In all three members of the Reynish family from Little River, Banks Peninsula served in WW1. Roger Crowther Reynish, Thomas Henry Reynish and Algernon Francis Reynish.
Roger and Thomas enlisted together on the 17 June 1915 at the time they were both working on a sheep station in Gisborne for Hugh D. Buchanan, Roger as a Shearer and Thomas as a Labourer. They embarked together on 9 October 1915 for Egypt and then onto to France together on the 6 April 1916.
According to their military records they both had a tendency to go absent without leave and both served with the Wellington Infantry Battelion in Belgium, where they both met their death. Firstly Thomas who according to his records was suffering mentally when he attempted to take his own life dying of his wounds shortly afterwards, on the 30 September 1917. I wonder how many young men suffered in this way, choosing to take their own life rather that continuing on with the misery of WW1.
Roger was killed in action only two months later at Ypres, Belgium on the 30 November 1917.
Their younger brother Algernon who had stayed in the Banks Peninsula embarked on the 15 November 1915 and survived the war dying aged 73 in 1971.
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