Private George Edward Hardley - Eltham memorial

George Hardley (known as Ted) was the youngest son of George and Mary Jane Hardley.  He was born in Westport in 1895 and at the outbreak of war was living in Ponsonby, Auckland working as a Post and Telegraph lineman.  Keen to serve he enlisted only days after war had been declared on 11 August 1914.  His brother Issac a plumber in Hawera enlisted on the same day.   Within no time  George was on his way with the Auckland Infantry Battalion by train to Wellington where on the 15 August 1914 he sailed with the Samoan Advance Party arriving in Apia on 29 August where they were met with little resistance from the small German garrison stationed there.  The main risk to the New Zealand troops during their stay on Samoa was disease such as Malaria and Dengue Fever.  My husband's great grandfather Reginald Evatt who was also part of the Advance Party contracted Malaria whilst on Samoa.

The Samoan Advance Party consisted of approximately 1400 soldiers all volunteers from the Zealand Territorial Force.  They spent eight months on German Samoa and most went on to the Middle East or France afterwards, including George Hardley.  At the end of the war 210 of these men had been killed in action or had died of their wounds, 163 died in France and George was sadly one of these.

After Samoa George served at Gallipoli and then on the night of 6 April 1916 he embarked on the Franconia for France with the 1st Auckland.   Not long after his arrival he was killed in action at Armentieres on 16 May 1916 and was buried at Cite Bonjean Military Cemetery, Armentieres, France, he was 21 years old.

Below is a picture of his original grave which I have kindly been given permission to use from his family.

 

For many who enlisted early in the war it was a chance for adventure and George certainly got to see some of the world serving in Samoa, Middle East and France (if only for a few weeks).   His older brother Issac survived the war invalided back to New Zealand in March 1916 and a further brother Victor after initially being found medically unfit enlisted again and remained at Trentham camp.

Private Ernest Bunn - Eltham Memorial

http://muse.aucklandmuseum.com/databases/Cenotaph/1920.detail?Ordinal=1&c_serialnumber_search=25453

Private Bunn initially crossed my path whilst researching the Murchision Memorial in Otago.  Here is the link to his story http://100nzmemorials.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/private-ernest-bunn-murchison-memorial.html

On further research an update to his story is warranted.   Private Bunn was captured at Fleurbaix on 21 February 1917 after a battaltion raid by the 2nd Aucklanders.  After the raid the Germans observed that the New Zealanders were attempting to rescue their wounded from No-Man's-Land and instead of firing on them ceased fire allowing the wounded New Zealanders to be rescued except those close to the German lines.  One can assume Private Bunn was one of the unlucky ones close to the German Lines.

Private Bunn as mentioned in my earlier blog was repatriated as a prisoner of war to Chateau D'Oex in Switzerland. Below is a cheerful letter by Private Bunn from Switzerland published in the Hawera and Normanby Star on 16 April 1918.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, 16 April 1918, Page 8

He died at the Hotel La Soldanelle, Chateaux D'Oex on 7 July 1918 at 5:45am from Influenza.

 

Today Hotel La Soldanelle is luxury holiday apartment complex.  For those prisoners of war who were interned there in World War One far away from the German Camps and the Front from where they had been captured it too may well have felt like luxury.

Sources: Auckland Infantry, Peter Cooke, John H. Gray & Ken Stead; Private Ernest Bunn's Military Record, Archives New Zeland and Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand, Wellington.

Eltham war memorial, Taranaki

Eltham War memorial was unveiled on 11 November 1926 by the Honorable O.J. Hawken, Minister of Agriculture.