I, like many in New Zealand and many here, I'm sure, from many nations, have several ancestors who were in the war.
My paternal grandfather was at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. He was gassed shortly after that, was withdrawn but survived.
From a letter home by him...
Kenneth Luke was
‘sorry to say our losses were very heavy … when the New Zealand Rifle
Brigade, my Brigade, went into action’. He stated that many troops drowned
after being wounded, as they fell into shell holes that were full of water and
mud.His wife, my Grandmother's, first husband died in the trenches.
We have Kenneth's letters and diaries. In one entry he describes being behind the lines when an airplane crashed into a building nearby. He found this quite entertaining!
Kenneth Luke, my grandfather.
My Great Aunty Jean was a nurse at a convalescence hospital in England throughout the war. Her fiance died in the trenches and she never remarried or indeed had a relationship with another man in her very long life. I have three very peaceful watercolour paintings gifted to her by the soldiers she cared for. They are dated 1914, 1916 and 1918
My maternal Grandfather shipped out of Christchurch in 1918. A Corporal in a Machine Gun Regiment. The ship was struck down with influenza and many died enroute. Those that survived were mostly too sick to report for duty and my grandfather, thankfully, never got to the lines.
This is one of the watercolours - dated 1918 with the initials "FH" - an unknown artist.
We have so much to be thankful for in our lives today. Today, a century afterwards, I remember those that lived through and died in that horrific war.
Lest we forget.
Alistair
