World War 1
My recent utas unit was called Families at War. For the last six weeks I have gone on a journey from not knowing if I had a family member who went to this war, to researching the life, service and post war life of several men in my family.
Like many of my generation, my war history is woeful. The most I knew about Australians in WW1 was from the 1981 movie Gallipoli. As a then twenty year old I saw this at the cinema. A very young Mel Gibson and Mark Lee played the eighteen year old mates who went optimistically off to fight and ended up at Gallipoli. I cried and felt the shock and anger at the end when Archie Hamilton (Lee) was gunned down along with the hundreds of other young men. I think this movie may have been the start of a cultural turning point and awareness for my generation, whose lives had never been touched by war.
Through my lifetime ANZAC day services had declined and appeared to be dying out along with the ex servicemen who attended. When my own sons joined the Boy Scouts, we started attending. Through the 1990's, the services grew. Now twenty years on, an ANZAC Day service attracts more crowds than ever.
My personal soldier research began with searching the unorganised handwritten records I'd had in my genealogy stash for years.
Kezia was the eldest of the large family of Charles and Mary Rose. She was born 1869 at Castle Forbes Bay
Corrie Cupit was my maternal grandmother born 1902, daughter of Kezia and William Cupit, Franklin.
My search for a soldier to research I found in my maternal grandmother's family.
Mary and Charles Rose's eldest daughter was Kezia.
One of Kezia's daughters was Corrie, my grandmother. These photos would be about the right era for the onset of World War 1.
My records showed two of Kezia's brothers died at Gallipoli, Nathaniel and Luther.
Ahh, here's my start I naively think.
The two Charlies:
I trove through Trove, I trawl through Ancestry and I wade through the War Memorial. No luck.
As it turns out, the brothers had moved to New Zealand and enlisted there. Luther, known as Charlie, enlisted in 1914 within the first week of mobilisation with the NZEF, and he became my soldier profile for my assignment.
His brother Nalta enlisted in December 1915, also in New Zealand, most confusingly under the name of Charles Jackson.
I was excited to find a photo of the Rose brothers on Ancestry, Charlie (Nalta) standing and Charlie (Luther) sitting. I haven't figured out when this would have been taken as their enlistment dates were a year apart.
Ancestry informed me of the death of their brother Frank in 1915 too. After much searching, a Frank Rose did die on the front, but not our Frank, a different family. Nathaniel Rose is still a mystery too. Perhaps the family records are confusing Nalta and Nathaniel?
Charles Jackson’s enlistment date was ten days before
Christmas 1915. Charlie listed his next of kin as his mother in Tasmania. Conscription was not to be policy in New Zealand until 1916, but
pressure to fight the ‘hun’ and protect loved ones was widespread. In 1916, New
Zealand press coverage of the war was widespread, with dire predictions of the
length of the war and headlines such as Every Man Wanted. Perhaps the loss of
his brother compelled him also.
Charles stated he was a labourer under the employ of J.
Gorson at Tuatapere. His foreign service in the 11th reinforcements,
Otago Infantry Battalion D Company was to last three years and sixteen days,
mostly in France until his return to Wellington in September 1919. His
difficult to read war record shows Charles sustained some injuries and had
illness, was transferred to varied duties and locations, but was to return home
nine months after the official end of the War.
Charlie's (Nalta) life remains a mystery with conflicting records about who he married, no records of children or anything significant. he lived out the rest of his life in New Zealand, never reverting back to his real name, and died in Christchurch in 1959 leaving a wife, Mrs C.I. Jackson.
My next post tells Charlie's (Luther) story.
My next post tells Charlie's (Luther) story.
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