Halswell Heroes

I started to research the Halswell Heroes late last year, as Te Hāpua: Halswell Centre was gearing up to open. The project involves staff from nearby libraries; Upper Riccarton and Spreydon as well as the staff from the old Halswell library. We all chose a soldier from the Halswell War Memorial, and have been researching him, his family, and his war service, in order to create a biography for him and a poster to display in the library.

It's been an excellent project and through it, I've learned heaps about the Halswell area and the men who enlisted (and some who were conscripted) to fight in the First World War. I feel like I know these men, and discovering different quirks about them helps us all remember that they were very real people.

I've learned that the Collins family lived near Halswell School and sent three sons to the war; Archie (Sarsfield), James and Frank (who signed up in Australia). James and Frank survived but Archie is on the Halswell War Memorial because he died from influenza a few days before the war ended.

Harry Manship too, died of illness, though unlike Archie he never made it home to New Zealand. Harry was part of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles, along with George Ferguson and John Alexander Huntly Holmes.

Patrick Cunningham was a farmer's son, a quarry-man and a bacon curer, but the fact that stuck with me was that he was known as 'Paddy White Waistcoat' because of his snappy sense of dress. He was childhood friends with Patrick McGough, who was a 'prominent figure at all entertainments' (ie, he never missed a party).

Walter Bryden joined the army not long after his little brother Albert had been killed at the Battle of Fromelles, in France. Walter and Patrick Cunningham were killed on the same day, 13^th of June, 1917.

Thomas Ellis loved hockey, Edward Moyna loved tennis, and John Holmes took his own horse with him to war. James Archibald was known as 'Boysie' and once got in trouble for swearing at an officer.

Albert Wills lied about his age to get into the army, had both measles and mumps when he was away at war, and was only nineteen when he was killed in France.

Isaac Warren was a conscientious objector from a huge Cornish family, who went to war with his younger brother Abraham and on the same troopship as Douglas Guiney. Douglas edited the troopship magazine called The Link to keep himself and the other men entertained on the long voyage from New Zealand to war in Europe.

Some of the men fought in more than the First World War. George Weir Ferguson fought in the Boer War when he was still a teenager, and was killed at Gallipoli in August 1915. Herbert Moyna, Edward's brother, survived the First World War and went on to fight in, and survive, the Second World War as well, though he was unlucky at home; his girlfriend died before he left for the First World War, his wife died two years after they were married, and his mother died just before he left for the Second World War.

There are so many more stories; some of these stories we know, and you can read about them on Halswell Heroes, or in the library at Te Hāpua: Halswell Centre.

You can also see a magnificent Canterbury Mounted Rifles regiment display at Te Hāpua: Halswell Centre, on now until the 30th of April.

You might know something about these men that we have not been able to find. If you do, please let us know, we would love to learn more.

This project is a work in progress. The staff at Te Hāpua: Halswell Centre have now started to research names from the Halswell Hall Roll of Honour, so do keep checking back as the list keeps growing.

We Will Remember Them.