The diary of Lester Priest, 1915

It will be a change to do something instead of sitting in a trench. I believe it will be our last scrap here as the men need a month's or two month's holiday and I believe the General has definitely promised the NZ & A troops a spell. They need it.
(Priest's diary, PCol-Priest-084)

Recently added to our digital collection: Arthur Francis Lester Priest : Diary 1915

A diary kept by Arthur Francis Lester Priest (1893-1915) from late 1914 to August 1915. The diary documents his experience in the first World War. The collection includes some memorabilia kept with the diary: a letter, newspaper clippings, postcard and photograph.

• View images of Lester Priest’s Diary
• View Lester Priest’s Diary as PDF [9.13 MB]
• Cenotaph record for Arthur Francis Lester Priest, Auckland War Memorial Museum

Arthur Francis Lester Priest served from 1914 to August 1915. He was killed at Gallipoli on 8 August 1915. Lester was mistakenly reported killed in June 1915, but then reported wounded several weeks later. The Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser reported on his death in August in November 1915:

After weeks of anxiety Mr and Mrs J. S: Priest of Chorlton have found that their youngest son, Lieut Lester Priest was killed at Gallipoli on August 8th. It appears that Lieut Priest was wounded in the terrible action held that day and was being carried down to the base hospital on a stretcher when a shell wounded the two stretcher bearers and wounded Lt Prtest mortally. He lived for a quarter of a hour after the disaster and asked for a cigarette while smoked. Chaplin McMenamin who returned by the Willochra last week was with him when he died and speaks in high terms ol his great bravery. He said he knew he was dying, but it was the death he would have chosen above all others. In June last his death was reported and he read his own obituary notice. The sad part of the whole thing is that in some way his real death was not officially reported and his relatives were only told he had been wounded a second time. Since that date they had been enquiring in every hospital and naturally were unable to locate him. The late Lieut Priest was 21 years of age ...

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