Inscribed on Newmarket’s,
Auckland war memorial adjacent to the Olympic Swimming pools on Broadway are
the names of three brothers Samuel Alfred Crowhurst, Arthur Frederick Crowhurst
and Francis Ernest Crowhurst who together with two other brothers Victor Roy
Crowhurst and Leslie Upton Clifford Crowhurst volunteered like thousands of
others to serve in World War One.
The Crowhurst family was a
large one living in Roxburgh Street, Newmarket where parents Samuel and
Catherine Crowhurst (married in 1876) had a large family of 12 children all
born in Auckland.
Today Roxburgh Street
is an area of light industry and retail and it is hard to imagine families such
as the Crowhurst’s living there.
Samuel and Victor Crowhurst were
the first of the brothers to enlist both embarking with the Auckland Infantry
Battalion on 17 April 1915, they were 25 and 22 years old respectively. Before enlisting Samuel had worked for the New
Zealand Railways in Mercer and Victor had been a civil servant and both were unmarried. They served at Gallipoli and it was here the
news of their brother Arthur’s death would have reached them.
Arthur Crowhurst enlisted in May
1915 aged 20 years old and whilst in training at Trentham camp he fell
dangerously ill contracting cerebral meningitis (there was a mild epidemic of the disease at the time). As a result he died in Wellington General
Hospital on 8 August 1915. His body was
returned to his grieving family in Auckland and was given a military funeral at
St Mark’s Church, Remuera where he was buried.
Samuel and Victor both now in
France fought at the Battle of Messines at the beginning of June 1917 where Victor
was badly wounded and invalided back to England.
Eventually he returned to New Zealand and
was discharged from the army on 3 February 1918, no longer physically fit for service.
Samuel promoted to
Sergeant during the battle and was awarded the Military Medal for his devotion
to duty during the battle itself, his citation is below:
For devotion to duty. This non-commissioned officer established a
strong point when his platoon officer and sergeant had been put out of action.
When the post was established he kept the garrison together and hung on through
heavy shellfire until relieved. The garrison was on several occasions buried by
shell.
L.G. 16 August 1917, p8429, Rec No 938.
Tragically Samuel was later
killed in action on 21 August 1917 at Ypres, Belgium, he was 27 years old. His Military Medal was presented to his
father on 12 March 1918 by Sir James Allen the then Defence Minister in a ceremony
held at the Auckland Town Hall. Samuel
is buried at Mud Corner Cemetery, Comines-Warneton, Hainaut, Belgium.
The presentation of Samuel’s
Military Medal must have been a proud yet very sad moment for the Crowhurst family
and unfairly more tragedy was to come.
The final two brothers Francis
and Leslie embarked on 13 October 1917 no doubt still grieving the loss of
their brothers. Francis had not been at the
front long when he was killed in action on the Somme on 20 April 1918. He is buried at Bertrancourt Military
Cemetery, Somme, France.
For his family back in
Auckland the loss of another son was devastating. Catherine Crowhurst their mother could not
bear the loss of another son and consequently she appealed to the Military
Board that her son Leslie be kept away from the front on the grounds that she
had lost three sons in two and half years with a further being invalided back
to New Zealand. The board agreed and
recommended that Leslie be removed, the Crowhurst family had suffered enough.
The Newmarket Council at the time decided to rename Portland Street (off Khyber
Pass Road), Crowhurst Street in recognition of the family’s sacrifice. Crowhurst Street today is a very different
from when the Crowhurst family lived around the corner in Roxburgh Street. Despite
the changes the name of the street remains an everlasting tribute to the sons
of Samuel and Catherine Crowhurst.
Crowhurst Street (2013)
Samuel and Francis Crowhurst are also remembered together
with a cousin Joseph Edward Wood who was killed in action on 1 August 1917 in
St Marks Churchyard, Remuera alongside their brother Arthur.
Mourn not for him, nor lay your hearts
Within that lonely grave
Think you those narrow bounds could hold
That spirit pure and brave;
Earth’s uniform discarded now beneath
The sod is laid;
He had his marching orders – as a
Soldier he obeyed.
(Inscription on Arthur Crowhurst’s grave stone above)
For Victor Crowhurst the
tragedy of World War One would repeat itself again in World War Two when he
lost two sons Jack and Samuel Crowhurst who were both serving in the Royal New
Zealand Air Force. Samuel was shot down
over Germany on 12 December 1941 and is buried at Reichswald Forest War
Cemetery, Kleve, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany he was 21 years old. Jack was killed in an incident on 14 January
1945 at Woodbourne, Marlborough and is buried at Hillsborough Cemetery,
Hillsborough Road, Auckland, he too was 21 years old.
It would be great if a plaque could be erected
somewhere on Crowhurst Street in remembrance of the Crowhurst family’s
sacrifice especially with the centenary of World War one only around the corner.
