Letters from home a lifeline for New Zealand soldiers at war
‘‘That’s the last tangible link with that soldier, or nurse, or whoever … one letter is a tower in itself, but a collection of letters … that’s a group experience.’’ Manawatu-based historian Aaron Fox.
On battlefields tucked inside a soldier’s tunic close to their heart was a scrap of paper that was part of home.
Today, many of these war letters sent to and from loved ones are now sitting inside Kiwi’s homes, kept in old chocolate boxes, satchels or gathered together in old envelopes, often out of sight of everyday life.
Historians say these letters are priceless.
Stuff asked Kiwis to share letters and many came flooding into newsrooms around the country. As each generation gets further and further away from the wars, many families wonder what will become of these letters and mementos of war.
Manawatu-based historian Aaron Fox said all wartime letters deserved to be preserved.
‘‘That’s the last tangible link with that soldier, or nurse, or whoever … one letter is a tower in itself, but a collection of letters … that’s a group experience.’’
Oftentimes contents of letters were shared around with soldiers who hailed from the same area, becoming ‘‘community news’’, Fox said.
‘‘Occasionally you’ll get mums talking about their sons … or wives to husbands, or fiancees to fiances, trying not to talk about the fact that they are in the business where death is quite a probability, and yet not adhering to talk too much about the future.
‘‘It’s a delicate balancing act to keep everyone going throughout the duration of the war.’’
Military letters do not have to be old to be significant, Fox said.
‘‘For example, letters from local peacekeepers who have served since the 1990s in the Former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Angola, the Sudan, Mozambique, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, the Sinai, Afghanistan, East Timor, Bougainville, the Solomon Islands, South Korea the list goes on - are also invaluable historical documents.
‘‘What the authors thought to commit to paper has much to say about New Zealand’s role in the modern world as a peacemaker and nation builder. Letters, diaries, photographs and souvenirs are the very stuff of history, helping us all to better understand what it means to be a New Zealander.’’
Anything that people still held these days should be copied, digitised, transcribed whatever the holder wanted to do, but he urged people to make a second copy.
‘‘You cannot get that anywhere else. Newspapers only reported so much. It’s once you get back to the letters, it’s what they say and what they don’t say that gives you the best insight you’ll ever get now. They are priceless.’’
Some of the more famous letters around the country have been written by Hamilton stipendiary magistrate Lindsay Merritt Inglis and Victoria University’s first chancellor Sir Thomas Duncan MacGregor Stout.
A LETTER EXCERPT FROM PRIVATE HARRY CLIFFORD TOWNSON, OF INVERCARGILL, SENT TO HIS MOTHER DURING WORLD WAR I.
Dear Mother,
Just a few lines to let you know I am still alive and well. I am at present at Tom’s place and having a real good time. I have been in Dundee since I got my furlough and had a good look round there.
I see by the paper that E S Perry is missing so that is about as good as dead. My knee is quite alright now and I can walk about quite alright.
This correspondence was fairly typical given the heavy censorship that took place.
Te Papa New Zealand Histories and Cultures curator Stephanie Gibson says one thing that remains the same is the desire to communicate.
‘‘These men were going through terrible times but they did their best to put on a brave face for their loved one back home. It’s a testament to love.’’ Histories and Cultures curator Stephanie Gibson.
Letters were like a lifeline, she said.
‘‘Soldiers would carry those letters in their tunic pockets wherever they went.
‘‘They couldn’t carry them all - they amassed too many - but they would keep some precious ones on their person.
‘‘That piece of paper was part of home.’’
Nothing was private, so soldiers wrote what they thought would get around censorship, Gibson said.
‘‘What you find is the letters are quite upbeat and they won’t tell the worst of war. They’ll mention bad food, rough beds, but they won’t tell the full horror of war. You almost have to read between the lines.
‘‘These men were going through terrible times but they did their best to put on a brave face for their loved one back home. It’s a testament to love.’’
Anything that gave away details of upcoming battles or exact locations was seen as disloyal and was punishable by fine or imprisonment, Gibson said.
Regardless, no chances were taken and some letters that reached home had parts cut out of them or words scribbled out.
Gibson suggests for those who want these items taken care of, to reach out to archives teams that are throughout the country.
The Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington holds diaries and letters, while places like the Hocken Collections in Dunedin, or Invercargill Archives will also take care of them.
‘‘All archives apply the same care.’’
About 3 million handwritten letters were sent around the world to and from New Zealand during the World Wars.
As the only way to communicate with loved ones, the postal service was an important department to have running in uncertain times.
In March 1914, the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department had 5637 permanent staff and a total of almost 8000 employees.
It was second in size only to the Railways department.
A fortnight after landing at Anzac Cove in 1915, the head office of postal facilities was a dugout measuring five feet by six feet, and just five feet high.
There were no sorting sacks, hoppers or desks, and the mail had to be packed up each night to make room to sleep.
Shells sometimes burst just outside the dugout in the area where the staff ate and took occasional breaks.
The post office corps at Anzac was 26-strong.
Eight men worked aboard a communication ship, with the rest scattered about in twos and threes all over the fighting area.
Bags of mail were carried to and from the trenches, while at constant risk of shell and sniper fire.
The trip from writer to recipient took about seven weeks in either direction.