ANZAC Day, 2011

ANZAC - Australia New Zealand Army Corps, formed World War I. 

ANZAC Day - In remembrance of all those who fell and all those who served...

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By the late 19th century, pakeha New Zealanders saw themselves as establishing a "Better Britain" in the South Pacific, people of British stock who saw themselves as building something better than back "Home" but who were but a generation or two at most away from "Home". It's no surprise then that in the patriotic war imagery above the English Bulldog, the symbol of the Britain, has become the War Dog of New Zealand standing astride the New Zealand ensign overlapping the Union Jack of Britain. Maori taonga have been appropriated in the form of the full face moko, tiki, and huia feathers of the Maori chief.

 

To my grandfather and his brothers who served in the "war to end all wars" - or so they were told, and to their sons and son-in-laws - to my father and uncles, who served in the next one: we have not forgotten. May we never have to send our sons and daughters to another one.

The Man Who Made It Possible - Colonel Thomas Anderson Hunter, Founder of the School Dental Service

Lieutenant Colonel (later Sir) Thomas Anderson Hunter, Head of the New Zealand Dental Corps, 17 January1918. 

Photo: Sttanley Polkinghorne Andrew.

Thomas Anderson Hunter devoted a lifetime to the progressive improvement of dentistry in New Zealand, participating in the movement to improve the training & practice of dentists by establishing the first dental school and university degree in dentistry in Dunedin. By World War I, Hunter was well-established in Dunedin's elite as well as the dental profession having served as president of the New Zealand Dental Association. 

The military call-up graphically brought to public attention the poor physical health of New Zealand's youth, at least the males of military age. Dental health was no exception. Fully 60 percent of recruits had to receive dental repairs. Hunter proposed a civilian corps be established to provide dental care at cost to military personnel. This work proved so effective that the New Zealand Dental Corps was established in November 1915 with Hunter at its head with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, promoted later to Colonel. Though largely serving in New Zealand, in 1916 Hunter traveled to the United Kingdom to supervise the establishment of dental units for New Zealand soldiers on the Western Front.

At the conclusion of the war, Hunter was appointed head of the Dental Hygiene at the Department of Health and it was in this new position that he sought to deal with the broader problem of poor dental health military service had highlighted. The result was the establishment of the school dental service staffed by dental nurses.

Hunter was a man of his times in which gender roles were firmly drawn. In presenting his proposal he argued women were better suited to working with children and they would be less expensive to train and employ. Dental nursing would provide short term employment between young women leaving school and getting married and starting families. Thus, later critics have charged this entrenched gender barriers and limited the opportunities of women to enter the private dentistry sector as fully-credentialed dentists. 

The creation of a school dental service staffed by women appealed to politicians as a cheap way to keep spending down in a period when government resources were stretched. Given the appalling loss of young men in the carnage of World War I, the resulting labour shortage meant that dealing with the dental care crisis would very likely have required increased training and employment of women in dentistry. Such employment also provided a better means of earning income for those who would marry late or never marry because of the lack of sufficient males surviving in their generation. Moreover, the chronic state of dental decay in the early 1900s clearly indicated that limited income prevented the general population from effectively purchasing private dental care. If dental care of children were to remain a private expense, they would have simply gone without. 

A biography of Sir Thomas Anderson Hunter may be found at The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography here.

National Patriotic Apple Show 1918 Poster

Poster for National Patriotic Apple Show held in Auckland, May 1918.

You needed more than a case of apples to maintain your health on the battlefields of the Somme, Ypres, Verdun and the like. You were too worried about a fatal case of lead poisoning to give a fig (mixed metaphor) about an apple a day keeping the doctor away. Besides, a fresh apple was likely nowhere to be found.

Troops Marching Through Upper Hutt, 1915

 Troops Marching Through Upper Hutt, Wellington, 1915.

click on image for larger view.

This image of troops marching through Upper Hutt haunted me through the month of December as it was that month's offering on a calendar that had as its theme New Zealand history.

A long column, seemingly endless, freshly minted at the nearby Trentham army camp, marching off to God knows what on the other side of the world as part of the Great War, the War to End All Wars (sic). Young lads running alongside the brass band heading up the column, the commanding officer on his steed, the stray dogs, and a few passers-by stopping to watch the parade.

Of the 103, 000 New Zealand troops who served overseas, 18,500 died in combat or as a result of the war, with 50,000 more wounded.

Little did they know what they were marching into.

 

Infantry from the 2nd Battalion, Auckland Regiment, New Zealand Division in the Switch Line near Flers, taken some time in September 1916, after the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. 

Source: Wikipedia using a photo from the Imperial War Museum Collections.

WW I Song - It's A Long Way to Tipperary - The "Unpublished" Verse

Cover to sheet music for It's A Long Way to Tipperary

It's A Long Way to Tipperary was a popular song amongst the troops on their way to the Western Front in the summer of 1914.when spirits were high, the belief was the war would be short, and before the grim reality of trench warfare sunk in (literally) in the months & years that followed.

Popular again during World War Two, it was sung by German troops as well. The German film, Das Boot, an account of a U-boat crew in World War Two features scenes in which morale is boosted by a rousing playing and singing along of It's A Long Way to Tipperary on the sub's PA system.

The song was written in 1912, two years before the start of WWI, by Jack Judge and Harry Williams. Full lyrics and early recordings can be found here at firstworldwar.com

In New Zealand, as elsewhere in Britain and the white settler colonies of the British Empire - Australia and  Canada, for example - the song echoed down through the decades of the twentieth century, perhaps fading in the oral tradition and collective memory of the closing decades of that century.

Sung at family gatherings and some community social events after the wars, it gradually became a repeat rendition of the chorus as memorization of the verses lapsed between generations. At least that's how I recall it being sung.

