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Great War Stories

ChannelThree
Date Broadcast Wednesday 25 April 2018
Start Time10 : 30
Finish Time11 : 20
Duration50:00

To commemorate Anzac Day, Great War Stories showcases a series of mini documentaries telling personal stories about a range of New Zealanders involved in the First World War.

Full record
Captions

Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2018 (MILITARY MARCH) A century ago, 150 Niueans sailed off to New Zealand to begin training for a war they knew nothing about. Most had never left the Islands, and didn't speak English. They were devastated by disease, not bullets. Those who survived were brought home after a year. Falaoa was a 19-year-old who survived, but his family knew nothing of his war history. That was until a Wellington teacher and historian living on Niue 20 years ago delved into the history. Now Niuean families are finding out what happened to their loved sons. I only just had one picture of Granddad, which happens to be this one here. Mele Vecula-Moonen has a photo she's carried with her for years without knowing much about her grandfather. It was through Margaret Pointer, who wrote this wonderful book, because inside here it alluded to this lonely man,... and his name was Falaoa. To see this photo today of Falaoa is just wonderful. Writer and historian Margaret Pointer was living on Niue when she began researching stories of the Niueans who joined the Maori Pioneer Battalion and were sent overseas as labourers. I guess the overwhelming part of the story was the sadness of it, that 150 men were volunteered, probably by the palagis on the island at the time, and nobody really thought that the offer of troops would be taken up. In 1900, Niue was annexed to New Zealand. About 30 Europeans, mainly missionaries, officials and traders, lived among the 4000 Niueans. A war on the other side of the world would change their lives forever. In October, 1915, with only a day's warning, a ship arrived, and the men were on their way to Auckland ` an adventure for some, terrifying for others. Falaoa was one of the 150. They were escorted by Member of Parliament Dr Maui Pomare, chair of the Native Contingent Committee. He'd had trouble recruiting Maori for the Pioneer Battalion. Scratchy woollen uniforms and army boots were like torture to men who'd never worn shoes. Strange food, the climate and a lack of English left many bewildered. After training in Auckland, by the time they landed in Egypt, then France, some had already died of disease. Others were left in hospitals, isolated, unable to communicate. Falaoa was one of the men who laboured in the cold, wet trenches of northern France. He suffered from trench foot and was transferred to hospital in London. There, a former missionary to Niue, Sarah Laws, was to save his life. This is the letter that I uncovered in the National Library. It was written by Sarah Laws in June, 1916. READS: I had received a letter from a lady, the official visitor to the New Zealand soldiers, telling me of a Niuean in hospital at Chelsea, very lonely, as he could not speak English. So the next day, I went to see him and found his name was Falaoa. The fact that my grandfather was all alone, without his comrades, and to have Sarah Laws come in there and speak to him in his fluent tongue ` gosh, what are the chances of having anyone, let alone in London at that time, speaking fluent Niuean? Sarah and Frank Laws were missionaries on Niue for 40 years before they retired to England. It's thanks to Sarah Laws that Falaoa and many other Niueans recovered in England. I often used to sit on the island, out at the point, and think about what would it have been like watching my boys sailing off in this ship with absolutely no comprehension what was going to take place. It was disease, not bullets, that killed the Niueans in World War I. About 30 of the 150 men never returned to their island home. It's often said that the 10,000 New Zealand farm horses sent overseas were the silent heroes of World War I. All armies used them for transport. Only four horses returned five years later; they belonged to officers. About 40 vets and hundreds of handlers travelled with the horses on their way to war. Captain Thomas Blake, a vet who received the Croix de Guerre for his war service, made the news for an unusual ceremony in the desert in 1915. It was a New Zealand first. A few years ago, Auckland Museum acquired some photograph albums from Thomas Blake. And, as you can see, this is the man in question. Oh, very handsome. Victoria Passau and Rebecca Loud are collection managers at the Auckland Museum. Thomas Blake's wedding in the desert was an extraordinary event that hit the headlines in the Auckland Star. READS: For the first time in the history of New Zealand, a wedding has been celebrated in the lines while her troops have been on active service. Captain Thomas Arnold Blake, veterinary officer to the Auckland Mounted Rifles, was joined in bonds of wedlock to Miss Mable Constance Dean of Gloucestershire. After the short ceremony, the happy couple passed out under an arch of swords to the strains of Mendelsohn's Wedding March. Those dresses ` I mean, imagine that in the dust of Egypt, wearing white. Very civilised to do that in the middle of a war. Yes. Yep. Thomas Blake, originally from England, worked as a vet in New Zealand before World War I. Blake was part of the team that treated horses suffering from the influenza epidemic that swept through the camp for six weeks. 