Thread: Anzac Day

Greetings All,
Each Anzac Day I think a little about some of my relations that served in WW1. Many of you will have ancestors and relatives that served and if you don't know their stories a lot of their military records can be searched on line if you wish to know more. This post is about 3 of mine.
In August 1914 two of my great uncles on different sides of my family. Bert and Horace enlisted in Napier. Both were underage and fabricated a date of birth to suit requirements. When Bert got home he told his Father Jim who was not having a bar of it and frogmarched Bert back and de enlisted him. Jim was a deaf and illiterate Irishman so that must have been interesting. Horace headed of to camp and his name appears on some of the embarkation lists but not on others, I doubt that he ever left NZ. In early 1915 my Grandfather Iain enlisted. He was only 18 so added 19 months to his age. and by the end of the year was in Egypt just 19. Meanwhile in early 1916 Bert had reached 20 and enlisted again and was of to France. Iain and Bert both fought at the Somme in 1916 and Ypres in 1917 and both were wounded more than once. Iain was badly wounded at Messines and sent home while Bert was killed later in the year.
So what about Horace? Conscription was introduced in 1917 and Horace was called up. In his attestation Horace stated that had been discharged rom the Army due to arthritis (he called it something else). What was a 19 year old doing with arthritis? This explained the sudden spike of Ankylosing Spondylitis in the family it is on both of my parents sides. Anyway Horace was spared service in WW1 but perhaps not its effects. Being a young man in NZ at the time may have attracted opprobrium from some, especially young Ladies armed with white feathers. I never met Horace and he died in 1957 unmarried. Iain recovered and died in 1967. It's just nice to remember them.
Regards Grandpamac.

My paternal grandfather, Henry, came over from Fiji with a bunch of other ex-pats and formed part of the 26th Reinforcements. He sailed to England on the Willochra in June 1917, marched into Sling Camp in early August, spent nearly two months there during which time he was a drummer in the camp band. Early October he went over to France and into Etaples Camp. A few days there and then joined 6 Hauraki in the field at Passendale. 2 weeks later, on the 17th October 2017, wounded in action. His records read "GSW chest, r leg, O/W r knee, r arm, GSW thigh, knee, neck r + l (helpless)". He was pretty smashed up but managed to survive long enough to be shipped out to England and admitted to a hospital in Birmingham. He was there for over a year, finally coming back on the SS Matatua in Jun 1919. He went back to Fiji eventually, and married one of the nurses whom had cared for him in England after inviting her to join him. They are both buried in Suva. I only met them once, when I was very young, in the 1960's.

My maternal grandfather served in the 2/1 Pioneers of the Australian Infantry in WW2 seeing service in Egypt and the Pacific. He walked and crawled the Kokoda trail in PNG twice. He eventually became the RSM and is the main reason I decided to serve myself. His discipline and integrity was inspiring.

I'll be dipping the flag in the Albany Hall tomorrow. We will remember them.