surgeon) insisted on removing his leg. Mick resisted, especially after a French doctor told him it could be saved. The leg was full of shell splinters and had been shortened by about 4cm. After a spell at Mercers Hospital, he was sent to the Mt Felix Hospital at Walton-on-Thames, London.
Mick wasn’t injured so much that he couldn’t climb down some sheets thrown out a window. The goal was for him and his cohorts to have a couple of days ‘on the town’ before the ‘Redcaps” caught up with them. Eventually it was decided he had to come home. He then made what was probably the most momentous decision in his life.
Mick applied for leave to visit his Aunt and Scottish cousins in Motherwell, Scotland and was granted seven days leave from 21 February to 27 February. His Aunt had a daughter, Mary, (a full cousin) that he had probably corresponded with (see the 1916 Xmas Card that follows – Mick is the one on crutches). Mary was engaged to a Scottish soldier but seemingly that was no barrier to Mick. The Banns were called on 6 March and they were married the next day. You might notice that Mick’s leave expired nine days beforehand. It was a short honeymoon as Mick arrived back in London on 12 March, without his new wife. He would not see Mary again until February 1919, just on two years later. In fact he did not tell the Army that he had married whilst he had been on leave.
He was shipped back to New Zealand on 17 March on HS Maheno.
Both my grandfathers served together in the North Otago Company, No.1 Battalion, Otago Regiment. Little did they know back then, that their children would marry 30 years later! They both joined up in 1915 and Malcolm (Mick), my paternal grandfather, served in Egypt, Gallipoli and France and in some respects was the mischievous colonial. John (Jock), my maternal grandfather, served in Egypt and France and was a serious but well-liked Scotsman, having emigrated to New Zealand by himself in 1913, aged 19.
Both were wounded (more than once) in France and their active service in the frontlines ceased within nine days of each other during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette.
Their lives changed forever thereafter. Jock’s records suggest he suffered from what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for a while. Despite that, the Army tried its best to get him back into the frontlines but gave up at the end of 1917 and sent him back to New Zealand. There was no War Pension for him. Returning to farming life, he recovered, though houseflies were his most hated thing and not many survived his fly-swat – the flies feeding on the dead on the battlefields created this hate.
But it is Mick who I will briefly tell you about. He suffered greatly from his wounds and from the bureaucrats back in New Zealand.
Malcolm Robert Allan 8/2525
Mick had been wounded on 1 May 1916 from a gunshot wound and concussion and ended up in hospital. He recovered and then on or about 25 September 1916, he was in the wrong place when a shell burst nearby and severely damaged his left leg. He lay out in No-Mans land for three days before he was discovered by members of the Canadian Black Watch Regiment. He was eventually sent off to Mercers Hospital in Dublin, but not before a Major White (surgeon) insisted on removing his leg. Mick resisted, especially after a French doctor told him it could be saved. The leg was full of shell splinters and had been shortened by about 4cm. After a spell at Mercers Hospital, he was sent to the Mt Felix Hospital at Walton-on-Thames, London.
Mick wasn’t injured so much that he couldn’t climb down some sheets thrown out a window. The goal was for him and his cohorts to have a couple of days ‘on the town’ before the ‘Redcaps” caught up with them. Eventually it was decided he had to come home. He then made what was probably the most momentous decision in his life.
Mick applied for leave to visit his Aunt and Scottish cousins in Motherwell, Scotland and was granted seven days leave from 21 February to 27 February. His Aunt had a daughter, Mary, (a full cousin) that he had probably corresponded with (see the 1916 Xmas Card that follows – Mick is the one on crutches). Mary was engaged to a Scottish soldier but seemingly that was no barrier to Mick. The Banns were called on 6 March and they were married the next day. You might notice that Mick’s leave expired nine days beforehand. It was a short honeymoon as Mick arrived back in London on 12 March, without his new wife. He would not see Mary again until February 1919, just on two years later. In fact he did not tell the Army that he had married whilst he had been on leave.
He was shipped back to New Zealand on 17 March on HS Maheno.
After he arrived at Port Chalmers he was sent to Hamner Springs Hospital for further medical treatment and he was discharged from the Army on 17 June 1917 though not in a fit state to work at his pre-War employment.
Life in New Zealand now was very different from what he had experienced before he left as a soldier. His injuries reduced his capacity for the type of work he used to do.
He worked at various horse training stables in and around Christchurch, but in 1925 he fell seriously ill and was not expected to recover. Major White, the surgeon who wanted to amputate Mick’s leg in 1917, threatened that if Mick would not allow him to amputate the leg this time, he would arrange to have his War Pension cancelled. It was a battle, but Mick still had his leg when he died. He did have to wear a set of callipers and special boots for the remainder of his life.
Mick and his family seemed to move around a lot according to my father and at one stage they had to resort to living on Mick’s Aunt Jeannie’s sheep run called Otekaieke Station.
The Great Depression arrived and they were living in Oamaru in a small two-bedroom cottage rented for £3 ($6.00) per month. There was no electricity and the “longdrop” was away down the bottom of the section. Mick was on the “Dole” but you had to work for it back then. The “Dole” was £1-8-0 per week (No War Pension was paid during this period) for three weeks, then you had a stand - down period of one week. In effect, total income was roughly £4-4-0 ($8-40) a month from which came the rent of £3-0-0 leaving £1-4-0 ($2-40 or 60 cents per week) for the family food etc to live on - two adults and two children to live on. To top it off, another family (relations) were living (by necessity), in the two-bedroom cottage.
Mick did obtain work on the Railways for a time but in 1940 suffered a brain haemorrhage in exactly the same place he suffered a wound and concussion in 1916. That was the end of his working career. Despite numerous applications for a War Pension, they were all declined until just after World War II. Then in 1949, Aunt Jeannie died leaving £200 to Mick’s wife, Mary. The War Pension and Unemployment Benefit were immediately stopped until the £200 was spent at the equivalent rate per week of the benefits Mick and Mary had been receiving.
Mick died in 1972 aged 79. Like many who volunteered for their Country to go off to war and were seriously wounded, their Country did little to support them when they returned home. He and Mary survived largely because of the support of friends and family.
Life in New Zealand now was very different from what he had experienced before he left as a soldier. His injuries reduced his capacity for the type of work he used to do.
He worked at various horse training stables in and around Christchurch, but in 1925 he fell seriously ill and was not expected to recover. Major White, the surgeon who wanted to amputate Mick’s leg in 1917, threatened that if Mick would not allow him to amputate the leg this time, he would arrange to have his War Pension cancelled. It was a battle, but Mick still had his leg when he died. He did have to wear a set of callipers and special boots for the remainder of his life.
Mick and his family seemed to move around a lot according to my father and at one stage they had to resort to living on Mick’s Aunt Jeannie’s sheep run called Otekaieke Station.
The Great Depression arrived and they were living in Oamaru in a small two-bedroom cottage rented for £3 ($6.00) per month. There was no electricity and the “longdrop” was away down the bottom of the section. Mick was on the “Dole” but you had to work for it back then. The “Dole” was £1-8-0 per week (No War Pension was paid during this period) for three weeks, then you had a stand - down period of one week. In effect, total income was roughly £4-4-0 ($8-40) a month from which came the rent of £3-0-0 leaving £1-4-0 ($2-40 or 60 cents per week) for the family food etc to live on - two adults and two children to live on. To top it off, another family (relations) were living (by necessity), in the two-bedroom cottage.
Mick did obtain work on the Railways for a time but in 1940 suffered a brain haemorrhage in exactly the same place he suffered a wound and concussion in 1916. That was the end of his working career. Despite numerous applications for a War Pension, they were all declined until just after World War II. Then in 1949, Aunt Jeannie died leaving £200 to Mick’s wife, Mary. The War Pension and Unemployment Benefit were immediately stopped until the £200 was spent at the equivalent rate per week of the benefits Mick and Mary had been receiving.
Mick died in 1972 aged 79. Like many who volunteered for their Country to go off to war and were seriously wounded, their Country did little to support them when they returned home. He and Mary survived largely because of the support of friends and family.
The "Avondale" Tunnellers
by John Wedlake
One of the oldest stories told by long-time Avondale residents to their children, and to anyone else who asks, is about the Avondale Racecourse and its legendary drainage capabilities. My mother would often tell me that the Jockey Club hardly ever cancelled a meeting because of the racecourse drainage, the “tunnels left under the racecourse,” ensuring the former raupo swamp wouldn’t turn into a muddy bog.
Despite accounts to the contrary, ambulances on duty so splattered with mud that they were no longer white, the story of the tunnels beneath the racecourse persists. Even the Challenge of the Whau, in referring to recollections published in the Avondale Jockey Club’s centennial history, perpetuated the myth.
The original track was more elliptical than the present one and, according to Mr Marshall, the original outlets of the tunnels are still showing strong water flows after heavy rain. These are situated between the 400-metre and 600-metre pegs and between the 1200-metre and 1400-metre, but closer to the 1400-metres.
Mr Marshall says that up to 400 men were in the Tunneling Company and they worked night and day shifts with 100 men in a shift.
He says it is believed that soil from the tunnels was dumped from the present 1200 metres along the turn, which not only improved the track, but was an early example of soil conservation. 1 Unfortunately the tunnels beneath the centre of the Avondale Racecourse are a myth. The military company legends gave credit to for digging the tunnels, the New Zealand Tunneling Company of Engineers back in October to December of 1915, were not encamped on the racecourse to learn how to dig tunnels.
They didn’t need to. They were already, in the main, seasoned miners, prospectors and labourers from the goldfields of the country, principally the north half of the North Island, including Auckland itself. They became a footnote to New Zealand’s military history, and a tantalising tale from the history of an Auckland suburb’s semi- rural days, who in fact were part of a history even more fascinating than the legends by which they are best remembered.
