Monday, October 12, 2009

More From Passchendaele

Below is the service record for Sergeant Dave Gallaher. He died of wounds received on 4 October 1917 during the attack on Gravenstafel Spur, near Passchendaele. He is buried at Nine Elms Cemetery, Poperinge, Belgium.


The attack was considered a success, though 320 New Zealanders died.

Dave Gallaher was captain of the famous 1905 All Blacks. In his honour the Dave Gallaher Trophy is contested in rugby matches between the All Blacks and France.



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"(It was) still very cold and wet and muddy. And our ration carts could only get up at very very rare intervals and it was, in fact, impossible for us to go down any distance to meet the ration cart because the area was being shelled so heavily. And you could only go down on duckboards, and if you went off the duckboard you just went into a sea of mud. In fact, a lot of our men were more or less drowned in the mud at Passchendaele."
Bert Stokes, New Zealand Field Artillery gunner, interviewed in 1988.

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Major General Sir Andrew H. Russell, commander of the New Zealand Division in 1917

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A funeral service for one of the fallen (source: RSA)

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3 comments:

  1. That funeral has to be of someone important. The image made me go get my 1921 copy of Col. Stewart's "The New Zealand Division" as the image looked familiar. It has a picture taken almost certainly at the same funeral, on page 275. It is the burial of lt-Col G.A. King, commander of the 1st Canterbury and who was KIA on the 12th October.

    Whilst the the picture is from a different angle, I am certain it is the same event, for prior to being appointed to command 1st Canterbury King had commanded the NZ Pioneer Battalion, later the NZ (Maori) Pioneer battalion. I note that although it is a small picture, there seems to be at least one Maori present with the burial party.

    Lt-Col King was killed by friendly artillery fire.

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  2. Oh oh yes - just seen something - it defintely is the funeral of lt-col. King on the 14th of October, 1917.

    Scott: Look again at the portrait above of General Andrew Russell, then look closely at the figure on the third left holding his hat with the moustache, cavalry boots and Sam Browne belt. It's the same guy.

    It is recorded that General Russell attended the funeral.


    I am such a geek.

    ReplyDelete

  3. I'm sure you are right - the funeral was clearly for someone important.

    Good detective work.

    ReplyDelete

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