When war broke out in
Europe in August 1914, New Zealand went to war as well beside England. New
Zealand was involved with many large battles throughout the war period and not
every person recruited in the war returned home. Brothers, George and Albert
Delaney were two such men from New Zealand. I will keep their stories separate
to stop some confusion especially jumping between the two.
Albert enlisted in 1915 and George in 1916. Unlike
Australia, New Zealand did have conscription from August 1916.[1]
I will attempt to tell the basic story of both brother’s
military experience from their service records and explain some of the
locations mentioned.
 |
| Tapuhi War Memorial |
George
Delaney
Before the war was part of the 15th NA
regiment (north Auckland). Under the 1909 Defence Act had training in Towai. I
still need to find more information about this unit apart from what was found
in George’s service record. The Defence Act was in regard to compulsory
military training from ages 12 to 21-year-olds and would change later on in
1910 and 1912. The ages would later be amended to 14 to 25-year old.[2] The Northern Advocate
recorded George under the 19th Reinforcements on the 24th
July 1916 leaving Whangarei for Wellington the next day.[3]
George was on sick leave for measles, while he was at Trentham Camp in Wellington
on the 11th of September in 1916. Trentham was New Zealand Defence
Department’s first training camp that opened in October 1914.There was another
camp called Featherston at the town of the same name.[4]
George left New Zealand from Wellington on the Fifteenth
of November in 1916. Two ships left with the 19th Reinforcements,
which George would have been part of. The Tahiti
arrived in England on the 29th January in 1917 at Devonport, which
would have been near Plymouth south of England. The other ship the Maunganui arrived in Egypt on the 30th
of January 1917.[5]
On the 19th the same day on arriving at Devonport the soldiers were
marched into Sling Camp. I had originally thought the camp was in New Zealand
as there is a Devonport in Auckland. Sling Camp on the Salisbury Plains near or
at Bulford and was a New Zealand staging area. The distance between Devonport
and Bulford is around a three-hour drive or 150 miles. Sling Camp was one of
the main camps for New Zealand in the English country side around two miles
from the town of Bulford and more importantly the railway could take soldiers
on leave to London. Another point of interest was a railway accident nearby
killing New Zealand soldiers at Bere Ferrers station in 1917.[6] On the 30th they are marched in and
reverts to ranks.
Several days later they leave for France on the first
of March, where they arrive at Etaples on the 3rd of March. The 26th
of May is when George appears again on his service record as joining the 3rd
New Zealand Rifle brigade reporting to ‘A’ Company. George did go to brigade
school on the 29th of August and returned to his unit on the 6th
of October. Was likely where he got the rank of Lance corporal recorded on the
nominal roll on his death.
George was next recorded as being killed in action on
the 12th of October 1917. For New Zealand 12 October 1917 recorded
around 2700 casualties. 843 men officially confirmed dead on that day for the Third
Battle of Ypres otherwise known as Passchendaele. He is recorded at Tyne Cot
cemetery, NZ Apse, panel 7. I don’t think there is an individual grave for
George especially when his name is recorded on a panel.
Both George and Albert were recorded being in Etaples
at one stage during their journey. Etaples was an important bas of operations
for Britain. The location was where the wounded left for England and new
soldiers arrived. There were hospitals in the town including the one where
Albert resided before his death. The town has the largest Commonwealth Cemetery
in France. Both Sling camp and Etaples meant training for the soldiers who
arrived there including training in trench warfare.[7]
Service
File: George Irwin Delaney
Rank: Rifleman
3rd Battalion New Zealand Rifle brigade
Enlisted 25 / 7 / 1916
Embarked New Zealand 15 / 11 / 16
Disembarked Devonport 29 / 1 / 17
Sling 29 / 1 / 17
30 / 1/ 17 Marched in and reverts to ranks
1 / 3 / 17 left for France – reserve corps
3 / 3 / 17 Marched in Etaples, NZI and GBD
26 / 5 /17 3rd NZRB joined battalion and
reported to ‘A’ company in the field
29 / 9 / 17 To Brigade school
6 / 10 / 17 rejoined unit
21 / 10 / 17 Killed in Action Date of casualty was 12
/ 10 / 17
12 / 10 / 17 killed in the field in Belgium
Albert
Arthur Delaney –
In 1914, the electoral roll had Albert Delaney
recorded as a farm hand in Hukerenui with occupation as farm hand. His Parents
Thomas and Emily were listed as living in Tapuhi.[8] Albert might have had some
military training under the 1909 Defence Act, but that part of the file was not
readable. Towards the end of September 1915 Albert was recorded in the
newspaper as parading at the drill hall in Whangarei.[9] On the 19th of
October he left Whangarei with the mounted rifles by train to Wellington where
he would be enlisted on the same day at Trentham.[10] He left New Zealand on
the 8th January 1916 on the Ship
Maunganui also known as HMNZT 37 to Egypt where he arrived in February as part
of the 9th Reinforcements, Auckland Mounted Rifles, A Squadron.[11] There were two other
ships travelling together, the Tahiti and Warrimoo.[12]
He went from Egypt to France on the 6th of
March 1916. He did come down with Measles and was sent to hospital on the 2nd
of June. By the 13th of June he was discharged to return to duty. It
wasn’t until the 14th of June he was recorded as rejoining the unit
he belonged to.