World War One and tunnelling The classic images of World War One are those of trenches cut into the French countryside, the Allies and the German’s facing each other with only “no-man’s land” in between, on fields of endless mud. Below ground, however, a special type of war went on, each side digging tunnels from their line beneath the mud and defences toward the trenches of the enemy, with the intention of exploding the trenches, and the occupants, to pieces. The underground war was initiated by the German side in late 1914, and the British and French forces reacted by bringing in teams of men to specialise in digging narrow chambers, barely the width of a man’s shoulders, with shovels braced between the legs and men behind the diggers crawling on their hands and knees to collect the spoil. Sewer workers from cities such as Manchester, for example, were considered ideal for this kind of stifling, highly dangerous work.
Where Allied and German tunnels intersected, bitter fighting would ensue, the winners of these desperate conflicts having the privilege of blowing up the losing side’s tunnel.
In the middle of 1915, reinforcements were called for, and the then Dominions of the British Empire responded: Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In September 1915, the New Zealand Ministry of Defence issued an appeal for recruits, “only experienced miners and tunnel men being required, and applications for commissions were called from qualified Mining and Civil Engineers.” 2
The call was for 400 men, 250 to be experienced “facemen”, miners by profession (but not coal miners, who were needed at home), the remaining 150 “less skilled workers.” The men were different in other ways from the rest of the expeditionary forces sent to the front in that war: the age of enlistment was from 21 to 40 years, but the majority were aged closer to the upper end of that range than the lower. The officers had been drawn from the Public Works Department, as well as engineers from the private mining companies.
Avondale is chosen Auckland had campaigned with the Ministry of Defence to have a training camp closer to the city for much of the war up to that point, the main training centre being Trentham. Perhaps it was in order that Auckland be appeased that the Ministry looked at areas in and around the Queen City – with Avondale Racecourse apparently being chosen over Bastion Point and Ellerslie.
Avondale in 1915 was still a semi-rural, “sleepy hollow” place, where motorised transport was only starting to appear; sporting only a handful of shops, most around the five-roads intersection and the horse trough-lamp; the hotel long closed and now the Post Office; and the only source of amusement in town for men more used to living rough out in the back blocks than the urban niceties of Auckland, being the billiard saloon on the corner of Cracroft Street and Great North Road.
J. C Neill, in his 1922 book on the New Zealand Tunnelling Company, suggests that the choice of Avondale Racecourse for the camp seemed at the time “the grossest of blunders.” The Defence authorities had chosen an open area, “within easy reach of New Zealand’s largest and gayest city.” There were to be a number of conflicts between the tunnellers and civilian authorities, many writers describing the company as shaking up the near-by city of Auckland as it had never been shaken before.
The Defence authorities favoured the racecourse grounds as suitable for the purpose of a camp because there were existing buildings and a good water supply. The Avondale Jockey Club placed the entire grounds at the disposal of the government (this in spite of the enormous popularity of the race days there, so much so that traffic sped along New North Road on race days, and trains arrived at and left Avondale Station packed with the racing faithful), and it was accepted on 22 September 1915 as the camp’s site. Three days later, an advance party arrived to prepare the grounds, installing drainage to be used during the six weeks occupation (which, in the end, stretched to nine weeks). Here, perhaps, could be the reason for the durable legend regarding tunnels and drainage at the racecourse – could inquisitive Avondale residents, fascinated by this very different novelty in their midst, have mistaken the advance party’s work as the tunnelling they believed had taken place there?
For some reason, recruiting was suspended for a few days on 28 September, only to be resumed two days later. Perhaps due to their specialised nature, it was arranged that the Tunnelling Corps of Engineers was to be attached to the Royal Engineers on arrival later in England, but still receive New Zealand rates of pay and pensions. In early October, there were hearty farewells in small centres such as Waihi and Thames for the men leaving to join the camp. A total of 254 men came from the Auckland Province, from Whangarei to Thames, Waihi and Hamilton (20 over quota), with 75 from Canterbury and Otago, and 90 from Wellington.
The company is composed of an exceedingly useful body of men and this fact was demonstrated yesterday, when the full establishment of four blacksmiths, four carpenters, two fitters, three clerks, two draughtsmen, two electricians, two bricklayers, two plumbers, four cooks, two medical orderlies, two sanitary and water duty men, and a shoemaker, mason and tinsmith were supplied from the ranks…. There are in the ranks four fully qualified civil engineers – one gave up a practice worth over £500 a year, – overseers of Government works, mechanical engineers from railway workshops, foreman of county councils, men from the Auckland University and School of Mines, skilled miners, who were earning up to £6 and £7 a week, and road and bush contractors who at times made as many pounds sterling in a week as they will get shillings from the camp paymaster. 3
Given the above range of skills (the only one missing that the company might require, so it is said, was that of tailor), it is now little wonder that the New Zealand Tunnellers were able to achieve so much during the war. The Camp Major J. E. Duigan was the general staff officer for the camp, with the following administrative officers: Captain Neville Newcomb, camp commandant; Captain D. J. Sweetzer, adjutant; and Captain W. H. Feldon as quartermaster. The camp they oversaw, a sea of the then-regulation British Bell tents, was well described by the Auckland Star as having a cookhouse with hot water for cooking and other “culinary requirements”; marquee tents so the men could eat meals together rather than in separate tents alone as was usually the case; every tent fitted with floorboards; and showers fitted with that adequate new drainage the locals in Avondale may have thought were the start of the soon-to-be legendary tunnels.
To help provide for the leisure needs of the men, the Salvation Army and Y.M.C.A. set up tents with writing and reading materials, the camp canteen was operated by Bollard & Wood, the local grocery merchants from the Page Building in Avondale, while the local barber shop (including the billiard saloon) was run by Mr. W. McArthur. “Town prices,” the Star declared on 5 October, “will rule.” There was even a temporary picture theatre set up on site, run by a Mr. J. Lack, who also had the licence to take photographs to sell to the troops to send to the folks back home.
Attached to the company was a medical officer and two medical orderlies belong to the N.Z.M.C., and nineteen motor and horse drivers from the N.Z.A.S.C. 5
In the beginning of November, the men were inoculated by the camp medical officer, Captain Gordon.
It was found during a preliminary inspection of the men by the appointed dental surgeon Capt. E. C. Winstone that very few had teeth in good enough condition to chew the hard army food they would find served to them in France. Arrangements were made to have a dozen members of the Auckland Dental Institute perform free checks on the men, then a number of dentists visited the camp to do extractions and fillings. At a later inspection of the camp, the Minister of Defence was impressed with the suitability and completeness of the arrangements made for treatment of dental troubles. Captain Winstone and Lieutenant Phillips are in charge of this important work, and the records showed that up to date [24 November] there have been 624 fillings, 411 extractions, and 87 other cases. Over 90 plates are now being made for men in the camp.
The instruction staff for the men were Sergeant-Instructor A. Robertson, N.Z.P.S., sergeant-major; with Staff-Sergeants-Major A.C. Jameson and D. F. Hopkins acting as instructors. It was felt at the time that as the men were “experts in the class of work for which they were called up,” that there was no need for technical training, as in learning how to dig tunnels and use the equipment of the day. Here is another reason why the local legend of the tunnels underneath the racecourse is false. Instead, the men, “most of them strangers to military matters,” were taught squad drill, without arms, learning to take orders, and routine duties. Lectures will be given on saluting, dress, military law, health and sanitation, camp sanitation, and other subjects, and the syllabus of training generally has been drawn up to make men already efficient in an important phase of modern warfare, smart in their movements, and soldierly in appearance.
J. C. Neill wrote of the days at the Avondale camp:
The training at Avondale was on ordinary infantry lines, the Tunnellers were over age to have benefited by the territorial system so it had to begin very much on elementals.
Early morning physical “jerks” with a gallop round the racecourse followed by six hours marching and countermarching in the blazing Auckland sun had a wonderful effect in renewing the youth of many an old work stiffened toiler. Of course at first they did not like it, they had enlisted to work, not to prance around on a parade ground, but very soon they entered into the spirit of the thing, they were so very anxious not to be left behind through any want of fitness.
It was really wonderful too how these men, drawn from the most independent class on earth, willingly and cheerfully surrendered to military discipline. They saw that it was necessary and that it was just and made no haggle over accepting it. The food was good and more than abundant and when the tents became flooded they slept equally well in the grandstand and tote-house. In after days the Tunnellers looked back on those days as perhaps the pleasantest in their military experience.
It is interesting to note that out of the first 37 days in camp, 25 were reported in papers of the time to be rained out. This may have been the reason why the duration of the training camp extended beyond the planned six weeks, to ten.
By the 4th of November, the men received rifles and began musketry exercises. “Sabulite” grenade testing The Tunnelling Company were chosen by the government to test a new type of grenade on 19 October at the racecourse camp. The tests were for hand grenades, filled with a locally-made explosive called “sabulite” (normally used in the mining industry), spherically shaped and about the size of a cricket ball, weighing between 2 ¼ lb and 2 ½ lb. The internal cast iron segmenting was designed to ensure that the grenade, on detonation in the enemy trench, didn’t just explode into splinters, but instead sizeable fragments, some cubed in shape.
Earlier, in late September, the first tests were carried out in Wellington, using grenades thrown into practice trenches. In the objectively bloodless language of the time, military officials reported that “so severe was the concussion, owing to the strength of the explosive used, that it alone would be sufficient to incapacitate any men that might be in the trench when the grenade exploded.”
At Avondale, the tunnellers dug a couple of trenches a short distance apart, and threw the “bombs” from one trench into the other, where several pieces of board had been placed. … after two bombs had found their mark nearly every piece of timber had several holes through it. … “Nobody would have been left alive in that trench,” said one of the officers as he inspected the damage.