5000 horses are reported to have died. Charlotte Cantley, whose great-grandfather worked with British horses in the war, is the academic director of the New Zealand Veterinary Association. The work of the vets during the war was very challenging. They had unbelievable war wounds to deal with, as well as the fear and horror of war itself. Charlotte Cantley has studied the diseases that afflicted farm horses from home once they reached Middle Eastern deserts. Sending so many overseas was a major exercise. There was about 10,000 horses that left the New Zealand shores in 1914. And they went on specially designed ships. (HORSES NEIGH, SNORT) They all had an individual stall, and they were facing outwards. And these horses were exercised regularly, drinking 10 gallons of fresh water a day, that had to be on the ship. The veterinary teams on board did a remarkable job in preventing unnecessary deaths. After training in Egypt, the Mounted Rifles were off to the Sinai in 1916. There are reports of horses going without water for 72 hours, as the Allied forces pushed back the Ottoman Turks. The emotional bond is quite incredible. These horses would often lie down in the sand and protect their riders from sandstorms. With limited medication, vets treated horses suffering from sand in their gut with laxatives, beer and diluted whisky. Once they arrived in Europe, the pack horses faced very different challenges. Boggy, wet, horrendous conditions. Animals falling in the mud exhausted, and then maybe not even being able to raise their head out of the thick mud. And many horses were just bogged with the heavy artillery. And then there was the wounds and the shrapnel and the gunfire and the direct attacks on the horse lines from the Germans. (POIGNANT MUSIC) For the men and horses that survived, the end of the war brought more grief. These men, who have been separated from their families, their loved ones, the security and love that they got from their animals was just huge. It was the hardest thing when they had to come home and couldn't bring the horses that had served them so well, these silent heroes of the war. This story from World War I features a New Zealand prisoner of war. About 500 New Zealanders ended up in POW camps. Many of them were captured in 1918, the last year of the war, during the great German offensive. This is Bill Dobson's story, told by his grandsons, filmmakers Grant and Bryce Campbell. Grant and Bryce Campbell are making a documentary about their grandmother, a Vaudeville performer in the 1920s. She wasn't supposed to be there? I landed in the drum. And in the process, they've become interested in their grandfather Bill Dobson and his wartime experiences. Bill Dobson was a child when his mining family apparently struck it rich in the goldfields of the West Coast and moved to Wellington. The boys went to school in Newtown, and Bill became an apprentice cabinetmaker. I found this up in the hall cupboard. In 1915, Bill Dobson volunteered and joined the Third Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. Looks pretty haunted in that. In his letters home, Bill's humour is a flimsy disguise. Homesickness is never far below the surface. READS: By Jove, Ma, this a cold show, France. When they have wars, they ought to choose some place nearer the equator. It would do me. Ma, dear, it's a big game, and it's hard to play, but I'm doing my best. There are often times, especially at night, when I think of my old room. I wonder what you are having for dinner, till my mouth starts to water. And then I knock off and tackle the same old stew. Things are very quiet at this part of the line. Fritz puts over a shell we call 'pineapples'. We put over a few plum duffs, because it's just like that. They are the boys to shift in. And when this happens, he shuts up like an oyster. Back home, Bill's father was a groundsman at the Basin Reserve and Kilbirnie Park in Wellington. How's Kilbirnie Park looking, Dad? If we had it here, we could put some stunner big holes in it for you. Some shells that burst about here literally dig huge holes, where you could put 60 men in them, easy, and that's the truth. In the suitcase, among the photos and letters,... That's Constance. ...is Bill's sketchbook. He obviously had not much else to think about while he was in the prisoner