Remembering Roy Priest
The gunner spent two years at war but was sent home after exposure to chemical weapons rendered him unfit for active service.
On January 13, 1917, gunner Roy Priest wrote in his diary: “Drill and washing guns in the morning. Weekend leave to Wellington by 1st train. Spent the weekend with Dad, Mother and the two girls.”
The visit would be his last for some time. He was about to be sent overseas, leaving on January 19 aboard the ship Waitemata, bound for English port of Plymouth.
Priest wrote: “8am Put on active service. 4.15pm Have pulled out from Wellington Wharf and anchored in the stream. Left anchorage at 9pm and got outside the heads about 10pm. Boat is very steady.”
That steadiness did not continue. His entries refer to the boat rolling and pitching, feeling so sick he had to lay on deck all day, and the excitement of a man getting drenched by a wave during church parade.
No doubt he left with mixed emotions. His brother Owen had been killed several months earlier at Somme, having survived Gallipoli. He was 21 years old.
Priest was not deterred from enlisting, having first attempted to join the army in 1915, at the age of 17 years. “The recruiting officer learned that I was under age and was turned down,” he wrote in later documents. “However, in 1916, aged 18, I again enlisted and joined the artillery in august, proceeding overseas.”
Roy William Priest was born in Inglewood, Taranaki on October 12, 1897 to parents Owen and Annie. They moved to Palmerston North in 1911 when a fire destroyed their home. After high school, he joined a flour milling company as a junior clerk before enlisting in the army.
Priest served in France and Belgium at Passchendaele and Menin Rd, and his diary entries describe daily events. Many days refer to the repetitious acts of cleaning weapons and harness, looking after the horses, and nightly games of cards.
Others describe the events on the frontline; including an entry from October 20, 1917 that read: “Very hot and shells landed right in the middle of the road and others very close. Saw one of our men who was killed yesterday lying beside the road.”
Chemical weapons were first used by the Germans in 1915 and they rendered Priest unfit for active service.
“The effects of gas at Passchendaele in October brought on pneumonia and caused me to collapse in January 1918,” he wrote. “I was evacuated through the hospitals and clearing stations in Belgium and France to Brockenhurst in Hampshire, England. While there, I had a relapse and in May 1918 was put aboard the hospital ship Maheno for New Zealand. After two years in the force, my army career as a gunner came to a temporary end.”
After spending about a year recuperating, Priest decided to study accountancy. He was admitted to the New Zealand Society of Accountants in 1922 and commenced practice as a public accountant in 1923, starting at the flour mill he had previously worked as a junior clerk.
Also very active in the Palmerston North community, he became president or was on committees for the RSA, Manawatū Justice’s Association, Citizen’s Lunch Club, Rotary Club, Manawatū Officer’s Club, the Manawatū Deer Stalkers Club and on the committee to establish Massey University. He was even an honorary forest ranger.
In his spare time, Priest enjoyed deer stalking, fishing and often played a round of golf at the Manawatū Golf Club, of which he was also a committee member.
In 1938, he was part of the contingent of ex-servicemen invited to visit Sydney for the Anzac parade in celebration of Australia’s 150th anniversary. The dawn parade was his most moving experience of the trip and he remembers: “Rising at 3am, the Anzacs fell in at 3.30am and marched to the cenotaph in Martin Pl for the purpose of the service at 4.30am.”
Three-quarters of a million people lined the streets and a further 50,000 surrounded the cenotaph. Priest told the Manawatu Times: “We invaded Sydney to be handed the city on a platter when we arrived and returned it intact on the eve of our departure.”
The outbreak of World War II, saw him take on a further role. “When war broke out in 1939, I was still unfit for service overseas and was appointed to command a battalion of home guard with the rank of major,” Priest wrote.
He became commander of the Southern Battalion in Palmerston North, as reported in the Manawatu Times in January 1941.
“The Southern Unit will be commanded by Mr Roy W Priest, who is one of the younger returned men. Mr Priest has distinguished himself in many activities in this city and his reputation both as a sportsman and as a sound organiser will stand him in good stead.”
While many of the duties involved training, parades and inspections, Priestwas also aware of the importance of the Manawatū Gorge and the need for defence should there be an enemy invasion. He felt it would be the duty of the Home Guard to help ensure the road and rail communication remained in order.
With the threat of invasion over, Priest returned to his accounting role in 1943, becoming a partner in an accountancy firm and retiring after 46 years.
His later years were spent travelling around New Zealand and visiting several Pacific Islands and Asian countries with his wife Andrina.
Major Roy Priest, service number 30487, died on April 8, 1982, aged 84 years. He is remembered.