It was intended at the time that the grenades be manufactured locally, at a moderate cost. At the time of writing I’ve been unable to find out what became of the “Sabulite grenade”. The sly groggers see a profit Avondale was in 1915 a “dry” district, in that no licenses for public houses, bars or liquor selling had been granted in the area since 1908 when the electors voted, along with the rest of West Auckland, along the lines of temperance. This may have been another factor in the decision to site the camp in Avondale, perhaps the distance being considered too great for these members of the Expeditionary Forces to come under the temptation of “demon drink” as had already been the case at the main camp at Trentham. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. In August 1915, one Harry Turnbull came to Avondale, and set up a fish shop in the town. According to testimony before Mr. F. V. Frazer, S.M., Turnbull had a “friend in the camp” who could not keep whiskey and beer for himself there, so Turnbull took it upon himself to supply from his fish shop. He claimed that he didn’t wish to take any money for the alcohol from the soldiers who came into the shop, but took it anyway after they insisted. He claimed before the magistrate that he had “very little liquor out at his shop”, but the constables who raided the shop with a search warrant after a complaint from camp officers and a trip in disguise to the shop to buy alcohol with a real soldier, stated that, in fact, “his shop was fitted up like a miniature bar, with glasses on the counter and in the back room.” The police found “a number of empty beer and whisky bottles strewn about.”
Turnbull was later sentenced to one month’s hard labour, not for being without a licence, but for selling liquor to uniformed members of the Expeditionary Force. Harry Turnbull was not the only one to take advantage of what must have been a golden opportunity to resell alcohol, and sometimes the watered down equivalent, to the thirsty out-of-towners in the Tunnelling Company. On Sundays, two “sly groggers” named Walter Barrett and James Smith did a roaring trade “in the shadow of St Patrick’s Cathedral” selling whiskey “of the kind sold in hotels on week-days at 6/- a bottle,” for 8/- a bottle.”
Final leave
At the end of the fifth week in camp, 250 men were granted what was termed “final leave” and, curiously, loaded onto a train at Avondale and taken straight to Wellington. However, there was at least one disturbance in downtown Auckland. … a police constable received a rough handling by two members of the Avondale Tunnelling Company … at the corner of Queen and Custom Streets on Saturday night. While on duty in Queen Street at about forty minutes past nine o’clock Constable J. J. Healey took exception to the behaviour of two soldiers in uniform. He spoke to them, and it is stated that they at once became very abusive. A crowd collected. According to the Auckland Star, the two soldiers had made themselves “objectionable to women”, accosting two women, who pushed past them, and then “tried their blandishments on three other respectable women, who would also have nothing to do with them”. interfered. According to the police one of the men took up a pugilistic attitude, and the constable proceeded to arrest him on a charge of being disorderly while drunk. The constable received a heavy blow on the jaw, and the attack was followed by blows delivered from behind. He managed to retain his grip on his prisoner, and endeavoured to get him to a taxicab. The surging of the crowd forced the policeman and his prisoner in another direction. Constable J. Hollick arrived and rendered assistance, but the efforts of the two men and the crowd were too much for the police. The men escaped. The constables did not use their batons. Constable Healey was considerably bruised about the face, head, and body, but was not incapacitated. 17 The two men were arrested at the Avondale camp the next day after parade, one later charged in the Police Court with being disorderly while drunk, resisting the police, and assault, the other with obstructing the police while in the execution of their duty, and with assaulting the police. Rather than send them to gaol for three days of their final leave, the magistrate instead fined them 20/- each. This was apparently not an isolated incident, the court referring to other cases of drunken soldiers from the company accosting women. Despite incidents such as these, however, the Minister of Defence, the Hon. James Allen commented, on inspection of the camp on 24 November, that he “considered that the discipline of the men reflected much credit on the officers responsible for their training.”
The Company leaves Auckland On the 12th December, Dr. Averill, the Anglican Bishop of Auckland, held a morning service at the camp. In a short address the Bishop expressed his pleasure at being able to say a few words to such a fine corps on the eve of its departure. He urged the men to uphold the honour of their country wherever they might be sent, not less in friendly communities than in the fighting line.
19
The New Zealand Tunnelling Corps of Engineers left Avondale finally on 18 December 1915. Sadly, J. C. Neill noted that, in his opinion, “the only enthusiasm the citizens (of Auckland) showed to the company was when they bade it farewell.” 20 The day before, relatives and friends of the tunnellers visited them at Avondale, and a presentation of gifts was made to the company: a cheque for £342 13/6 “to be used as a regimental fund, forwarded by the former fellow-workers of the tunnellers throughout the Dominion”; the Countess of Liverpool (wife of the Governor-General) forwarded a gramophone; and Mrs H B Morton sent a “number of articles likely to be useful to the men”. Two officers who had both been married during the time of the camp were given several gifts by their fellow officers at the officers’ last mess in Avondale. 21 At about three o’clock, Saturday 18th December, the company marched up Queen Street to Grey’s statue (near present day Aotea Square) from where they had formed up alongside the S.S. Ruapehu on the docks, then returned after the farewell to the ship and embarked for the long journey to England. The civic reception outside the Town Hall was witnessed by crowds of people, according to the New Zealand Herald, farewelling just over 400 men heading for the distant war front half a world away. The journey to the Arras caverns The New Zealanders reached Plymouth Harbour, England, on 3 February 1916, travelling to Falmouth for just over a month’s further infantry training. On 7 March, they left for France, arriving at Maroeuil on 15 March, relieving the 7/1 French Territorial Engineers the next day. This was a section of the front line known as the Labyrinth, about 3 miles north of Arras. This was to give the New Zealanders their first taste of the British way of tunnel warfare, complete with geophones used to listen in on the underground earthworks of the enemy. J. C. Neill gives a very detailed account of the Company, much of which I will only summarise here. Other sources speak of the strikingly independent attitude shown by the New Zealanders in France at this time. They were noted, from time to time, as failing to properly salute officers of the British Army, while their language also left an indelible impression. Lofty and a chap named Collins were working it and Leith was filling the sandbags. I took the officer down and, getting to the face, Lofty was picking in hard ground. The officer said, “Do you think Fritz can hear you?” Quick as lightning came the reply from Lofty: 'They'll have to be bloody f-----g deaf if they can't.” That satisfied the officer that it was no place for him and he left straight away, saying, “Fearful language your men use.” He didn't ask to go down again. 22 On 30 March, they were in turn relieved at the Labyrinth by the 185th Tunnelling Company of Royal Engineers, and were then transferred to the Chanticleer front, the trench system on the eastern outskirts of Arras, staying there for the next two years. It was at Arras that the New Zealanders abandoned the Royal Engineers’ method of tunnel, switching to a more “Kiwi version” -- a typical New Zealand gallery, according to Neill, would be 6 feet by 3 feet 6 inches wide, for “decent room to swing a pick.”23 Here, also, the New Zealanders are credited with the discovery of old underground quarries, limestone caverns that been used to rebuild the city of Arras in the seventeenth century. Perhaps typically, the discovery was made while officers were amusing themselves while off duty. 24 Two definite cave systems were identified, with the New Zealanders developing and preparing one, the 184th Company of Royal Engineers the other. The New Zealanders gave the caverns along their line nostalgic names from home: Russell, Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington, Nelson, Blenheim, Christchurch, Dunedin and Bluff. The caves were fitted with gas doors, ventilating plant, electric light, running water and other facilities, serving eventually to shelter between 11,000 to 20,000 men during the cold winter months of the campaign known as the Battle of Arras. According to Sir Michael Hardie Boys, former Governor General of New Zealand, in a speech made in Auckland, 1998, he saw names and initials inscribed along the New Zealand tunnels under Arras, also a “rather fine Maori head sculpted into the wall, and other lasting signs of the many months our men lived and worked underground.” 25 The wide variety of practical skills in the New Zealand Company came to fore in many ways during the campaign, especially when, in June 1917 they took over the camp of the 184th Company and installed “a complete sawmill and workshops” where timber was prepared. The camp, according to J. C. Neill, even possessed “a quite passable tennis court”. A canteen was set going and provided a considerable variety of goods at very reasonable prices; it was much patronized by the other troops in Arras, possibly on account of the excellent quality of the beer supplied! Building bridges and the end of the war By August 1918, the N.C.O.’s from the company had been sent to the army bridging park at Rosel, gaining knowledge in the construction of army bridges. Neill considered that it was difficult to see why the company had been chosen to build bridges in those latter stages of the war, rather than the specialist Royal Engineers, but given the wide range of construction and engineering skills in the original main body, it is not such a surprise. The Tunnellers received orders on 23 September to prepare for the erection of the Havrincourt bridge, at the crossing of the Canal Du Nord. This bridge was reputed to be the longest single span bridge erected in military history to that time, at 240 feet, weighing 120 tons, involving a total of 104 working hours by 14 officers and 310 men. According to Neill, the company were honoured on the quick completion of the bridge by two visits from the Commander-in-Chief, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig., and received a commendation from the Engineer-in-Chief, G.H.Q.
The company went on to build other bridges, both just before and after the end of the war, at Masnieres, Cambrai, Solesmes, over the canal d’Escault, at St. Vaast, Pontsur-Sambre, and Mauberge. After demobbing procedures in France and the United Kingdom, the Tunnelling Company arrived back in Auckland Harbour at 9 p.m. on April 23rd, 1919, and the next day the company ceased to exist. On a local level, Avondale has the pride of knowing that these men first trained at the racecourse. They may not have dug the legendary tunnels that have been so much a part of Avondale’s collection of local lore. They may have been a source of stress for the civilian authorities of a more innocent Auckland unused to the realities of military training camps so close to the city. But these men, the main body who trained at Avondale, and the 5 reinforcement groups who came after them, served well in France, and are still today a fascinating part of the history of our country as a whole. Legends are one thing. But sometimes, as in the case of the “Avondale” Tunnellers, truth is grander than fiction. Sources and bibliography: The New Zealand Tunnelling Company 1915-1919, J. C. Neill, 1922 NZ Herald, September -- December 1915, Auckland Public Library Research Centre film record. Auckland Star, September – December 1915, Auckland Public Library Research Centre film record. Auckland Weekly News, September – December 1915, Auckland Public Library Research Centre film record. Highlights from One Hundred Years of Racing at Avondale Jockey Club, George Boyle, 1990 Challenge of the Whau, Avondale History Group, 1994 War Underground – The Tunnellers of the Great War, Alexander Barrie, Great Britain, 1962, 2000 Tunnellers – The Story of the Tunnelling Companies, Royal Engineers, during the World War, Capt. W. Grant Grieve and Bernard Newman, London, 1936
Cheerful Sacrifice – the Battle of Arras 1917, Jonathan Nicholls, London, 1995 Underground Troop Graffiti, Margo White (first published in New Zealand Listener, 19 April 1997). From Sweeny Vesty Limited website (1997) http://www.svl.co.nz/nz/1997b.html, as sighted 13 July 2002. Speech by the Right Honourable Sir Michael Hardie Boys, at the Annual Diner of the Wellington College Old Boys’ Association, Auckland Branch, Auckland, 3 September 1998, from NZ Government Information website http://www.govgen.govt.nz/speeches/hardie_boys/ 1998-09-03.html, as sighted 13 July 2002.