The next he was
recorded on the 23rd January 1917, was leaving the 8th
battery and being posted to the 3rd battery. Albert was part of the
NZ Field Artillery 3rd battalion, 1st brigade by this
time. The 29th of July he left the UK and rejoined his unit on the
11th of August. Somewhere along the line he seen action on the 26th
of Feb 1918, but he was recorded as being wounded in action on the 5th
of April 1918.
The Artillery brigade diaries luckily available online
through the New Zealand National Archives provide some insight but are
triplicates so are hard to read. They add to the action details and I will
leave the service records below.
The day Albert was rejoining the artillery unit, they
were being moved to a new location called Hobbs Farm (C23a59). They are in the
Armentieres locality on the border of France and Belgium. Ypres is to the
north. The unit diaries do not seem to include personal information, but
details the ammunition used, how active the enemy was and on occasion how
active enemy aircraft were in the area. An example of activities includes on
the 16th of June 8th Battery fires 69 rounds at enemy
front trenches in response to SOS from infantry.[13]
The number 8 battery on the 23rd amongst
several others were broken up. The 8 Battery was transferred to the first
brigade, which was where the third battery was located according to the unit
diary. Part of the orders were for part of 8 battery to be transferred to 3 battery.[14]
From the 11th to the 12th of
August artillery was active around the Labasse ville area.[15] For further information
of the battle, which was around the Messines locality there is an entry to
read, Albert was on leave for some of the fighting in the UK.[16]
The location of the Headquarters might provide clues
towards where the batteries might have been located. The headquarters in
Appendix notes for March was moving from Hooge crater to Birr Cross Roads. They
are several kilometres from Ypres. I am using the Birr cross roads cemetery as
a reference to the location.[17]
The name Colincamps was mentioned several days before
the attack as being shelled. This is a location in France close to Albert and
Thiepval with Amiens to the south.
Another point of reference is Euston Road Cemetery. According to the
unit diary the enemy attacked in the morning and the third battery was shelled
by what reads as 8 inch guns. 23 o/r wounded, 40 /r killed. The third battery
was located in the rear of the battery positions that were attacked. Around the
8th and 9th the Headquarters and batteries did move to
another location.[18]
Recording the wounding. Albert was wounded on the 5th
of April and picked up by what could only be the Number 1 Field Ambulance on
the same day.[19]
The next day on the 6th of April he was admitted to the 1st
Canadian General Hospital in Etaples. From the 12th he was recorded
as being ill. The 15th of April the wound became septic there was
also a complaint about fever, by April 28 he was still seriously ill, the HQ
NZEF (UK) placed on Albert on the S/I list on the 16th of April. He died
from wounds on the 9th of May around a month he had been admitted to
hospital. He was buried on the sixth of October 1919, Etaples Military
Cemetery.