of war camp, so he lavished a lot of attention on it. This was a self-portrait, really, of him being a signaller. The signallers were actually in a really dangerous position. They had the highest casualty rates of anybody in the army. Yeah, it obviously wasn't a very enviable job. In April, 1918, Bill Dobson was with the New Zealanders in the French town of Metron. At night, the British withdrew and the Germans attacked. The Kiwis pretty much fought to the last bullet and had to surrender. And 210 of them surrendered, and Granddad was one of these guys. Bill Dobson spent the last few months of the war in Soltau prison camp in Germany, and joined the concert party. This one... This one's actually got him in it. This is Granddad. He's the one with the woman sitting on his lap. He's got full make-up on there, but yeah, that's him. That's amazing. It was a huge prisoner of war camp. 20,000 prisoners. Wow. After the war, Bill returned home to work as a cabinetmaker. But, like so many, he sought to block out the trauma of war with alcohol. 10 years later, he met Vaudeville performer Louise Morris. They married and had two daughters. He gave up drinking, and together Bill and Louise Dobson continued their love of theatre. Volunteers and conscripts from New Zealand who took part in World War I went overseas as British subjects. Our story features a young volunteer who, back then, would have been labelled an enemy alien. Rizk Alexander was from the Mt Lebanon area of Syria, then a province of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. He left home as a teenager to join his older brother in Wellington. When war was declared, he wanted a chance to fight the Ottoman Turks occupying his homeland. So he volunteered. (POIGNANT MUSIC) Oh, here we go. Rizk Alexander's descendants gather in the Karori Cemetery in Wellington to remember the relative they never knew. But they've always known the family history. Kareem arrived first, 1909,... followed by Rizk, 1912, and then Rizk joined the Wellington Regiment, 1915, after only three years. Rizk Alexander worked in Wellington. And in 1915, although he was still a teenager and not a British subject, he persuaded the authorities to let him enlist. All his sisters and brothers were still in Lebanon, so none of them would have been aware that he was fighting in France. for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Peter McIvor is one of Rizk's great-nephews, visiting from Australia, researching his family history. Of course, he was considered an enemy alien at that point. He enlisted, and he was probably, as far as we know, the only Turkish subject within the New Zealand forces, and possibly the entire British Empire forces. The family is fascinated he wrote in English after only three years in New Zealand. That is Rizk writing to Dorothy, his girlfriend at that stage. READS: Dear Dot and Olga, I'm sending this few lines just to let you know that I'm in good health, and I hope you're the same. How do you like going back to school next week? God, she's` He's only 17 at that time. James Alexander is Rizk's grandson. 15 years old. So she's still going to school, and he's going off to fight for... the enemy. Yes. (FEET THUD) Rizk Alexander volunteered in the hope he'd get a crack at liberating his homeland, occupied by the Ottoman Turks. So, James, this is a really remarkable photo, taken on board the ship, the Maunganui. On the way to... ...Egypt. That's Rizk on the end, there. OK. The Gallipoli disaster was over, and Rizk was not wanted for the Sinai Campaign. Instead, he was dispatched to the Western Front. (EXPLOSIONS BOOM) In June, 1917, he was to play a significant role in what is regarded as a great New Zealand victory on Messines Ridge in Belgium. The Kiwis overran a key German-occupied village on the ridge. He stormed a machine-gun post single-handedly. We've only just learned from the war record that the machine-gun post was actually on top of the artillery headquarters. He attacked it with hand grenades and captured a German officer,... took his firearm off him, which he brought back to New Zealand, and captured 20 men. Rizk Alexander was awarded the Military Medal. His memorial scroll reads... He was injured. Then he suffered from gas poisoning. It was the gas that ended his war service. Rizk returned to Wellington and married his sweetheart, Dorothy Khouri. They had two children. But Rizk never recovered from gas poisoning, and spent the last three years of his life in hospital. He died aged 27, leaving his young wife, Dorothy, broken-hearted. It's very interesting how his shadow lives even today in the family. There's a special place for Rizk because of the human aspect of his tragedy. It's touched all his descendants. A group we don't hear a lot about are the courageous tunnellers of World War I. The New Zealand Tunnelling Company were a unique group of gold miners, bushmen, labourers, surveyors and