A soldier’s life cut short
John Shennan found a postcard sent from the World War I front lines in a secondhand book.
A discovery in a secondhand book has uncovered a life cut short by the insidious effects of mustard gas.
Hector Bartholomew, of Feilding, served three years with the army on the western front in Worldwar I.
In the latter stages of his service he was gassed. He died, aged 34, in 1929.
About 80 years later in Palmerston North, in an item he picked up at the city’s popular annual Red Cross Book Sale, wellknown union man John Shennan discovered a ‘‘field service postcard’’ sent home from the front lines of the Greatwar.
Dated May 1918, six months before the conflict finished, the card has no personal message on it, nor was that allowed.
‘‘Nothing is to be written on this side except the date and signature of the sender. Sentences not required will be erased,’’ the back of the card says, in thick black ink.
‘‘If anything else is added the postcard will be destroyed.’’ That sentence was underlined.
Crossing out the options not applying to him, Bartholomew lets his relatives know ‘‘I am quite well’’.
Shennan said he assumed the book’s previous owner used the postcard as a bookmark. When he saw the date he realised he’d uncovered an item of WWI history.
‘‘There must have been thousands and thousands of them.
‘‘It’s much more poignant than I thought it would be.’’
The card is addressed to Hector’s father, Geo Bartholomew.
A story in the Feilding Star in 1929 said Hector came home from Takaka a fortnight before his death to recuperate from the flu.
He was working in the South Island town for the Bank of New Zealand.
‘‘But he suffered a recrudescence of a gassing he received in the final phase of the war in 1918 when he was with the New Zealand force that broke down the German army and marched to Cologne [in western Germany]. ‘‘Mr Bartholomew served just under three years on the western fronts, where his brother was killed in action.’’
The Star said another brother, Norman, served at Gallipoli and their oldest brother, Dr Jack, was in camp in the United States with US forces.
The same newspaper in 1919 reported Hector was due to return to Auckland in August that year, aboard the ship Mamari.
Amemorial service was held on November 17, 1929, at Feilding’s St Paul’s Presbyterian Church.
Shennan said he would be interested in hearing from descendants of Hector.