1
Recollections of Mr. Howard Marshall, Highlights from One Hundred Years of Racing at Avondale Jockey Club, George Boyle, 1990, p. 33 2 J. C. Neill, The New Zealand Tunnelling Company 1915-1919, 1922, p.3 3 NZ Herald, 12 October 1915, p. 9 4 ibid 5 J. C. Neill, pp. 8-9 6 N Z Herald, 25 November 1915, p. 8 7 NZ Herald, 12 October 1915, p. 9 8 ibid 9 J. C. Neill, pp. 7-8 10 Auckland Star, 30 September 1915, p.18 11 Auckland Star, 19 October 1915, p. 7. 12 Auckland Star, 22 October 1915, p. 2 13 Auckland Star, 10 November 1915, p. 9 14 NZ Herald, 15 November 1915, p. 7 15 ibid., p. 3 16 Auckland Star, 15 November 1915, p. 4 17 NZ Herald, 15 November 1915, p. 3 18 NZ Herald, 25 November 1915, p. 8 19 Auckland Star, 13 December 1915, p. 6 20 J. C. Neill, p. 6 21 N Z Herald, 18 December 1915, p. 6
22
Recollections of Jim Williamson (1948), as republished by Jonathan
Nicholls, Cheerful Sacrifice – the Battle of Arras, 1917, London, 1995, p. 21 23 J. C. Neill, p.38 24 Capt. W. Grant Grieve and Bernard Newman, Tunnellers – The Story of the Tunnelling Companies, Royal Engineers, during the World War, London, 1936, p. 156 25 Speech by the Right Honourable Sir Michael Hardie Boys, at the Annual Diner of the Wellington College Old Boys’ Association, Auckland Branch, Auckland, 3 September 1998, from NZ Government Information website http://www.govgen.govt.nz/speeches/hardie_boys/ 1998-09-03.html, as sighted 13 July 2002 26 J. C. Neill, pp. 95-96 27 ibid. p. 96
Despite accounts to the contrary, ambulances on duty so splattered with mud that they were no longer white, the story of the tunnels beneath the racecourse persists. Even the Challenge of the Whau, in referring to recollections published in the Avondale Jockey Club’s centennial history, perpetuated the myth.
The original track was more elliptical than the present one and, according to Mr Marshall, the original outlets of the tunnels are still showing strong water flows after heavy rain. These are situated between the 400-metre and 600-metre pegs and between the 1200-metre and 1400-metre, but closer to the 1400-metres.
Mr Marshall says that up to 400 men were in the Tunneling Company and they worked night and day shifts with 100 men in a shift.
He says it is believed that soil from the tunnels was dumped from the present 1200 metres along the turn, which not only improved the track, but was an early example of soil conservation. 1 Unfortunately the tunnels beneath the centre of the Avondale Racecourse are a myth. The military company legends gave credit to for digging the tunnels, the New Zealand Tunneling Company of Engineers back in October to December of 1915, were not encamped on the racecourse to learn how to dig tunnels.
They didn’t need to. They were already, in the main, seasoned miners, prospectors and labourers from the goldfields of the country, principally the north half of the North Island, including Auckland itself. They became a footnote to New Zealand’s military history, and a tantalising tale from the history of an Auckland suburb’s semi- rural days, who in fact were part of a history even more fascinating than the legends by which they are best remembered.
World War One and tunnelling The classic images of World War One are those of trenches cut into the French countryside, the Allies and the German’s facing each other with only “no-man’s land” in between, on fields of endless mud. Below ground, however, a special type of war went on, each side digging tunnels from their line beneath the mud and defences toward the trenches of the enemy, with the intention of exploding the trenches, and the occupants, to pieces. The underground war was initiated by the German side in late 1914, and the British and French forces reacted by bringing in teams of men to specialise in digging narrow chambers, barely the width of a man’s shoulders, with shovels braced between the legs and men behind the diggers crawling on their hands and knees to collect the spoil. Sewer workers from cities such as Manchester, for example, were considered ideal for this kind of stifling, highly dangerous work.
Where Allied and German tunnels intersected, bitter fighting would ensue, the winners of these desperate conflicts having the privilege of blowing up the losing side’s tunnel.
In the middle of 1915, reinforcements were called for, and the then Dominions of the British Empire responded: Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In September 1915, the New Zealand Ministry of Defence issued an appeal for recruits, “only experienced miners and tunnel men being required, and applications for commissions were called from qualified Mining and Civil Engineers.” 2
The call was for 400 men, 250 to be experienced “facemen”, miners by profession (but not coal miners, who were needed at home), the remaining 150 “less skilled workers.” The men were different in other ways from the rest of the expeditionary forces sent to the front in that war: the age of enlistment was from 21 to 40 years, but the majority were aged closer to the upper end of that range than the lower. The officers had been drawn from the Public Works Department, as well as engineers from the private mining companies.
Avondale is chosen Auckland had campaigned with the Ministry of Defence to have a training camp closer to the city for much of the war up to that point, the main training centre being Trentham. Perhaps it was in order that Auckland be appeased that the Ministry looked at areas in and around the Queen City – with Avondale Racecourse apparently being chosen over Bastion Point and Ellerslie.
Avondale in 1915 was still a semi-rural, “sleepy hollow” place, where motorised transport was only starting to appear; sporting only a handful of shops, most around the five-roads intersection and the horse trough-lamp; the hotel long closed and now the Post Office; and the only source of amusement in town for men more used to living rough out in the back blocks than the urban niceties of Auckland, being the billiard saloon on the corner of Cracroft Street and Great North Road.
J. C Neill, in his 1922 book on the New Zealand Tunnelling Company, suggests that the choice of Avondale Racecourse for the camp seemed at the time “the grossest of blunders.” The Defence authorities had chosen an open area, “within easy reach of New Zealand’s largest and gayest city.” There were to be a number of conflicts between the tunnellers and civilian authorities, many writers describing the company as shaking up the near-by city of Auckland as it had never been shaken before.
The Defence authorities favoured the racecourse grounds as suitable for the purpose of a camp because there were existing buildings and a good water supply. The Avondale Jockey Club placed the entire grounds at the disposal of the government (this in spite of the enormous popularity of the race days there, so much so that traffic sped along New North Road on race days, and trains arrived at and left Avondale Station packed with the racing faithful), and it was accepted on 22 September 1915 as the camp’s site. Three days later, an advance party arrived to prepare the grounds, installing drainage to be used during the six weeks occupation (which, in the end, stretched to nine weeks). Here, perhaps, could be the reason for the durable legend regarding tunnels and drainage at the racecourse – could inquisitive Avondale residents, fascinated by this very different novelty in their midst, have mistaken the advance party’s work as the tunnelling they believed had taken place there?
For some reason, recruiting was suspended for a few days on 28 September, only to be resumed two days later. Perhaps due to their specialised nature, it was arranged that the Tunnelling Corps of Engineers was to be attached to the Royal Engineers on arrival later in England, but still receive New Zealand rates of pay and pensions. In early October, there were hearty farewells in small centres such as Waihi and Thames for the men leaving to join the camp. A total of 254 men came from the Auckland Province, from Whangarei to Thames, Waihi and Hamilton (20 over quota), with 75 from Canterbury and Otago, and 90 from Wellington.
The company is composed of an exceedingly useful body of men and this fact was demonstrated yesterday, when the full establishment of four blacksmiths, four carpenters, two fitters, three clerks, two draughtsmen, two electricians, two bricklayers, two plumbers, four cooks, two medical orderlies, two sanitary and water duty men, and a shoemaker, mason and tinsmith were supplied from the ranks…. There are in the ranks four fully qualified civil engineers – one gave up a practice worth over £500 a year, – overseers of Government works, mechanical engineers from railway workshops, foreman of county councils, men from the Auckland University and School of Mines, skilled miners, who were earning up to £6 and £7 a week, and road and bush contractors who at times made as many pounds sterling in a week as they will get shillings from the camp paymaster. 3
Given the above range of skills (the only one missing that the company might require, so it is said, was that of tailor), it is now little wonder that the New Zealand Tunnellers were able to achieve so much during the war. The Camp Major J. E. Duigan was the general staff officer for the camp, with the following administrative officers: Captain Neville Newcomb, camp commandant; Captain D. J. Sweetzer, adjutant; and Captain W. H. Feldon as quartermaster. The camp they oversaw, a sea of the then-regulation British Bell tents, was well described by the Auckland Star as having a cookhouse with hot water for cooking and other “culinary requirements”; marquee tents so the men could eat meals together rather than in separate tents alone as was usually the case; every tent fitted with floorboards; and showers fitted with that adequate new drainage the locals in Avondale may have thought were the start of the soon-to-be legendary tunnels.
To help provide for the leisure needs of the men, the Salvation Army and Y.M.C.A. set up tents with writing and reading materials, the camp canteen was operated by Bollard & Wood, the local grocery merchants from the Page Building in Avondale, while the local barber shop (including the billiard saloon) was run by Mr. W. McArthur. “Town prices,” the Star declared on 5 October, “will rule.” There was even a temporary picture theatre set up on site, run by a Mr. J. Lack, who also had the licence to take photographs to sell to the troops to send to the folks back home.
