New life for grandfather’s Anzac Rolex
When Harold George Williams returned to New Zealand after World War I, his armycommissioned Rolex watch went into a drawer and stayed there.
Now his granddaughter, Jackie Cook of Takaka has revitalised the crystal-faced, pocket-like wristwatch that was found in the depths of a dusty collection to give the piece a new lease of life.
As the nation stops to remember those who were lost and served during times of war on Anzac Day, Cook wanted to carry a piece of her grandfather with her.
So, she set about collecting Williams’ military hat badges and buttons and asked Benjamin Black Goldsmiths in Nelson to design a wristwatch strap using the World War I trinkets as chain links.
The links are made up of moulds from NZ Army uniform buttons that proudly show the Southern Cross; WWI and WWII NZ hat badges, one complete with the Nelson, Marlborough, West Coast stag; the captain crowns sown onto the shoulders of soldiers to show their rank and completed with a silver fern pin.
Cook said it wasn’t difficult to find all the pieces to put the puzzle together because as a military man, Williams was ‘‘very careful with things and he had them all in little boxes and tins.’’
With the new wristband complete, a final service in coming weeks will have the 100-year-old military jewel in full working order.
Cook said it was her plan to create a wearable heirloom that could be passed generations.
‘‘We wanted to make a band for it because it had a tatty, old, leather military band. Nothing to look at.’’
Cook said she was forced to do some ‘‘soul searching’’ when she was having the watch cleaned and polished. It was discovered her grandfather had scratched his name into the case of the watch, ‘‘possibly while he was in the trenches’’.
She decided to keep the etchings and dents in Williams’ watch to match her grandfather’s hardships at times in war.
Cook said it was interesting her grandfather was given a watch in the first place – usually the privilege was reserved for officers, she said.
Williams was a sergeant of the Royal New Zealand Artillery at the time he received the Rolex. He joined the forces in 1912 aged 18 but wasn’t dispatched for overseas duty until 1917.
‘‘They didn’t take artillery to Gallipoli because of the conditions. down through Moving what were then horsedrawn heavy guns onto beaches wasn’t possible.’’
In France Williams would synchronise the morning barrage, only possible with the impeccable timing of his Rolex wristwatch. ‘‘I suspect that he may have been in control on a frontline situation calling the shots, literally.
His commissioned watch was a ‘‘modified version of a pocket watch’’ with luminescent hands and numbers. Its sterling silver cover protected the glass from shrapnel and its owner from giving away his position to snipers.
Williams was unfortunate to have been wounded at Passchendale. He recovered but was then declared invalid after being gassed on the Somme. He was sent to an English hospital to recover from his conditions but did not return home until 1919.
‘‘He used to say that when there’s a war there are plenty of boats to take you over and hardly any to bring you back.’’
Williams married a Nelson woman on his return and later signed up to serve in WWII. Cook lived with her grandfather as a child and remembers his strict tendencies like ‘‘suddenly insisting we only speak French at dinner’’.
She said it was wonderful to have a local man’s military piece from the local army brought to life by a Nelson jeweller.
The work was carried out by Benjamin Black Goldsmiths’ third year apprentice Joel Whitwell who said the project had taken him a number of weeks but was precisely the type of work he enjoyed.
‘‘It’s all about leaving a legacy.’’