engineers, who mostly conducted their war underground. Among the 900 men who served in the Tunnelling Company were two Chinese brothers. We tell the story of Victor Low, whose parents arrived in Dunedin in 1873. (CHEERFUL MUSIC) Dunedin was home for Victor Low and his family. They're known as the first Chinese family in New Zealand. Their father, Joseph, was a shopkeeper. He travelled to Australia to marry Matilda. Her portrait hangs in the Chinese exhibition at Auckland Museum. She was a very strong personality, and I think it was her that got the family towards westernisation. (CHINESE DRUM MUSIC PLAYS) Dr James Ng, who has researched the history of the Chinese in New Zealand, is opening the restored Chinese camp in Lawrence, in Central Otago. Chinese gold miners lived there from the 1860s. Banned from the township, they were not welcome. (TRADITIONAL CHINESE MUSIC) In spite of the anti-Chinese sentiment at the time, Victor Low and his siblings went to Otago University. The three brothers volunteered for World War I. One was an engineer. Victor was a surveyor. (MILITARY DRUMMING) Today at Otago's School of Surveying, Richard Hemi is part a team shedding new light on the work of the tunnellers. Victor Low was an engineer and an engineer and a surveyor in the Tunnelling Company. He was one of perhaps half a dozen surveyors that worked on the Arras tunnels during World War I. In April, 1917, there was a huge Allied offensive near the French town of Arras. The Kiwi tunnellers, with support from the Maori Pioneer Battalion, extended a network of caverns that could shelter up to 12,000 soldiers and supplies. Before the battle, they burrowed under the German trenches to lay mines that were exploded when the Allies advanced. The Germans were doing the same. This is a project to digitally spatially map the tunnels of Arras using modern technology ` laser scanning technology. So, yeah, we can see the texture of the brick wall and the flowers there. Dr Pascal Sirguey teaches geospatial science at Otago and leads the mapping team. I lived in the north of France for a long time. I had no clue that this happened, when I stepped into these tunnels and thought of the New Zealanders who crossed oceans and came from the other side of the world to actually help the Allies and the French to fight and win the war. By mid-1918, the tunnellers' work was almost over. 62 New Zealanders had died. An Auckland researcher has discovered what happened to Victor Low. So after the war, he was posted to Sling Camp, which is here. And there were a huge number of New Zealand soldiers that passed through this camp on their way back to New Zealand. Colleen Brown is writing a book on the Bulford Kiwi on the hillside beside the camp in England. She discovered it was mapped out by Victor Low in 1919. Lynette Shum at the Alexander Turnbull Library is intrigued. So, he served for New Zealand. Yep. Does that mean he would be considered an Anzac? Absolutely. (CROWD CHEERS) Victor Low and his brother returned as New Zealand-Chinese Anzacs. The only question I have is, here are two well educated persons, and why were they not officers? But in those days, there was that feeling that a coloured soldier should not command white soldiers. (POIGNANT TRADITIONAL CHINESE MUSIC) Thousands of New Zealand women were involved in World War I at home and overseas. But often little is known of their work. This story features a New Zealand doctor who worked among wounded soldiers and civilians in a war zone we don't hear much about ` the Balkans. Jessie Scott, from Christchurch, spent time administering to the wounded in Serbia and, for a short time, was a prisoner of war of the Austrians. After the war, she was honoured with an award from the Serbian government. Jessie Scott was a pupil at Christchurch Girls' High School in the late 1890s. She was the youngest in a Canterbury family of nine children. From Christchurch to Edinburgh, where in 1909 Jessie Scott graduated as a doctor, in a traditionally male-dominated profession. Later she became an assistant medical officer in London. She returned to New Zealand and, during the 1913 smallpox epidemic, was in charge of an isolation hospital in Auckland. Then, war was declared in August, 1914. Writer and editor Anna Rogers is researching and writing a book on the history of New Zealand medical services in the First World War. I wanted to include Jessie Scott because she's a most remarkable woman, in her own sense of her character and her personality. The fact that women doctors in the First World War were very rare, and for them to be able to serve was more difficult. Jessie came to it via her friend Ettie Rout, the safe-sex reformer, who asked her originally if she would join her volunteer sisterhood. And originally, Jessie agreed to do that, but then changed her mind which she got an offer from the Scottish Women's Hospital, which was a unit started by Elsie Inglis. And they