Attached to the company was a medical officer and two medical orderlies belong to the N.Z.M.C., and nineteen motor and horse drivers from the N.Z.A.S.C. 5
In the beginning of November, the men were inoculated by the camp medical officer, Captain Gordon.
It was found during a preliminary inspection of the men by the appointed dental surgeon Capt. E. C. Winstone that very few had teeth in good enough condition to chew the hard army food they would find served to them in France. Arrangements were made to have a dozen members of the Auckland Dental Institute perform free checks on the men, then a number of dentists visited the camp to do extractions and fillings. At a later inspection of the camp, the Minister of Defence was impressed with the suitability and completeness of the arrangements made for treatment of dental troubles. Captain Winstone and Lieutenant Phillips are in charge of this important work, and the records showed that up to date [24 November] there have been 624 fillings, 411 extractions, and 87 other cases. Over 90 plates are now being made for men in the camp.
The instruction staff for the men were Sergeant-Instructor A. Robertson, N.Z.P.S., sergeant-major; with Staff-Sergeants-Major A.C. Jameson and D. F. Hopkins acting as instructors. It was felt at the time that as the men were “experts in the class of work for which they were called up,” that there was no need for technical training, as in learning how to dig tunnels and use the equipment of the day. Here is another reason why the local legend of the tunnels underneath the racecourse is false. Instead, the men, “most of them strangers to military matters,” were taught squad drill, without arms, learning to take orders, and routine duties. Lectures will be given on saluting, dress, military law, health and sanitation, camp sanitation, and other subjects, and the syllabus of training generally has been drawn up to make men already efficient in an important phase of modern warfare, smart in their movements, and soldierly in appearance.
J. C. Neill wrote of the days at the Avondale camp:
The training at Avondale was on ordinary infantry lines, the Tunnellers were over age to have benefited by the territorial system so it had to begin very much on elementals.
Early morning physical “jerks” with a gallop round the racecourse followed by six hours marching and countermarching in the blazing Auckland sun had a wonderful effect in renewing the youth of many an old work stiffened toiler. Of course at first they did not like it, they had enlisted to work, not to prance around on a parade ground, but very soon they entered into the spirit of the thing, they were so very anxious not to be left behind through any want of fitness.
It was really wonderful too how these men, drawn from the most independent class on earth, willingly and cheerfully surrendered to military discipline. They saw that it was necessary and that it was just and made no haggle over accepting it. The food was good and more than abundant and when the tents became flooded they slept equally well in the grandstand and tote-house. In after days the Tunnellers looked back on those days as perhaps the pleasantest in their military experience.
It is interesting to note that out of the first 37 days in camp, 25 were reported in papers of the time to be rained out. This may have been the reason why the duration of the training camp extended beyond the planned six weeks, to ten.
By the 4th of November, the men received rifles and began musketry exercises. “Sabulite” grenade testing The Tunnelling Company were chosen by the government to test a new type of grenade on 19 October at the racecourse camp. The tests were for hand grenades, filled with a locally-made explosive called “sabulite” (normally used in the mining industry), spherically shaped and about the size of a cricket ball, weighing between 2 ¼ lb and 2 ½ lb. The internal cast iron segmenting was designed to ensure that the grenade, on detonation in the enemy trench, didn’t just explode into splinters, but instead sizeable fragments, some cubed in shape.
Earlier, in late September, the first tests were carried out in Wellington, using grenades thrown into practice trenches. In the objectively bloodless language of the time, military officials reported that “so severe was the concussion, owing to the strength of the explosive used, that it alone would be sufficient to incapacitate any men that might be in the trench when the grenade exploded.”
At Avondale, the tunnellers dug a couple of trenches a short distance apart, and threw the “bombs” from one trench into the other, where several pieces of board had been placed. … after two bombs had found their mark nearly every piece of timber had several holes through it. … “Nobody would have been left alive in that trench,” said one of the officers as he inspected the damage.
It was intended at the time that the grenades be manufactured locally, at a moderate cost. At the time of writing I’ve been unable to find out what became of the “Sabulite grenade”. The sly groggers see a profit Avondale was in 1915 a “dry” district, in that no licenses for public houses, bars or liquor selling had been granted in the area since 1908 when the electors voted, along with the rest of West Auckland, along the lines of temperance. This may have been another factor in the decision to site the camp in Avondale, perhaps the distance being considered too great for these members of the Expeditionary Forces to come under the temptation of “demon drink” as had already been the case at the main camp at Trentham. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. In August 1915, one Harry Turnbull came to Avondale, and set up a fish shop in the town. According to testimony before Mr. F. V. Frazer, S.M., Turnbull had a “friend in the camp” who could not keep whiskey and beer for himself there, so Turnbull took it upon himself to supply from his fish shop. He claimed that he didn’t wish to take any money for the alcohol from the soldiers who came into the shop, but took it anyway after they insisted. He claimed before the magistrate that he had “very little liquor out at his shop”, but the constables who raided the shop with a search warrant after a complaint from camp officers and a trip in disguise to the shop to buy alcohol with a real soldier, stated that, in fact, “his shop was fitted up like a miniature bar, with glasses on the counter and in the back room.” The police found “a number of empty beer and whisky bottles strewn about.”
Turnbull was later sentenced to one month’s hard labour, not for being without a licence, but for selling liquor to uniformed members of the Expeditionary Force. Harry Turnbull was not the only one to take advantage of what must have been a golden opportunity to resell alcohol, and sometimes the watered down equivalent, to the thirsty out-of-towners in the Tunnelling Company. On Sundays, two “sly groggers” named Walter Barrett and James Smith did a roaring trade “in the shadow of St Patrick’s Cathedral” selling whiskey “of the kind sold in hotels on week-days at 6/- a bottle,” for 8/- a bottle.”
Final leave
At the end of the fifth week in camp, 250 men were granted what was termed “final leave” and, curiously, loaded onto a train at Avondale and taken straight to Wellington. However, there was at least one disturbance in downtown Auckland. … a police constable received a rough handling by two members of the Avondale Tunnelling Company … at the corner of Queen and Custom Streets on Saturday night. While on duty in Queen Street at about forty minutes past nine o’clock Constable J. J. Healey took exception to the behaviour of two soldiers in uniform. He spoke to them, and it is stated that they at once became very abusive. A crowd collected. According to the Auckland Star, the two soldiers had made themselves “objectionable to women”, accosting two women, who pushed past them, and then “tried their blandishments on three other respectable women, who would also have nothing to do with them”. interfered. According to the police one of the men took up a pugilistic attitude, and the constable proceeded to arrest him on a charge of being disorderly while drunk. The constable received a heavy blow on the jaw, and the attack was followed by blows delivered from behind. He managed to retain his grip on his prisoner, and endeavoured to get him to a taxicab. The surging of the crowd forced the policeman and his prisoner in another direction. Constable J. Hollick arrived and rendered assistance, but the efforts of the two men and the crowd were too much for the police. The men escaped. The constables did not use their batons. Constable Healey was considerably bruised about the face, head, and body, but was not incapacitated. 17 The two men were arrested at the Avondale camp the next day after parade, one later charged in the Police Court with being disorderly while drunk, resisting the police, and assault, the other with obstructing the police while in the execution of their duty, and with assaulting the police. Rather than send them to gaol for three days of their final leave, the magistrate instead fined them 20/- each. This was apparently not an isolated incident, the court referring to other cases of drunken soldiers from the company accosting women. Despite incidents such as these, however, the Minister of Defence, the Hon. James Allen commented, on inspection of the camp on 24 November, that he “considered that the discipline of the men reflected much credit on the officers responsible for their training.”
The Company leaves Auckland On the 12th December, Dr. Averill, the Anglican Bishop of Auckland, held a morning service at the camp. In a short address the Bishop expressed his pleasure at being able to say a few words to such a fine corps on the eve of its departure. He urged the men to uphold the honour of their country wherever they might be sent, not less in friendly communities than in the fighting line.