The reporting by newspaper was obviously a little slow
due to the distance of New Zealand. The Auckland
star on the 18th of April recorded Albert being wounded on April
5.[20] The New Zealand Herald reported on April 20 his hospitalisation was not
severe.[21] The Auckland Star reports Albert now Still Seriously Ill on 9th
May.[22] The Auckland Star records
his death in the paper 14th of May for the 9th of May.[23] The New Zealand Army WW1
Roll of honour 1914 – 1919 lists Albert as dying of wounds.[24]
Service
number 13/2754
9th Reinforcements Auckland Mounted Rifles, A Squadron
Was NZ Field Artillery 3rd battalion 1st
brigade: Rank, Gunner
Occupation:
Labourer
NZ 19 / 10 / 15 to 8/1/16
Enlisted 19/10/15 Trentham, Wellington
Overseas 8/1/16
Death 9 May 1918 - Somme
Died on the 9th of May from wounds received
in action No.1 Canadian General hospital Etaples
Buried in Etaples general cemetery, France
Full
service
6/4/16 Embarked for France from Egypt
2/6/16 Sent to hospital. Recorded having measles
14/6/16
rejoined unit
23/1/17
taken from 8th bty and posted to 3rd battery
29/7/17
proceeded on leave UK
11/8/17
rejoined unit
26/2/18
w in action unit?
6/4/18,
official date was 5th wounded in action
5/4/18 INZ field Ambulance
6/4/18 admitted to 1st Canadian General
Hospital Etaples
16/4/18 HQ NZEF (UK) placed on S/I list
9/5/18 dies of wounds
Promotions
19/ 10/ 15 posted
15/ 3 /16 posted to 1s brigade AMR to 1st
brigade 8th battery
23/ 1/ 17, Transferred to 3 battery, 1 brigade, rank
gunner
Wounded
recordings
15/4/18 ill 12/4/18 1st Canadian General
Hospital Etaples
15/4/18 septic wound April 5. 1918
G.H (General Hospital?) France April 3/7 chest fever
20/4/17 Still seriously I’ll 15/4//18
complain gun shot wound chest fever
Last line still seriously ill April
28 1918
Died on the 9th of May from wounds received
in action No.1 Canadian General hospital Etaples
Buried 6/10/19 buried Etaples Military Cemetery
Sources
Primary
Northern
Advocate
Auckland
Star
New
Zealand Herald
Headquarters New Zealand and Australian Division - New
Zealand Division - 1st New Zealand Field Artillery Brigade (NZFA) - War Diary,
1 - 31 August 1917 [Triplicate], New
Zealand National Archives,https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23529817&digital=yes,
accessed 15 October 2018.
Headquarters New Zealand and Australian Division - New
Zealand Division - 1st New Zealand Field Artillery Brigade (NZFA) - War Diary,
1 - 31 January 1917 [Triplicate], New
Zealand National Archives, https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23529810&digital=yes,
accessed 15 October 2018.
Headquarters New Zealand and Australian Division - New
Zealand Division - 1st New Zealand Field Artillery Brigade (NZFA) - War Diary,
1 - 31 August 1917 [Triplicate], New
Zealand National Archives,https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23529817&digital=yes,
accessed 15 October 2018.
Headquarters
New Zealand and Australian Division - New Zealand Division - 1st New Zealand
Field Artillery Brigade (NZFA) - War Diary, 1 - 30 April 1918 [Triplicate], New Zealand National Archives, https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23529827&digital=yes,
accessed 15 October 2018.
Secondary
Austin, W. S. The
Official History of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade, Wellington, L.T. Watkins
LTV, 1924, http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1-NZRi.html,
accessed 15 October 2018.
Baker, Paul King
and Country Call: New Zealanders, Conscription and the Great War, Auckland,
Auckland University Press, 1988.
Butter, Steve Embarkations
of Reinforcements from New Zealand 1914 – 1918, http://www.nzmr.org/lists/reinforce.html,
accessed 15 October 2018.
Drew, H.T.B. The War Effort
of New Zealand, Auckland, Whitcombe and Tombs Limited, 1923, http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1-Effo-t1-body-d15-d2.html, accessed 18 October 2018.
Luxford, J. H. With the
Machine Gunners in France and Palestine, Auckland, Whitcombe and Tombs
Limited, 1923,
Pugsley, Christopher On the fringes of Hell: New Zealanders and military discipline in the
First World War, Auckland, Hodder and Stoughton, 1991, pp. 220 – 221.
Shoebridge, Tim ‘Recruiting and Conscription’, New Zealand History, 2016, https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/recruiting-and-conscription,
accessed 14 October 2018.
Shoebridge, Tom Featherston
Military Training Camp and the First World War, 1915 – 27, Wellington,
Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2011,
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/files/documents/featherston-camp-low-res.pdf,
accessed 16 October 2018.
[1] Tim
Shoebridge, ‘Recruiting and Conscription’, New
Zealand History, 2016, https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/recruiting-and-conscription,
accessed 14 October 2018.
