anne
Leading Aircraftman
Posts: 3
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Post by anne on Oct 16, 2015 14:27:55 GMT 12
William Ham also featured during this year's large Anzac commemorations at Ngatimoti, and again members of his family attended which was great to see. In the time since i last posted here I have written an article about William Ham for Top of th South history website, the Prow, in which I've included links to various accounts of the battle and William's death for those who'd like to follow them up. www.theprow.org.nz/yourstory/private-william-arthur-ham/Of possible interest too is news that Lt-Colonel Brereton's memoir about his time with the 12th (Nelson) Coy.- "Tales of Three Campaigns"- has been reissued in a beautifully produced and expanded edition including further materiall from C.B. Brereton's unpublished work and photographs from his personal collection. www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/67660497/Republished-book-relives-war-campaignsCopies are available from the Nelson Provincial Museum www.nelsonmuseum.co.nz
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anne
Leading Aircraftman
Posts: 3
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Post by anne on May 23, 2013 16:13:30 GMT 12
Three Years with the New Zealanders is a WWI memoir by Lt-Col. C.H. Weston and can be read online hereLt. Col. C.B. Brereton of the 12th (Nelson) Company, Cant'y Infantry Battalion, also wrote a lively memoir called Tales of Three Campaigns . This covers his experiences at the Battle of the Suez Canal, Gallipoli and the Somme. Unfortunately this book is rare and mostly only held by collectors. Inter-library loan might be an option.
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anne
Leading Aircraftman
Posts: 3
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Post by anne on Apr 25, 2012 9:22:14 GMT 12
It's a while since you posted this query, but if you're still interested, a comprehensive account from a local perspective of the action in which Pvt William Ham was killed was written by Cyprian Bridge Brereton, also from Ngatimoti. Then Major Brereton, he was company commander of the 12th (Nelson) Company, Canterbury Infantry Battalion, of the 1st New Zealand Expeditionary Force. It's recorded in his book "Tales of Three Campaigns", a history of the 12th (Nelson) Company which covers the formation of the NZEF and the early war experience of the company defending the Suez canal from attack by the Turks, the campaign on Gallipoli, and the activities of the company as part of the New Zealand Division in France and Flanders including the Somme. C.B. Brereton's book is now quite hard to come by, but perhaps could be borrowed using the inter-library loan system. (If you live in the Tasman area, the Richmond Library has a copy in its local history collection, but it can only be read in the library). Happily, the section on the Suez Canal engagement from Brereton's book can be read online: www.anzacs.org/nz_suez.htmlSee also this article by Ken Wright published in the Nelson Historical Society Journal, Volume 6, Issue 6, 2008, which gives quite a bit of information about the Suez campaign and also about William Ham and his family: Nelson's Turkish Pontoonwww.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-NHSJ06_06-t1-body1-d1.htmlThere are several photos with this article, including this one of Pvt. William Ham taken before he embarked at Port Motueka for Nelson, and then on to training camps first at Christchurch and then Wellington before heading off to Egypt. An account of the events leading up to William Ham's death was also published in 1984 by Motueka historian Fergus Holyoake and can be read here www.nzhistory.net.nz/files/documents/ngatimoti-article.pdfAlthough William Ham died on the evening of the 5th February, 1915, he was in fact mortally wounded during action on the afternoon of the 3rd, and was cared for at Ismailia Hospital till his death. William Ham worked as a farm labourer in the Ngatimoti area, and C.B. (Pat) Beatson commented in his memoirs “The River, Stump and Raspberry Garden: Ngatimoti as I Remember": "The war memorial reminds me particularly of Willie Ham, who used to work with Dad before the war. He was the first New Zealander to be killed in World War I - killed in an engagement on the Suez Canal when the Turks tried to seize possession of the Canal in 1915" The Beatsons had property just over the Peninsula Bridge on the Pokororo side (this land is still in the hands of the Beatson family today). Re the mortars at the Ngatimoti memorial - yes, they are a pair of World War 1 vintage trench mortars given by the Defence Department when the memorial was built in 1921, at the request of Lt. Col. Cyprian Brereton, the Motueka Valley’s highest ranking military officer at the time and author of the book mentioned above. Among the names of the dead inscribed on the memorial are those of his brothers-in-law, Hector and Walter Guy. Cheers, Anne PS Ngatimoti did in fact once have a post office. Opened in 1870, It was originally located at various private homes. When John A. Guy (later C.B. Brereton's father-in-law) became postmaster in 1892 a single Government telephone line was connected to his home. Telephones weren't available in private homes till the 1920s, when some residents put in private lines. (In fact, because there were no private phones in1914, John Guy was the first to receive offical confirmation of the expected news that England and Germany were at war and notified the people of the Ngatimoti area by ringing the St James Church bell). The Ngatimoti Post Office remained at the Guys' till the early '20s when it became part of the old shop which can still be seen on Waiwhero Road near the Ngatimoti Memorial Hall. A telephone exchange was opened there in 1948. The Post Office closed in 1978. (See Kath Beatson's book The River Flows On for more information about the various historical services which operated in the area).
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