served in Serbia, and Jessie went with them. They set up camp, tending to wounded British and Serbian soldiers fighting against the Austrian advance. These are Jessie's notes from September, 1915, when she's in Serbia. She writes, 'I watched for a long time from our hill the Serbian attack 'on the Bulgar positions at Gornichevo.' READS: Brilliant flashes seen when the big guns were fired and the slower illumination of rockets and Very lights. Our hospital was kept very busy and all the staff members worked hard. Our girl ambulance drivers handled their light Ford ambulances with skill on the steep mountain road. The conditions in the camp were basic. Writing in 1915 and early 1916, Jessie Scott never complains. But a nurse's death from malaria was devastating. READS: The death of an English in their service touched the Serbs, and it was to this that we owed a visit to the camp of the Serbian royal princes. My impressions of Prince Alexander, who later became king of Yugoslavia, was of a dignified and intelligent prince. I am glad to be able to put on record this account of his kindly mark of appreciation of the work of British women for his courageous and hard-pressed troops. Graphic reports at the time describe the Austrian advance into Serbia, forcing thousands of civilians to flee. The refugee English nurses from Serbia, who have just reached London after a terrible journey across the 7000ft-high mountains into Montenegro, bring word of the women doctors left behind, including two New Zealanders. Dr Jessie Scott is in Krusevac, presumably a prisoner in the hands of the Austrians. Jessie Scott reports she was treated well by the Austrians before being released. But then she was back into active service. She went back to work for the Royal Army Medical Corps, the British medical services, on the Russian front, which was a very tough place to be. So if things were difficult in Serbia, I think they were even more so there. And was honoured for her work, too. Dr Jessie Scott was awarded the Order of St Sava by the Serbian government. On the back of this postcard, she is remembered with affection. After the war, she returned to work in New Zealand, and died in Christchurch aged 76. New Zealand's first action in the First World War was the so-called invasion of the German colony Samoa. War was declared on August 4, 1914. 10 days later, two New Zealand ships with 1500 recruits were ready to take on the Germans. Samoa had been a German protectorate for 14 years. But that was about to change, when 1500 soldiers, engineers and medics sailed off for their first taste of war. This was no Gallipoli. The troops waded ashore in their woollen army uniforms. The Germans surrendered, and so began an unhappy chapter in Samoa's history. New Zealand was heading into a full-scale invasion, with battleships, the works. There was not a single soldier` not a single German soldier there. We could have walked in with one ship and 10 men, if we'd wanted to, and the Germans would have surrendered. Michael Field has lived and worked in Samoa, and is currently updating his book about the Mau and their peaceful resistance to New Zealand's rule. In a kind of parallel that we now see in New Zealand today, our intelligence of what was going on was almost zero. We'd had this neighbourly relationship with Samoa for 50, 60 years. We had no idea what was in Apia Harbour. It was... well, it was bizarre. Many people don't realise that for New Zealand, the First World War began in the Pacific. And, in effect, in the Pacific is where it ended. Damon Salesa, associate professor in the Pacific Studies Department in Auckland says New Zealand's legacy is sorrowful. New Zealand's invasion of Samoa, which was its first act in the First World War, was something that New Zealand kept up until 1962, when Samoa became independent. After the landing, New Zealand's first administrator was 51-year-old sheep farmer Robert Logan. He was involved in local politics in Otago before moving to Auckland. In Samoa, his role was to oversee 36,000 Samoans and about 2000 Chinese. He had no great respect for either race. New Zealand was an appalling administrator of the country. We frequently and regularly lied to ourselves, we misled ourselves. Ultimately, we didn't care. Samoa was a prize of war that we wanted to keep. We had no skills, no capacity to run Samoa. Colonialism in Samoa took away Samoans' freedom to decide the big things for themselves. So no longer were they able to, for instance, decide where and when Samoans could travel, when they could express their culture. Instead, Germans and then New Zealanders decided all those things for them. It was the New Zealanders' decision to allow a ship carrying the influenza virus to dock in Apia in November, 1918, that killed more than a quarter of the population. In American Samoa, where the ship was forbidden entry, no one died. So many people died so fast in Samoa that they