The well-known chorus is:

It's a long way to Tipperary,
It's a long way to go.
It's a long way to Tipperary
To the sweetest girl I know!
Goodbye Piccadilly,
Farewell Leicester Square!
It's a long long way to Tipperary,
But my heart's right there. 

 

Too bawdy for mixed or polite company, the following "unpublished" verse - presumably an impromptu invention of some soldier was reserved apparently for when it was sung among the troops. Feel free to let your imagination runaway on you because that was presumably the intent! 

Extra wartime verse

That's the wrong way to tickle Mary,
That's the wrong way to kiss!
Don't you know that over here, lad,
They like it best like this!
Hooray pour le Francais!
Farewell, Angleterre!
We didn't know the way to tickle Mary,
But we learned how, over there!

ANZAC Day 2009

For Grandpop, and his brothers, who served in the Big One.
He sold poppies for the RSA on a Christchurch Street corner
until he could no longer.
And for Uncles Eddie and Leslie who served in the Other Big One,
dodging Rommel's Panzers in the dead of night in the North African desert.

What stories you might have told if I'd been but a bit older.

In Flanders Fields

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The poignant story behind the poem here.

Lest We Forget - The Lyttelton Anzacs, Anzac Day

The War Memorial, Lyttelton, New Zealand, 2007

To this memorial we might add those whose lives were shortened or traumatized by their wartime service in the years of peace that followed and those who died while serving in the merchant marine in wartime.

Lest We Forget - Sumner, Christchurch ANZAC Day

Sumner, seaside suburb of Christchurch, ocean front Boer War Memorial to Sergeant H A Rule and Trooper G E Wiggins, two Sumner men who died of enteric fever in 1900 while serving in New Zealand forces fighting in the Boer War in South Africa.

Sumner ocean front memorial to those Sumner lads who served in World War One.

Christchurch Cycling Craze #5 - Cycling Corps World War I

Again, the title is a bit misleading since there is no direct Christchurch connection in this post, but in a follow-up to Jayne's post on the NZ Cycling Corps of World War I over at Our Great Southern Land here are a few more pictures of the bicycle's role in World War I.

Click image for larger view.
Photo Henry Armytage Sanders. Alexander Turnbull Library

Another view of Premier Willian Massey and John Ward reviewing the New Zealand Cyclist Battalion as they march past in dismounted fashion on 3 July 1918. The ground looks dry but somewhat bumpy underfoot. Perhaps that's why they do not "march" or ride by cycling in review.

Click image for larger view.
Photo Henry Armytage Sanders. Alexander Turnbull Library

As the war drew to a close and the Germans ran out of rubber for their bicycle tyres, they resorted to spring-loaded wheels to soften the ride around the front line. Above, soldiers inspect a captured example of a springed wheel cycle on 14 September 1918. Note that before retreating the Germans have "spiked" their vehicle by removing the seat, exposing the unwary Allied soldier who would seek to mount the cycle to severe rectal injury. Those dastardly Hun!

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Photo Henry Armytage Sanders. Alexander Turnbull Library

And should you get tired of the cycling life in wartime, you could always hitch a ride on something a bit more substantial such as "Jumping Jennie", a tank, pictured here in a trench at Gommecourt Wood, France, on 10 August 1918.

Invalided Returned Servicemen Parade at the Bottleneck, Christchurch 1918c

Returned Servicemen of World War (Invalided) in Motorcade, circa 1918, at "the Bottleneck", intersection of High, Hereford, and Colombo Streets, Christchurch. Press photographer. Alexander Turnbull Library.

Kaka Ale - W Strachan and Co, Victoria Brewery, Dunedin

"Clear To The Last Drop" - Kaka Ale advertisement supporting Kiwi troops during World War I. Source: Alexander Turnbull Library.

The Victoria Brewery was established in Dunedin in 1857 by William Strachan and partners and by 1890 was the oldest brewery in Dunedin, and possibly New Zealand.

W Strachan & Co, brewers of Kaka Ale, was formed by William Strachan near Port Chalmers, Dunedin in 1860 after the dissolution of the brewing partnership of Strachan, Thompson, and Co. In 1864, Strachan was operating the Victoria Brewery in Pitt Street, Dunedin, opposite Knox Church which must have raised the eyebrows of some parishioners. The brewery was there 26 years later, see ad below.

Classified ad, Otago Witness, 1890.

In 1878 at a meeting of brewers at the Captain Cook Hotel, Great King Street to oppose a beer tax proposed by the government, William Strachan opined that New Zealand "being the only place in the Southern Hemisphere where good ale could be made, anything likely to damage the brewing industry was a serious matter, and of general importance". Otago Witness, 17 August 1878, p. 7.

The Otago Witness reported on Strachan's Victoria Brewery exhibit at the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition held in Dunedin in 1890. An excerpt from that newspaper is provided below - click on the image for a larger, readable view.

The bottled brand of William Strachan Co - the special brand - and quite possibly the forerunner of Kaka Ale - is singled out for particular attention.

The reporter suggests, in the sales puffery typical for what passed as news reporting in those days, that it "has a fine sparkle about it that may almost be likened to the sparkle of champagne. It leaves no after acidity on the palate, and is clear and free from the peculiar flavour that is characteristic of many of the colonially brewed ales."

Already Strachan's brew appears to being marketed as "clear to the last drop", the slogan of the World War I Kaka Ale.

Otago Witness, 9 January 1890, p.19. Click on image for a larger image to read.

No word on when the last drop of Kaka was brewed but clearly sometime after World War I.

Thomson Soda Caxton Co Dunedin World War One

An advertising postcard for Thomson Soda, Caxton Company of Dunedin, New Zealand, showing a First World War New Zealand army soldier musing over his discovery of a Thomson Soda bottle in the Egyptian sands.