World War One has many stories of people going off to
war from their home country and always ending up somewhere like the Western
Front or even Gallipoli. Many people’s military service would be eventful times
in their lives that might shape their futures. One of the earliest campaigns
New Zealand was involved with was occupying German held Samoa.
One person who would serve during World War One was,
Llewellyn Williams born in 1894 to Lewis and Margaret Williams in Paura Bay,
Whangarei. New Zealand declared war on Germany not long after England on the 5th
of August 1914.
Llewellyn was employed by the railways in New Zealand as a cleaner at Frankton
Junction, which was located in Hamilton south of Auckland. He would enlist with
the New Zealand army on the 11th of August in the same year.
His age at the
time of enlistment was approximately 20 years and 6 months. The records
described him as having a dark complexion, brown eyes, brown hair and weight
being 12 stone or 76 kilos. Height was 5 foot, 9 inches. His religion listed as
presbyterian. The full medical examination side of his service record was left
blank, but it did say he had been passed as fit for railway service. Usually
there are answers to questions like identifying marks and the medical officer’s
signature. In the rush of recruitment, Llewellyn had either been completely missed
or overlooked, which would be important later on in his service to New Zealand.
New Zealand Railways had their own military training,
so Llewellyn would have likely known what he was doing. New Zealand Railway
employees formed battalions and once a year attended instructional camps that
included rifle ranges. When the call was put out for railwaymen to enlist, they
responded within 24 hours. Llewellyn would be part of
the railway engineers as the rank of sapper. His regimental number was R/221.
He would leave for Samoa around the 12th of
August, where the force would land on the 29th of August, this group
would be known as the Samoan Advance party. At the time of embarking on the
journey to Samoa two ships would leave for Samoa with the New Zealand Navy
Museum showing the two ships leaving on the 15th of August, so a
little bit of difference between the official records and the actual dates. The
two transport ships that left were the Moeraki and Maunganui, they were the
first two ships to leave New Zealand for the war effort. Apia, the capital city in
German held Samoa would surrender peacefully without shots fired. Apia had
their own narrow gauge railway line that ran from the jetty to the wireless
station. There was an attempt to sabotage the locomotive it was soon repaired.
The New Zealand media covered stories about the
landing on Samoa and the surrender of Apia. Though there had been fears Japan
wanted to seize Samoa for themselves. There was some excitement
not long after the capture of the island as two German warships, Scharnhorst
and Gneisenau entered the harbor at Apia. The New Zealanders were expecting a
fight, but the two German ships turned around and departed without shots being
fired. There had been no allied warships of any sort in the harbour at the time. German escapees from
nearby islands would appear on Samoa only to be recaptured by New Zealand
soldiers.
Llewellyn would remain overseas until early 1915,
where he would return to New Zealand on the 20th of March. He his
total time overseas was 220 day, and he would be discharged after a total 224
days service as being medically unfit, but his character was very good
according to his records. In the online book about the Samoa Expeditionary
force, it was around the 8th of March when a relief ship arrived
with extra troops and a medical board sorted out the unfit soldiers, which
would have likely included Llewellyn. It would make sense if he had returned to
New Zealand around the 20th of March. Llewellyn was before the
Medical board on the 22nd of March 1915 for the purpose of being
examined by request. President was Colonel J Purdy with members Lt Col Donald McGavin
and a Major Elliot, although unsure of the spelling due to the writing. He was
discharged on the same day with no medal issued at the time. Though in 1924 he
did get the Victory medal and British War medal. His service number did change
to 4/281. At that time he was living in Puhipuhi and had married Dorathy Drever
in 1919.
A letter in Llewellyn’s service file explained how the
man was deemed medically unfit by Colonel J.R. Purdy of the medical board. The
letter says that the subject has hammer toes that prevents him from marching.
He has had the condition for several years and was not examined before
departure to Samoa. Board recommends he be discharged. Hammer toe is a bend in
a toe that could be from wearing shoes that do not fit well.
I have found a little bit about Colonel JR Purdy. His
full name was James Robert Purdy and was director of medical services for the 1st
NZEF from 27 August 1914 to 24 July 1915. His son, George Purdy was
part of the Medical Corps with the Samoan Advance party at the same time as Llewellyn.
Sources
Primary
Secondary
Innes, Stephen First World War Centenary, ‘Samoan Advance
Party’, http://www.specialcollections.auckland.ac.nz/ww1-centenary/collegians-at-war/samoan-advance-party, 20/03/2023.
Wikipedia, ‘New Zealand Medical Corps’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_New_Zealand_Army_Medical_Corps,
20/03/2023.
Picture of JR Purdy
https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/WH1-Medi-fig-WH1-MediP002a.html
Auckland Museum Cenotaph, Llewellyn Williams
https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C58679?n=Llewellyn+Williams&from=%2Fwar-memorial%2Fonline-cenotaph%2Fsearch&ordinal=4