had to be buried in bulldozed trenches. (SAMOAN CHOIR SINGS SAD SONG) We think about our dead constantly, we want our dead close. That's part of the connection between people. The influenza epidemic sort of put real pressure on that connection between people, their family, their ancestors and their land, their village. (MOURNFUL PIANO MUSIC PLAYS) This performance, called 1918, is choreographed by Samoan New Zealander Tupe Lualua. It's a story of darkness, of devastation, of death, of mourning ` mourning a whole generation ` and it's about resilience. No matter what we go through as a people, or even as a human, regardless of whether you're Samoan or whatever culture you are, there's always an opportunity to rise. (DRUM BEATS RHYTHMICALLY) Choo! It's almost 100 years since the First World War ground to a miserable close after four and a half long years, any thoughts the troops would be home by Christmas extinguished years earlier. One of New Zealand's best-known composers, Gareth Farr, discovered three relatives, all from one family, died in the war, and he felt compelled to write a cello concerto in their memory. He died in hospital. Gareth Farr's mother, Jan, a writer, briefs him on the family history. Ah, that's Frank. And this one is Vince. And that's Charles. Frank was killed in Messines. You know that, don't you? Um, yeah, I think I did. And he was a boilermaker and a harrier. He was a really good-looking guy. Goodness me. He's quite lovely, isn't he? The three brothers, Frank, Vince and Charles Byrne, all died in the last 18 months of the war. And this is my grandmother. Jan Farr grew up with her grandmother, Mildred, who was profoundly affected by the deaths of her three brothers. So probably around the time the boys died. Wasn't she beautiful? Frank Byrne kept a diary. This entry was four months, more or less, before he died. READS: Today I've been looking over the trenches we are to take over. And there is no doubt about it; we are in for a rough time here. It seems a rotten shame putting our boys into a place like this. It's so beautiful to hear my mother reading those words, because I see immediate connection from Frank to her, and then my mother to me. It's amazing, isn't it? It's horrible. The more I found out about it, the more I realised that this concerto really had to be a personal story for me, as well. (CELLO PLAYS RHYTHMIC PHRASE) (SINGS THE SAME PHRASE) Bonjour, Sebastien. Hello, Gareth. Comment ca va? Gareth Farr is invited to France, where his cello concerto is being performed by the Lorraine National Orchestra. The cellist, Sebastien Hurtaud, won the Adam International Cello Competition in New Zealand several years ago. So you'll take a bit more time in that area? Yes. (MOURNFUL CELLO MUSIC) In April, 1917, in northern France, near the town of Laon, these were killing fields. (EXPLOSIONS BOOM) In the French offensive, 35,000 Germans and 60,000 French soldiers died here. Two months later, Gareth Farr's relative Frank Byrne was killed a few miles north, just across the Belgian border. (MOURNFUL CELL MUSIC CONTINUES) In the Laon Cathedral, built in the 12th century and known as one of the finest in France, Gareth's cello cathedral will be performed by Sebastien Hurtaud and the Lorraine National Orchestra. The first time, it was yesterday. In fact, they discover Gareth Farr's concerto, everyone was very enthusiastic. I had a really good day yesterday. And now, of course, I'm incredibly nervous. (ORCHESTRA PLAYS MOURNFUL MUSIC) I'm going to be very aware about what I'm feeling. So many people died here, and I want to do an homage to them. (MUSIC CRESCENDOS) (PLAYS PASSIONATELY) The cello is the human character. It screams out. There's a cry for help, and no response. Just this cold world with no response. (MOURNFUL MUSIC CONTINUES) Gareth Farr searches for his uncles' graves. Frank Byrne died with 700 other New Zealanders at Messines, all killed in a war not of their making. He's buried in a Belgium cemetery a long way from home. War regulations meant anyone suspected of having links with Germany came under the watchful eye of the state. The only woman to be transported to the island was Hjelmar Von Dannevill. She arrived in Wellington in 1911 without papers and claimed to have studied medicine in Switzerland. But the state pursued her as a spy. These days Matiu Somes Island is a picnic stopover in Wellington Harbour. But during two world wars it was a prison for people labelled 'enemy aliens'. During the First World War, it was a desolate, brutal place for about 500 men. Most were German, working peaceably in New Zealand. Hjelmar Von Dannevill, whose background is mysterious, was the only woman interned and held here, in solitary confinement. Jared Davidson, a writer and archivist at Archives New Zealand, and Sally Maclean, a writer, are researching Hjelmar's history. Hjelmar became a focus of the New Zealand military, and as a result, we have