BOOK REVIEWS

New Zealand Graves at Brockenhurst Clare Church

Brockenhurst, Hampshire, was the location of No 1 New Zealand General Hospital during the Great War. Today 93 New Zealanders lie buried in the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery next to the church.  "New Zealand Graves at Brockenhurst" is a memorial to these men.

Clare Church has produced a very significant book.  It has a large A4 format and there are 248 pages, so it stands out on size alone but within its covers one finds a truly inspiring work of Remembrance to these 93, who came "From the Uttermost Ends of the Earth" - a work which is breathtaking in its completeness.

This books starts at the very beginning, with details of how the people we have come to know as "New Zealanders" came to be there, including the pre-European inhabitants, the Maoris, who are believed to have arrived around the 14th Century, long before the first "immigrant ship" brought 25 people in 1826. Clare gives a very good background to the early settlement,  leading up to the outbreak of war in 1914.

When war came, the New Zealand Army was in the middle of its camping season, and there were thus 30,000 trained and equipped soldiers ready to enter the war - too many in fact, resulting in a ballot to decide who would join the first contingent of 8,417 men - the largest group ever to leave the islands at the same time.

The book moves on to describe the training given both in New Zealand and the UK, with further details of where the New Zealand units were stationed and the campaigns in which they were involved.

There are also details of the system of medical care which brought wounded soldiers to the UK and which led, in the case of 93 men, to graves at Brockenhurst.

And so to the main part of the book - individual remembrances of the 93.  This section is a stunning example of what can be achieved through painstaking research. For each soldier there are details of family history, how and when the soldier's ancestors arrived in New Zealand.  In these accounts there are many, many photographs of the soldiers, their families, their home towns and even, in some cases, their places of pre-war employment. Then there are details of the soldier's military service and how he came to be brought to Brockenhurst. Dates of arrival at the hospital are given, together with details of his stay there, his date of death and even, in many cases, the name of the priest who officiated at the burial.

This kind of careful research often shows up coincidences which link soldiers and their families together, such as the story of Capt. W. C. Page, whose wedding in New Zealand was conducted by the Rev. F. P. Fendal.  Capt. Page now lies buried at Brockenhurst, not far from the minister's own son. Another soldier is buried close to the son of his pre-war employer.

Clare Church's research into the soldiers buried in this cemetery - a small one by Great War standards - is a fine act of Remembrance in its own right, but it also has something to teach us in these days. An oft-repeated theme in my review of books which touch on the subject of Remembrance is that what we learn about one group of soldiers, even these from the other side of the world, is probably not too different form what we could learn about soldiers in other cemeteries, of all nationalities, if we had the time to research them. So the New Zealanders at Brockenhurst stand for them all. They teach us something about the generation which our world lost. This is what makes this book so important.

New Zealand Graves at Brockenhurst

is published by:

Clare Church at:

113 Milford Road,
Lymington,
Hampshire,
SO41 8DN.

The book costs £10 + £4.50 p.& p in the UK - cheques made payable to C. E. Church

New Zealanders can pay for the book through a local payment in their own currency.  
Email Clare Church for further details.

Soft Covers

248 pages, many black-and-white illustrations

ISBN: 0-9543341-0-8

Return to the Bookshelf Page

Return to the Hellfire Corner Contents Section