The dead tell tales
Donald and Margaret McKinnon, died in 1934 and 1931 respectively.
The modest inscription on the headstone for Donald and Margaret McKinnon at Pukerimu Cemetery gives no indication of the tragedy that affected this family in World War I. Three of their sons died on active service and a fourth was badly wounded. Another McKinnon family, that of Donald’s brother William and his wife, Mary Jane, were similarly affected: three of their sons also died. To the extended family, these six young men were brothers, cousins, uncles and nephews and we can only imagine the loss they felt.
The McKinnons had been established in the Waikato since the arrival in September 1873, from the Isle of Skye, of Roderick McKinnon, his wife, Marion, and six children. Some of those children were in their late teens. They settled down to farm in the Te Rore district, but Marion died within a few months – she was buried in St John’s Cemetery in Te Awamutu in March 1874. Three sons, Donald, Lachlan and William, married and their children’s first enrolments at Te Rore School are recorded in the school register between
1889 and 1906. The children were all grandchildren of Roderick and Marion –
10 children of Donald’s, two of Lachlan’s and six of William’s.
Perhaps there were also children of McKinnon daughters, but their history has not been established.
Of all those McKinnon children, 11 were boys, but William’s youngest son was too young to enlist for military service in World War I at the same time as his brothers. Most of them did enlist; perhaps the others were required to run the family farms. By then, the Donald McKinnons had shifted to Kaipaki, but were still farming. Their son Neil was balloted for service but due to a disability, he failed the medical. William and Mary McKinnon’s sons Ken and John embarked in 1915; both took part in the assault on Chunuk Bair at Gallipoli on August 8, 1915. Both were killed that same day. John was with the Auckland Mounted Rifles, Ken with the Auckland Infantry Battalion.
Donald and Margaret’s sons, Roderick, Malcolm, Murdoch and William, enlisted after their cousins’ deaths. Rod and Malcolm were killed within days of arriving at the front – both at Ypres. They died a day apart, Rod on July 31, 1917, and Malcolm on August 1.
Their parents would have learned of the death of two sons at roughly the same time. The Auckland Star (August 22, 1917) lists them among five soldiers who had been teachers at the time of enlistment. Malcolm was an assistant at Helensville School, Roderick a teacher at Rotorangi School.
Rod was married and the loss for his widow, Marjory [Margery], would have been devastating. They had six children, the youngest a newborn, but a three-yearold daughter died on June 7, 1917, and their eight-year-old son died in 1921. These two children are buried in Hamilton East Cemetery.
Marjory was left with four children to bring up on her own in their house in Hamilton East.
By the end of the war, Donald and Margaret’s son Murdoch had also been killed, and William (Bill), a fourth son, was wounded. He returned among 1250 sick and wounded at the end of 1918 when the war was over. William and Mary’s son Robert was killed in action in France on August 8, 1918, just days before their youngest son, William, was called up.
Pirongia historian Alan Hall and others have published biographies of men from the Pirongia area who served in World War I – the last few copies of ‘‘WWI Roll of Honour Pirongia and District’’ is available at the Pirongia Heritage and Information Centre. Alan has kindly supplied much of the information for this article.
The 103rd anniversary of the assault on Chunuk Bair is this week and the centenary of the armistice is approaching in November.
The McKinnons were among thousands of families who displayed ‘‘a very fine record of patriotism’’ and could have, according to the Waikato Times (August 22, 1917), ‘‘the satisfaction of knowing they have done their share in fighting their country’s battles’’ – even if it did mean losing so many of their sons.