her letters here, and photographs of her. She would have made quite an impact in Wellington when she arrived in 1911. So we can see from these photos just how unusual she is. In Wellington, Hjelmar Von Dannevill begins work as a medical assistant at a private hospital in the Lahmann Home in Miramar. Insults on the street had Hjelmar visiting the police station. And this man had accused her of being a man. So she had gone to the police and asked the police to provide her with a certificate to say that she was a woman. And he writes a report on what happened. She was so anxious to get some written document that she is a woman that I suggested she should apply to a medical man who is to be nominated by me. Superintendent Ellison's report continues. Von Dannevill has called on me on various pretexts, which has convinced me she is a thorough humbug and fraud. She is just the sort of person who would take up a job as a political spy or pimp. The investigations led nowhere. Hjelmar continues her healing work. She was an accomplished concert pianist. She told them stories about her adventures in the world. She was very widely travelled. And she also took patients for picnics at the beach, so that when the authorities were investigating her, none of the patients they approached for testimonies against here would give any testimony. Instead, they would say, 'She helped me hugely.' In November, 1916, as the war in Europe grinds on, police investigate Hjelmar again. This coincides with Hjelmar helping a patient divorce her husband. She's examined again, this time by the police surgeon, who confirms she is a woman. There's nothing in the police reports about whether she's spying or communicating with Germans, or anything like that. It's about the relationships she has with her patients. In spite of this, the war regulations are unleashed. The solicitor general, John Salmond, intervenes. I think she should be treated as an enemy alien and as a dangerous alien. I suggest, therefore, that the proper course is to intern her. Hjelmar is sentence to Somes Island. After 52 days in solitary confinement, she is released, suffering a nervous collapse. (TRAIN WHISTLE SHRIEKS) When she recovers, Hjelmar heads to Timaru to care for a dying patient. The Women's Anti-German League get wind she's in town. She returns to Wellington. Hjelmar is remarkable for being able to hold her own when all this repression and surveillance of her life by the state simply for dressing differently or associating with women. Hjelmar Von Dannevill left New Zealand with her partner. In San Francisco she helped changed regulations to allow men and women to cross-dress in public. She died there in 1930. In the first years of World War I, all New Zealanders who served in the armed forces were volunteers. But by the end of 1915, the numbers of recruits were dwindling. So in 1916 the New Zealand government brought in conscription. Two Maori leaders, Te Puea Herangi and Maui Pomare, had very different views on Maori involvement in the war. Once Parliament passed the Military Conscription Bill, the ballot began in Wellington. Maori were at first exempt because many had volunteered for the Native Contingent. They were sent overseas as labourers, but became a fearsome force at Gallipoli. Conscription was extended to Maori in June, 1917. But when it was enforced only on Waikato and Maniapoto, Te Puea Herangi, relative of the Maori King, rose to the challenge. Waikato MP Nanaia Mahuta has always respected Te Puea and her stand against conscription. (PADDLERS CHANT) Every year the regatta at the Turangawaewae Marae on the Waikato River stirs up memories of what happened to the iwi in the past. It was an affront to the Kingitanga, and certainly the way it's been talked about was... Te Puea certainly saw it as that. Te Puea, picked as a future Kingitanga leader, eloquently voiced her opposition. They tell us to fight for king and country. We've got a king, but we haven't got a country. Let them give us back our land, and then maybe we'll think about it. (SHOUTING, GUNFIRE) At that time, memories of the 1860s Land Wars were still raw in Waikato. More than 12,000 British troops and settlers easily outnumbered the warriors. Eventually, Waikato would lose more than 1 million acres of their land. The pain and the hurt of the confiscations here in Waikato was still not addressed. So it was easy to understand her logic. In 1918, when the police arrived to arrest the balloted men, Te Puea upheld Waikato's pledge of peaceful protest. These people are mine. My voice is their voice. I will not agree to my children going to shed blood. The young men who have been balloted will not go. You can fight your own fight to the end. Dr Maui Pomare, MP for Western Maori, did not agree with Te Puea. As chair of the Maori Recruitment Committee, trying to replenish the ranks, he resorted to oratory. The Pakeha and the Maori today stand side by