19
The New Zealand Tunnelling Corps of Engineers left Avondale finally on 18 December 1915. Sadly, J. C. Neill noted that, in his opinion, “the only enthusiasm the citizens (of Auckland) showed to the company was when they bade it farewell.” 20 The day before, relatives and friends of the tunnellers visited them at Avondale, and a presentation of gifts was made to the company: a cheque for £342 13/6 “to be used as a regimental fund, forwarded by the former fellow-workers of the tunnellers throughout the Dominion”; the Countess of Liverpool (wife of the Governor-General) forwarded a gramophone; and Mrs H B Morton sent a “number of articles likely to be useful to the men”. Two officers who had both been married during the time of the camp were given several gifts by their fellow officers at the officers’ last mess in Avondale. 21 At about three o’clock, Saturday 18th December, the company marched up Queen Street to Grey’s statue (near present day Aotea Square) from where they had formed up alongside the S.S. Ruapehu on the docks, then returned after the farewell to the ship and embarked for the long journey to England. The civic reception outside the Town Hall was witnessed by crowds of people, according to the New Zealand Herald, farewelling just over 400 men heading for the distant war front half a world away. The journey to the Arras caverns The New Zealanders reached Plymouth Harbour, England, on 3 February 1916, travelling to Falmouth for just over a month’s further infantry training. On 7 March, they left for France, arriving at Maroeuil on 15 March, relieving the 7/1 French Territorial Engineers the next day. This was a section of the front line known as the Labyrinth, about 3 miles north of Arras. This was to give the New Zealanders their first taste of the British way of tunnel warfare, complete with geophones used to listen in on the underground earthworks of the enemy. J. C. Neill gives a very detailed account of the Company, much of which I will only summarise here. Other sources speak of the strikingly independent attitude shown by the New Zealanders in France at this time. They were noted, from time to time, as failing to properly salute officers of the British Army, while their language also left an indelible impression. Lofty and a chap named Collins were working it and Leith was filling the sandbags. I took the officer down and, getting to the face, Lofty was picking in hard ground. The officer said, “Do you think Fritz can hear you?” Quick as lightning came the reply from Lofty: 'They'll have to be bloody f-----g deaf if they can't.” That satisfied the officer that it was no place for him and he left straight away, saying, “Fearful language your men use.” He didn't ask to go down again. 22 On 30 March, they were in turn relieved at the Labyrinth by the 185th Tunnelling Company of Royal Engineers, and were then transferred to the Chanticleer front, the trench system on the eastern outskirts of Arras, staying there for the next two years. It was at Arras that the New Zealanders abandoned the Royal Engineers’ method of tunnel, switching to a more “Kiwi version” -- a typical New Zealand gallery, according to Neill, would be 6 feet by 3 feet 6 inches wide, for “decent room to swing a pick.”23 Here, also, the New Zealanders are credited with the discovery of old underground quarries, limestone caverns that been used to rebuild the city of Arras in the seventeenth century. Perhaps typically, the discovery was made while officers were amusing themselves while off duty. 24 Two definite cave systems were identified, with the New Zealanders developing and preparing one, the 184th Company of Royal Engineers the other. The New Zealanders gave the caverns along their line nostalgic names from home: Russell, Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington, Nelson, Blenheim, Christchurch, Dunedin and Bluff. The caves were fitted with gas doors, ventilating plant, electric light, running water and other facilities, serving eventually to shelter between 11,000 to 20,000 men during the cold winter months of the campaign known as the Battle of Arras. According to Sir Michael Hardie Boys, former Governor General of New Zealand, in a speech made in Auckland, 1998, he saw names and initials inscribed along the New Zealand tunnels under Arras, also a “rather fine Maori head sculpted into the wall, and other lasting signs of the many months our men lived and worked underground.” 25 The wide variety of practical skills in the New Zealand Company came to fore in many ways during the campaign, especially when, in June 1917 they took over the camp of the 184th Company and installed “a complete sawmill and workshops” where timber was prepared. The camp, according to J. C. Neill, even possessed “a quite passable tennis court”. A canteen was set going and provided a considerable variety of goods at very reasonable prices; it was much patronized by the other troops in Arras, possibly on account of the excellent quality of the beer supplied! Building bridges and the end of the war By August 1918, the N.C.O.’s from the company had been sent to the army bridging park at Rosel, gaining knowledge in the construction of army bridges. Neill considered that it was difficult to see why the company had been chosen to build bridges in those latter stages of the war, rather than the specialist Royal Engineers, but given the wide range of construction and engineering skills in the original main body, it is not such a surprise. The Tunnellers received orders on 23 September to prepare for the erection of the Havrincourt bridge, at the crossing of the Canal Du Nord. This bridge was reputed to be the longest single span bridge erected in military history to that time, at 240 feet, weighing 120 tons, involving a total of 104 working hours by 14 officers and 310 men. According to Neill, the company were honoured on the quick completion of the bridge by two visits from the Commander-in-Chief, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig., and received a commendation from the Engineer-in-Chief, G.H.Q.
The company went on to build other bridges, both just before and after the end of the war, at Masnieres, Cambrai, Solesmes, over the canal d’Escault, at St. Vaast, Pontsur-Sambre, and Mauberge. After demobbing procedures in France and the United Kingdom, the Tunnelling Company arrived back in Auckland Harbour at 9 p.m. on April 23rd, 1919, and the next day the company ceased to exist. On a local level, Avondale has the pride of knowing that these men first trained at the racecourse. They may not have dug the legendary tunnels that have been so much a part of Avondale’s collection of local lore. They may have been a source of stress for the civilian authorities of a more innocent Auckland unused to the realities of military training camps so close to the city. But these men, the main body who trained at Avondale, and the 5 reinforcement groups who came after them, served well in France, and are still today a fascinating part of the history of our country as a whole. Legends are one thing. But sometimes, as in the case of the “Avondale” Tunnellers, truth is grander than fiction. Sources and bibliography: The New Zealand Tunnelling Company 1915-1919, J. C. Neill, 1922 NZ Herald, September -- December 1915, Auckland Public Library Research Centre film record. Auckland Star, September – December 1915, Auckland Public Library Research Centre film record. Auckland Weekly News, September – December 1915, Auckland Public Library Research Centre film record. Highlights from One Hundred Years of Racing at Avondale Jockey Club, George Boyle, 1990 Challenge of the Whau, Avondale History Group, 1994 War Underground – The Tunnellers of the Great War, Alexander Barrie, Great Britain, 1962, 2000 Tunnellers – The Story of the Tunnelling Companies, Royal Engineers, during the World War, Capt. W. Grant Grieve and Bernard Newman, London, 1936
Cheerful Sacrifice – the Battle of Arras 1917, Jonathan Nicholls, London, 1995 Underground Troop Graffiti, Margo White (first published in New Zealand Listener, 19 April 1997). From Sweeny Vesty Limited website (1997) http://www.svl.co.nz/nz/1997b.html, as sighted 13 July 2002. Speech by the Right Honourable Sir Michael Hardie Boys, at the Annual Diner of the Wellington College Old Boys’ Association, Auckland Branch, Auckland, 3 September 1998, from NZ Government Information website http://www.govgen.govt.nz/speeches/hardie_boys/ 1998-09-03.html, as sighted 13 July 2002.
1
Recollections of Mr. Howard Marshall, Highlights from One Hundred Years of Racing at Avondale Jockey Club, George Boyle, 1990, p. 33 2 J. C. Neill, The New Zealand Tunnelling Company 1915-1919, 1922, p.3 3 NZ Herald, 12 October 1915, p. 9 4 ibid 5 J. C. Neill, pp. 8-9 6 N Z Herald, 25 November 1915, p. 8 7 NZ Herald, 12 October 1915, p. 9 8 ibid 9 J. C. Neill, pp. 7-8 10 Auckland Star, 30 September 1915, p.18 11 Auckland Star, 19 October 1915, p. 7. 12 Auckland Star, 22 October 1915, p. 2 13 Auckland Star, 10 November 1915, p. 9 14 NZ Herald, 15 November 1915, p. 7 15 ibid., p. 3 16 Auckland Star, 15 November 1915, p. 4 17 NZ Herald, 15 November 1915, p. 3 18 NZ Herald, 25 November 1915, p. 8 19 Auckland Star, 13 December 1915, p. 6 20 J. C. Neill, p. 6 21 N Z Herald, 18 December 1915, p. 6
22
Recollections of Jim Williamson (1948), as republished by Jonathan
Nicholls, Cheerful Sacrifice – the Battle of Arras, 1917, London, 1995, p. 21 23 J. C. Neill, p.38 24 Capt. W. Grant Grieve and Bernard Newman, Tunnellers – The Story of the Tunnelling Companies, Royal Engineers, during the World War, London, 1936, p. 156 25 Speech by the Right Honourable Sir Michael Hardie Boys, at the Annual Diner of the Wellington College Old Boys’ Association, Auckland Branch, Auckland, 3 September 1998, from NZ Government Information website http://www.govgen.govt.nz/speeches/hardie_boys/ 1998-09-03.html, as sighted 13 July 2002 26 J. C. Neill, pp. 95-96 27 ibid. p. 96
WORLD WAR 2 1939 - 1945
“HMS Neptune lost in Mediterranean minefield 19 December 1941”
In New Zealand’s worst naval tragedy, the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Neptune struck enemy mines and sank off Libya. Of the 764 men who lost their lives, 150 were New Zealanders.
In early 1941, New Zealand provided crew for the Leander-class light cruiser HMS Neptune, which was to serve alongside its existing ships Achilles and Leander. The Neptune headed to the Mediterranean to replace naval losses suffered during the Crete campaign and joined Admiral Cunningham’s Malta-based Force K.
On the night of 18 December, Force K sailed to intercept an important Italian supply convoy heading to Tripoli, Libya. At around 1 a.m. on the 19th, 30 km from Tripoli, the ships sailed into an uncharted deep-water minefield. The Neptune triggered a mine, then exploded two more as it reversed to get clear. Several attempts were made to assist the stricken cruiser, but when the destroyer HMS Kandahar also hit a mine, the Neptune’s Captain Rory O’Conor flashed a warning to other ships to ‘Keep away’.
The Neptune struck another mine shortly afterwards and sank within minutes. Only one crew member survived.
(The above is an excerpt from NZ History Online)
In early 1941, New Zealand provided crew for the Leander-class light cruiser HMS Neptune, which was to serve alongside its existing ships Achilles and Leander. The Neptune headed to the Mediterranean to replace naval losses suffered during the Crete campaign and joined Admiral Cunningham’s Malta-based Force K.
On the night of 18 December, Force K sailed to intercept an important Italian supply convoy heading to Tripoli, Libya. At around 1 a.m. on the 19th, 30 km from Tripoli, the ships sailed into an uncharted deep-water minefield. The Neptune triggered a mine, then exploded two more as it reversed to get clear. Several attempts were made to assist the stricken cruiser, but when the destroyer HMS Kandahar also hit a mine, the Neptune’s Captain Rory O’Conor flashed a warning to other ships to ‘Keep away’.
The Neptune struck another mine shortly afterwards and sank within minutes. Only one crew member survived.
(The above is an excerpt from NZ History Online)
My Uncle Ken, the middle child and only son of Arthur and Gertrude BUTTON of Avondale, Auckland, was a Signalman on the H.M.S. Neptune.
My grandparents were broken-hearted and Nanny never recovered from losing her son. Every Anzac Day she wore his medals and re-read Ken’s 35+ letters he had written home while stationed overseas.
My grandparents were broken-hearted and Nanny never recovered from losing her son. Every Anzac Day she wore his medals and re-read Ken’s 35+ letters he had written home while stationed overseas.