[2] Paul
Baker, King and Country Call,
Auckland, 1988, pp. 12 – 13.
[3] Anon,
‘Nineteenth Reinforcements’, Northern
Advocate, 24 July 1916, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19160724.2.8,
accessed 15 October 2018.
[4] Tom
Shoebridge, Featherston Military Training
Camp and the First World War, 1915 - 27 https://nzhistory.govt.nz/files/documents/featherston-camp-low-res.pdf,
accessed 16 October 2018.
[5] Steve
Butter, Embarkations of Reinforcements
from New Zealand 1914 – 1918, http://www.nzmr.org/lists/reinforce.html,
accessed 15 October 2018.
[6]
‘Bere Ferrers rail accident’, New Zealand History, https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/bere-ferrers-rail-accident,
accessed 18 October 2018.
[7]
Christopher Pugsley, On the fringes of Hell: New Zealanders and
military discipline in the First World War, Auckland, 1991, pp. 220 – 221.
[8] Ancestry.com.
New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981 [database on-line]. Provo, UT,
USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
[9] Anon,
‘Ninth Reinforcements’, Northern Advocate,
30 September 1915, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19150930.2.4,
accessed 15 October 2018.
[10] Anon,
‘Ninth Reinforcements’, Northern Advocate,
19 October 1915, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19151019.2.19,
accessed 15 October 2018.
[11] John E. Hoskin, ‘Australian, New Zealand &
Other Shipping Lines Images, Postcards, Photographs, Ephemera data of HMNZT
NEW ZEALAND TRANPORT SHIPS’, https://www.flotilla-australia.com/hmnzt.htm,
accessed 15 October 2018.
[12] Steve
Butter, Embarkations of Reinforcements
from New Zealand 1914 – 1918, http://www.nzmr.org/lists/reinforce.html,
accessed 15 October 2018.
[13] Headquarters New Zealand and
Australian Division - New Zealand Division - 1st New Zealand Field Artillery
Brigade (NZFA) - War Diary, 1 - 30 June 1916 [Triplicate], New Zealand National Archives, https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23529803&digital=yes,
accessed 15 October 2018.
[14] Headquarters New Zealand and
Australian Division - New Zealand Division - 1st New Zealand Field Artillery
Brigade (NZFA) - War Diary, 1 - 31 January 1917 [Triplicate], New Zealand National Archives, https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23529810&digital=yes,
accessed 15 October 2018.
[15] Headquarters New Zealand and
Australian Division - New Zealand Division - 1st New Zealand Field Artillery
Brigade (NZFA) - War Diary, 1 - 31 August 1917 [Triplicate], New Zealand National Archives,https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23529817&digital=yes,
accessed 15 October 2018.
[16] J. H. Luxford, With the Machine Gunners in France and Palestine, Auckland, 1923, http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1-Mach-t1-body-d1-d7.html,
accessed 15 October 2018.
[17] Terence Heard and Brent
Whittam, Birr Cross Roads
Cemetery Belgium, https://www.ww1cemeteries.com/birr-cross-roads-cemetery.html,
accessed 16 October 2018.
[18] Headquarters New Zealand and
Australian Division - New Zealand Division - 1st New Zealand Field Artillery
Brigade (NZFA) - War Diary, 1 - 30 April 1918 [Triplicate], New Zealand National Archives, https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23529827&digital=yes,
accessed 15 October 2018.
[19] ‘New
Zealand Medical Corps’, New Zealand
History, https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/medical-units/new-zealand-medical-corps,
accessed 16 October 2018.
[20] Anon,
‘Dominion Heroes’, Auckland Star, 18
April 1918, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19180418.2.7,
accessed 16 October 2018.
[21] Anon,
‘Men in Hospital’, New Zealand Herald,
20 April 2018, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19180420.2.80,
accessed 16 October 2018.
[22] Anon,
‘Sick and Wounded soldiers’, Auckland
Star, 9 May 1918, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19180509.2.15,
accessed 16 October 2018.
[23] Anon,
‘Latest casualty list’, Auckland Star,
14 May 1918, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19180514.2.50.1,
accessed 16 October 2018.
[24] Anon,
‘Roll of Honour’, New Zealand Herald,
29 May 2018, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19180529.2.2.1,
accessed 16 October 2018.
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