side, fighting together with one common object. There was an angry exchange of telegrams. Laugh from your exalted position at my people, who are being imprisoned like slaves in accordance with the works of the Pakeha. Young lady, be moderate in your language. Like a rangatira, permit the youth to go. ALL: # E nga iwi... # Today the mood is positive at Te Puea's Turangawaewae Marae. But in 1918, when Maui Pomare arrived at a nearby marae, appealing to the anti-conscriptionists, he was greeted with insulting haka. Men and women bared bottoms. Although 500 Waikato men were balloted, by November only 74 men went into camp. 11 refused to wear uniform. To Puea sang and brought food to the Auckland military prison ` food her men never received. Just to get a glimpse of her, we would invent an excuse to go to the whare mimi. The fact that she was there gave us heart to continue. (PADDLERS CHANT) For 40 hours, we received only bread and water. Once again we were asked to clothe ourselves in military uniform, and once again we refused. Our verdict was two years in Mt Eden Prison with hard labour. None from the Waikato Maniapoto were sent overseas against their will. Te Puea's courageous stand against the Crown will long be remembered. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) The name Rewi Alley is well known in New Zealand, and for over 50 years he was the best-known Kiwi in China. But perhaps what is not so well known is that he and his older brother Eric fought in the First World War, and Rewi was decorated for bravery. Eric survived Gallipoli and went on to the Western Front. Rewi followed in his footsteps. He was planning a career in the army. The Alley family grew up in Christchurch. Their father, Frederick, was a progressive headmaster with an interest in farming. Their mother, Clara, was secretary to suffragette leader Kate Sheppard. Clara was also a member of the National Council of Women in 1896. ('COLONEL BOGEY MARCH') When war was declared in August, 1914, Eric Alley, the oldest of the four boys, was farming in Lumsden. He signed up with the Otago Mounted Rifles 12 days later. Clara, his mother, she supported his leaving to go to war,... because she was reassured that it'd be over in a year. And, of course, it dragged on for another four and a half years, and was terrible. Dr Pat Alley is a nephew. He says Eric took his beloved horse with him. Percy, he was a piece of work, difficult to ride, but Eric could handle him. And no one else could. Rewi Alley was at Christchurch Boys' High School when Eric left. He was an athlete ` a rower and a rugby player, keen on a career in the army. On April 27th, 1915, Eric Alley landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula. After tough months in the front line, he was wounded. Recovering in London, he would meet a nurse, Joan, who wrote to him. It's nice to see the ship you are on with all your beloved horses. Joan was not to know Percy, Eric's feisty horse, had been shot rather than being left in the hands of the Egyptians. Family friend Edna Pengelly, one of the first group of New Zealand nurses to travel overseas, looked after Eric. He badgered Pengelly to let him go,... probably before he should have. At Armentieres, Eric Alley ventured across no-man's-land to the German trenches on a reconnaissance mission. During the raid the next day, he was hit and died of his wounds. He was 23. To survive Gallipoli and end up possibly being killed by your own shellfire was a terrible tragedy. Wartime telegrams were what every family dreaded. They'd see the telegraph man riding his bike down Russley Rd, and they... they were dreading that he would turn into their driveway. Most of the time he didn't, but this day he did. And Clara knew it was bad news. Eric's friend Joan continued writing to Clara Alley. Later, Joan would tell her she was getting married. He often seems to me as near as when he was alive, and I find myself thinking of him a whole day as vividly as when I knew him then. As the war raged on, Rewi, aged 21 and now in France, received the Military Medal for bravery at Bapaume. Earlier, he'd made an extraordinary discovery. He found Eric's cross in the muddy carnage and sent it back to Lumsden, where his brother had worked. It now stands in the Gore RSA. It is the futility. I mean, what difference did it make? What was the outcome? And all those men who died... After the war, Rewi became a pacifist. He moved to China, where for 60 years he was revered as a teacher, writer and poet. He died there aged 90. Captions by James Brown. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2018 Supporting local content, so you can see more of New Zealand on air.

Great War Stories

To commemorate Anzac Day, Great War Stories showcases a series of mini documentaries telling personal stories about a range of New Zealanders involved in the First World War.

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