George STEWART - The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF)
by Lesly Stewart
George Stewart was born in 1922 Pukehiki, on the Otago Peninsula. He was educated at Dunedin Technical College and as a civilian, worked as an electrical apprentice with A & T Burt Ltd, Dunedin.
He applied for The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) in March 1941 and completed his elementary training in Wigram, Rotorua and Taieri. In March 1943 he was awarded his flying badge and transferred to Canada under The Empire Training scheme where he was promoted to Flight sergeant and subsequently commissioned as a pilot officer then Flying officer before going to England. In UK was he was posted to The Advance Flying Unit and completed training on Fortress heavy Bombers He joined No 214 Squadron as a Captain.
His plane took off in March 1945 with the target of Hamburg, Germany but failed to return. All the crew were seen to parachute from the plane and it was assumed that they died in March 1945, probably killed as they landed, either on impact or by German soldiers. It was 3 weeks before the end of the war and George was just 22 years old.
He was buried at Elsdorf cemetery and later re interred at Soltau, Becklingsgen, the British Military Cemetery in Germany.
He applied for The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) in March 1941 and completed his elementary training in Wigram, Rotorua and Taieri. In March 1943 he was awarded his flying badge and transferred to Canada under The Empire Training scheme where he was promoted to Flight sergeant and subsequently commissioned as a pilot officer then Flying officer before going to England. In UK was he was posted to The Advance Flying Unit and completed training on Fortress heavy Bombers He joined No 214 Squadron as a Captain.
His plane took off in March 1945 with the target of Hamburg, Germany but failed to return. All the crew were seen to parachute from the plane and it was assumed that they died in March 1945, probably killed as they landed, either on impact or by German soldiers. It was 3 weeks before the end of the war and George was just 22 years old.
He was buried at Elsdorf cemetery and later re interred at Soltau, Becklingsgen, the British Military Cemetery in Germany.
This quilt was made to honour George Stewart's memory.
James Alexander THOMPSON
by Judy Thompson
My father in law Alex was for many years a person who looked forward and lived for today. Only in his later years did he start to share some of his early life with his family.
He described himself as a “rat bag, causing his parents many a sleepless night. Too fond of girls and the bottle - the black sheep.”
In reading some of what he had to endure during his time overseas as a soldier and Prisoner of War (POW), I am sure those traits helped bring him home. I am so glad he allowed me to encourage (nag and pester) him to fill in a book of personal memories about his life. These recollections have been the bones of this story.
Alex was a rather reluctant party at first, and often the questions asked were not easy to respond to. How we have read through what he wrote in the years following his death and shared and appreciated the thoughts often unspoken in life. Alex was a man of few words, particularly about his war years. Like many of those who served, he spoke very little of those experiences.
He volunteered for the Army shortly after War was declared in 1939. He was employed working on a south Canterbury farm, and has employer appealed his application so it wasn’t until Jan 1941 that he left Timaru for training. He wrote “it was the last thing I ever volunteered for, and I only hope neither of my two sons have to go through that.” In later years he had an anxious time with the outbreak of the Falklands War in 1982. His youngest son was in England working and he worried he might be called up.
He described himself as a “rat bag, causing his parents many a sleepless night. Too fond of girls and the bottle - the black sheep.”
In reading some of what he had to endure during his time overseas as a soldier and Prisoner of War (POW), I am sure those traits helped bring him home. I am so glad he allowed me to encourage (nag and pester) him to fill in a book of personal memories about his life. These recollections have been the bones of this story.
Alex was a rather reluctant party at first, and often the questions asked were not easy to respond to. How we have read through what he wrote in the years following his death and shared and appreciated the thoughts often unspoken in life. Alex was a man of few words, particularly about his war years. Like many of those who served, he spoke very little of those experiences.
He volunteered for the Army shortly after War was declared in 1939. He was employed working on a south Canterbury farm, and has employer appealed his application so it wasn’t until Jan 1941 that he left Timaru for training. He wrote “it was the last thing I ever volunteered for, and I only hope neither of my two sons have to go through that.” In later years he had an anxious time with the outbreak of the Falklands War in 1982. His youngest son was in England working and he worried he might be called up.
Alex had his initial training in Papakura, Auckland. He then joined the 2nd NZEF as part as the 31st Battalion. He travelled by sea to Egypt and Maadi Camp via Perth and Freemantle. He was then posted to the 21st Battalion and after a period of further training and adjustment to the desert environment, the New Zealanders joined Operation Crusader. The New Zealanders had the task of engaging the Germans near Sidi Rezegh, a barren, stony ridge that was just a mark on the map, outside Tobruk. Alex and others were captured there late November 1941 and taken to Benghazi to be held there as POW. On the 9th December 1941, along with 2000 other Commonwealth POW , he boarded the ‘Jason’, an Italian merchant ship, to be transport to Italy. The prisoners were loaded into the holds and the hatches were battened down. More were seated throughout the decks.
The Jason was torpedoed off the coast of Greece, near Methoni Point, by the British submarine “Porpoise”. I recall Alex describing how, after being hit by the torpedo, the ‘Jason’ drifted towards the Greek coast, with many dead and dying in the flooded forward holds where the damage from the torpedo was most severe. 500 prisoners were killed.
“Immediately after being struck, the Italian captain and crew all deserted the Jason taking the life rafts.” Alex wrote “ luckily there was a German soldier, a marine engineer, on board and he took control of the ship. His actions were attributed with saving 100’s of lives. The ship drifted and eventually ran aground on a shelf of rocks just off the Greek coast. The German swam to shore and attached a rope to the rocks. What was left of the prisoners went down the rope to shore. Once ashore we found we were in a foot of snow..and here we were in shorts and a shirt”
The Jason was stern up, half out of the water, with its propeller still turning. I asked Alex why he didn’t jump overboard as many did in an attempt to escape? He dryly replied “I couldn’t swim! and anyway some of the men in the water were pulled into the propeller or onto the rocks”
“Immediately after being struck, the Italian captain and crew all deserted the Jason taking the life rafts.” Alex wrote “ luckily there was a German soldier, a marine engineer, on board and he took control of the ship. His actions were attributed with saving 100’s of lives. The ship drifted and eventually ran aground on a shelf of rocks just off the Greek coast. The German swam to shore and attached a rope to the rocks. What was left of the prisoners went down the rope to shore. Once ashore we found we were in a foot of snow..and here we were in shorts and a shirt”
The Jason was stern up, half out of the water, with its propeller still turning. I asked Alex why he didn’t jump overboard as many did in an attempt to escape? He dryly replied “I couldn’t swim! and anyway some of the men in the water were pulled into the propeller or onto the rocks”
And so began Alex’s time as a POW. This was to last until the end of the war, over three years. The prisoners that survived were held overnight in a warehouse and then marched to Pylos. Then taken by road and train to Acia, near the Port of Patras. They were held in tents for two weeks in the cold Greek winter, (referred to as “Dysentery Acre” by Alex) then they were placed in a warehouse at Patras for a further period, finally reaching Italy in March 1942.
Initially his family heard nothing. Thinking for more than 6 months that he was dead. Then they heard through Vatican radio that he was a POW. Spending periods in various transit camps he reached Campo PG 129 near Montelupone in November 1942. He was admitted to hospital in December 1942 due to dysentery, where he spent over two months recovering before returning to Campo 129 in April 1943.
Initially his family heard nothing. Thinking for more than 6 months that he was dead. Then they heard through Vatican radio that he was a POW. Spending periods in various transit camps he reached Campo PG 129 near Montelupone in November 1942. He was admitted to hospital in December 1942 due to dysentery, where he spent over two months recovering before returning to Campo 129 in April 1943.
When in the camp in Italy they went out in a working parties in the hills north of Rome. He heard that the Italians were going to capitulate and the Germans were going to take all the prisoners back to Germany. So Alex and three others dug a tunnel which they used it to escape one night into the hills. They decided that four people were too easily spotted so, on the toss of a coin, two went down to where the Americans were fighting and Alex and his friend Jerry headed south through the Grand Sus (Gran Susso) mountains. After four days on the run they reached a small village and hid on a cow shed. In the morning two local women came to get the cows and found them asleep in the straw. In their limited Italian Alex and Jerry explained who they were. The women returned with food and clothes for them over the next few days. Then advising them which way to go to avoid the Germans, Alex and Jerry headed South. After about two months spent working on farms in return for food they reached the Sangro River. This was one of a network of lines to defend Italy from the British and Allied forces. At the Sangro River the Germans were on one side and the New Zealand army on the other. Hiding in a pine forest “while waiting for our crowd to get through” they were again supported be the local women. Alex wrote “While on the run they found the Italian women had a ton of guts and took risks that without their help we wouldn’t have survived.”
Unfortunately they must have raised suspicions somehow and were recaptured by the Germans. This time escorted on to a German POW camp, Stalag V111B. Alex felt this was a form of punishment for escapees as the German camps were much harsher than the Italian ones had been.
Alex remained in that camp near Lamsdorf, until 1945. They were eventually released when the camp was liberated by Soviet Forces. The prisoners were taken to Switzerland where they had a month to recuperate before arrangements were made for them to return home. This was a welcome period of restoration as many of the prisoners suffered poor health and the effects of poor nutrition. They could recover somewhat in Geneva before travelling back to New Zealand.
Alex travelled to hospital in England before returning on the Highland Princess arriving in Lyttleton on 19 April 1945. He caught the train to Timaru where his parents and sister met him. He recalled the Mayor of Timaru boarded the train and welcomed all the servicemen back. In his suitcase of mementoes were many letters from people in Timaru welcoming him back and arranging welcome home dances and social events. Also among the collection of items were Red Cross messages, Christmas wrapping paper (presumably from a parcel sent from home), and messages from the YMCA, and photographs of unnamed men that he shared the POW experience. Many of whom subsequently formed the New Zealand Ex-Prisoners of War Association. Alex was actively involved with this organisation until his death in 1999. The family have many memories of picnics and social gatherings with other families of POW’s and a regular National Newsletter was produced until the decline in members, as they aged, led to the end of the association in 2005.
References
Cox, Peter. “Desert War” Exisle Publishing, ANZAC Battle Series, 2015
Makay: Ian, “Inadvertant Victums” Otago Daily Times, Saturday 17th December 2011.
Mason, Wynne. “Prisoners of War” pgs 105 – 126, The Desert Campaign of 1941 – Prisoners in Italian Hands. The New Zealand Electronic Text Collection. Historical Publications 1954. Wellington.
Slack, Becky. “To Hell and Back” Family Tree Magazine, January 2019. P 64-66
Spence, Edge. Henderson: Jim, “No Honour No Glory” (William Collin Publishers Ltd, 1983) Auckland.
Thompson, James Alexander. “NZ Military Service Record” Archives New Zealand
Unfortunately they must have raised suspicions somehow and were recaptured by the Germans. This time escorted on to a German POW camp, Stalag V111B. Alex felt this was a form of punishment for escapees as the German camps were much harsher than the Italian ones had been.
Alex remained in that camp near Lamsdorf, until 1945. They were eventually released when the camp was liberated by Soviet Forces. The prisoners were taken to Switzerland where they had a month to recuperate before arrangements were made for them to return home. This was a welcome period of restoration as many of the prisoners suffered poor health and the effects of poor nutrition. They could recover somewhat in Geneva before travelling back to New Zealand.
Alex travelled to hospital in England before returning on the Highland Princess arriving in Lyttleton on 19 April 1945. He caught the train to Timaru where his parents and sister met him. He recalled the Mayor of Timaru boarded the train and welcomed all the servicemen back. In his suitcase of mementoes were many letters from people in Timaru welcoming him back and arranging welcome home dances and social events. Also among the collection of items were Red Cross messages, Christmas wrapping paper (presumably from a parcel sent from home), and messages from the YMCA, and photographs of unnamed men that he shared the POW experience. Many of whom subsequently formed the New Zealand Ex-Prisoners of War Association. Alex was actively involved with this organisation until his death in 1999. The family have many memories of picnics and social gatherings with other families of POW’s and a regular National Newsletter was produced until the decline in members, as they aged, led to the end of the association in 2005.
References
Cox, Peter. “Desert War” Exisle Publishing, ANZAC Battle Series, 2015
Makay: Ian, “Inadvertant Victums” Otago Daily Times, Saturday 17th December 2011.
Mason, Wynne. “Prisoners of War” pgs 105 – 126, The Desert Campaign of 1941 – Prisoners in Italian Hands. The New Zealand Electronic Text Collection. Historical Publications 1954. Wellington.
Slack, Becky. “To Hell and Back” Family Tree Magazine, January 2019. P 64-66
Spence, Edge. Henderson: Jim, “No Honour No Glory” (William Collin Publishers Ltd, 1983) Auckland.
Thompson, James Alexander. “NZ Military Service Record” Archives New Zealand
Reginald J. WOOD - Prisoner of War
by Louise Primrose
On 3 September 1939 Britain declared war on Germany. It was the start of World War 2 and the lives of ordinary people were about to change.
The 1939 Register, taken on 29 September 1939, provides a snapshot of the civilian population of England and Wales just after the outbreak of the Second World War.
Reg is staying at Ida Helman’s boarding house in Bridlington. He is a shop assistant in a shoe shop. Sheila Helman, Ida's daughter is also there.
Barely 2 weeks later, Reg had enlisted at Scarborough on 19 October 1939. He was 21 years old.
The 1939 Register, taken on 29 September 1939, provides a snapshot of the civilian population of England and Wales just after the outbreak of the Second World War.
Reg is staying at Ida Helman’s boarding house in Bridlington. He is a shop assistant in a shoe shop. Sheila Helman, Ida's daughter is also there.
Barely 2 weeks later, Reg had enlisted at Scarborough on 19 October 1939. He was 21 years old.
Royal Artillery Field
Lance Bombardier
943564
Campaigns
Middle East - 19 May 1941 to 1 Dec 1941
Iraq - 2 Dec 1941 to 18 Jan 1942
Middle East - 19 Jan 1942 to 19 June 1942
Italian and German POW 20 June 1942 to 1 May 1945
Military Conduct: Exemplary
Lance Bombardier
943564
Campaigns
Middle East - 19 May 1941 to 1 Dec 1941
Iraq - 2 Dec 1941 to 18 Jan 1942
Middle East - 19 Jan 1942 to 19 June 1942
Italian and German POW 20 June 1942 to 1 May 1945
Military Conduct: Exemplary
Reg trained as a Motor Mechanic and took to the army life.
All went well for him until 19 June 1942.
All went well for him until 19 June 1942.
Prisoner of War (Previously reported as missing)
On the top line is no. 943564 WOOD previously shown on the Casualty List as Missing
He was sent to:
Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf
Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf
This was a large, German prisoner of war camp, later renumbered Stalag 344. It was located near the small town of Lamsdorf (now called Lambinowice, in Poland) in what was then known as Upper Silesia. Today on the site of the camp is the Polish Central Prisoner of War Museum. The camp initially comprised barracks built to house British and French prisoners in the First World War
In 1939 the camp housed Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive.
Later more than 100,000 prisoners from Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, Greece, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and the United States passed through this camp. In 1941 a separate camp, Stalag VIIIF was set up close by to house the Soviet and Polish prisoners.
In 1943, the Lamsdorf camp was split up, and many of the prisoners (and Working Parties/Arbeitskommandos) were transferred to two new base camps: Stalag VIIIC Sagan and Stalag VIIID Teschen, which became VIIIB. The camps at Lamsdorf, VIIIB and VIIIF were re-numbered Stalag 344.
This was a large, German prisoner of war camp, later renumbered Stalag 344. It was located near the small town of Lamsdorf (now called Lambinowice, in Poland) in what was then known as Upper Silesia. Today on the site of the camp is the Polish Central Prisoner of War Museum. The camp initially comprised barracks built to house British and French prisoners in the First World War
In 1939 the camp housed Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive.
Later more than 100,000 prisoners from Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, Greece, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and the United States passed through this camp. In 1941 a separate camp, Stalag VIIIF was set up close by to house the Soviet and Polish prisoners.
In 1943, the Lamsdorf camp was split up, and many of the prisoners (and Working Parties/Arbeitskommandos) were transferred to two new base camps: Stalag VIIIC Sagan and Stalag VIIID Teschen, which became VIIIB. The camps at Lamsdorf, VIIIB and VIIIF were re-numbered Stalag 344.
It was here he met a group of New Zealanders who helped each other to survive by their friendship.After the war, his friend Bud sent a letter telling the family how he had cut off the badges on his uniform to try and stay with the New Zealanders when they were being moved on. It didn’t work however and he had to part from them.
They did stay in touch and after the war Bud wrote asking them to go out to NZ.
They did stay in touch and after the war Bud wrote asking them to go out to NZ.
The Long March (or Death March)
In January 1945, as the Soviet armies resumed their offensive and advanced into Germany, many of the prisoners were marched westward in groups of 200 to 300 in the so-called Long March. Many of them died from the bitter cold and exhaustion. The lucky ones got far enough to the west to be liberated by the American or British armies. The unlucky ones were 'liberated' by the Soviets, who instead of turning them over quickly to the western allies, held them as virtual hostages for several more months, until the British agreed to release to the Soviet Union POWs of Soviet origin who had been fighting on the German side, which left the British Government with little choice on the matter, even though they were understandable reluctant to hand these men over to the Soviet Union for their inevitable execution. These soldiers from states such as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia for example, had fought with the Germans in an effort, as they saw it, to release their own homelands from Soviet occupation and oppression.
Many of the allied POWs held by the Soviets were finally repatriated towards the end of 1945 though the port of Odessa on the Black Sea.
Many of the allied POWs held by the Soviets were finally repatriated towards the end of 1945 though the port of Odessa on the Black Sea.
Reg talked about this march and how they were not fed but had to grub in the fields along the way to dig up anything they could find to eat.
Reg was discharged on 22 January 1946. He was a POW for almost 3 years and suffered with ill health for the rest of his life. He died aged 47 years.
AT HOME - The Fire Service
By Louise Primrose
The Auxiliary fire Service was formed from volunteers at the outbreak of war, to assist the regular fire brigades. Initially many wrongly saw firemen as dodging the forces, but when the bombing began their value was realised. Fire was a huge threat to the British people, emergency firewater tanks were installed in many towns and where a large water supply such as a river was available pipes were laid to provide water for fire fighting.
Many of the ranks were made up of women. In March 1943 there were 32,000 women serving with the National Fire Service. For the part time fire fighters, men were on duty every fourth night and women every sixth night.
The name was changed the The National Fire Service in August 1941 when the regular Fire Brigades and the AFS were merged. After the war the Fire Brigades were split and once again were organised on a regional basis.
With widespread evacuation and large areas of destruction, the population of many urban areas dropped dramatically, so the jobs that had to be done in the Civil Defence and Fire Prevention Services (The Fire Watchers) had to be manned from the men and women remaining in the cities. Each night of bombing resulted in death and destruction so that not only had the roads to be cleared and the gas and water mains repaired, but also welfare support had to be given to the injured and homeless
Many of the ranks were made up of women. In March 1943 there were 32,000 women serving with the National Fire Service. For the part time fire fighters, men were on duty every fourth night and women every sixth night.
The name was changed the The National Fire Service in August 1941 when the regular Fire Brigades and the AFS were merged. After the war the Fire Brigades were split and once again were organised on a regional basis.
With widespread evacuation and large areas of destruction, the population of many urban areas dropped dramatically, so the jobs that had to be done in the Civil Defence and Fire Prevention Services (The Fire Watchers) had to be manned from the men and women remaining in the cities. Each night of bombing resulted in death and destruction so that not only had the roads to be cleared and the gas and water mains repaired, but also welfare support had to be given to the injured and homeless