Charles Welby Remembers

Photos: Primary school First job

Recorded on 2 December 1988, click on the links to hear Mr Chas. Welby talk. The recording has been divided into shorter sections to reduce the download wait - if you have high-speed Internet access, you may prefer to download the entire interview of xx min (at vvv MB) - this file is at the botton of the topic.

Snapshots from World War I

The following is a transcript of parts 17 to 27 (above) inclusive.

'I was on holiday in Masterton when war was declared on the 4th. August 1914. There was great excitement in the town. They didn't think war coming but it didn't take long before they got organised and started recruiting.
Five days after the declaration of war, the Garrison Hall in Masterton was opened for enlistment. I didn't waste any time to get along and enlist.
I was accepted but there was some concern about my hand - ¬I've got half of one forefinger off. They looked at that more than once.

I was only 2 years of age, my mother told me, and at the mill a playmate had a tomahawk and he was chopping around and I happened to have my hand on the board where he could chop my finger off.

The Medical people at the recruiting office were a bit dubious about my finger. They questioned the presiding officer on that and he said "Oh, well, I can remember this man putting up a good score at Oringi, one of our territor¬ial camps, so His trigger finger is OK so he goes through?

About a week later we got our uniforms. You took off your clothes and left them in a bundle and they would send them to your home, wherever it was. We put the uniforms on and the caps - caps for a start - not the lemon squeezers.

Several days later we left for the training ground, the Awapuni Racecourse. We were there until September 16th, when we went by train to Wellington and boarded the troop¬ships.
They weren't warships, just trading ships - big ships - ¬ocean liners, you know. The one I went on was the Arawa.
They had put in bunks - tiers of 5 or 6 bunks - all-round the hold and tables where we had our meal. We didn't know where we were going. We weren't told but off we went. Our first stop was Hobart. We went ashore and has a route march. People flocked out to see us. I remember General Godley and his lieutenants standing in front of a hotel. He said afterwards, we were marching too fast.

We embarked again and sailed to King George's Sound. That's northern Australia. This was to meet up with the Australian troops - twelve troopships and ten from New Zealand.

Next day away we went - 22 ships plus 4 warships - Australian warships. Sydney was one. I've forgotten the others. And we had the Japanese 'Abuka' on behind. A big convoy. It was quite a sight when we all set off - ships everywhere you looked.

Next port of call was, what is now Sri Lanka, Colombo.

Before we got to Colombo we crossed the equator and had the 'Crossing of the Line' ceremony with everyone being dipped in the water they had in a canvas. The thing I remember most was the doctor. He slipped as he was about to dive into the water and he fell on his head and was killed.

Before we go to Colombo, it came over the wireless that the German ship 'Emden' had anchored outside the Cocus Islands and the German soldiers had come ashore. Later we heard that the 'Emden' had been destroyed.

It was the 'Sydney', one of our escorting convoy, that destroyed the ‘Emden'. The Australian warship came racing back right through our lines. We knew she had scuttled the ‘Emden'.
They had survivors on board and, at the next port of call they were put off - we had some of them, about a dozen - others were put on the 'Ethenic' - that's where the officers were.
We still didn't know where we were bound for - even when we got to the Suez Canal we weren't told we were going to Egypt. We berthed at Port Said, disembarked and then onto the train and away we went to Helron station - that's just before you get to Cairo. From there we marched to our camp at Zeetoun. It wasn't in the desert. There was quite a village, you might say, and the camp was all set up. We just did drill around the camp for two or three days then we started marching - away across the desert all day in the heat. It was terrific, especially in our N.Z. wool uniforms.

About a week later there was an-alarm - the Turks were to make their first attack on the Suez Canal. I went to the canal with the rest of the battalion.
We'd only been there a couple of weeks when the Turks came across the desert, all the way from Turkey, with pontoons slung between camels. There were eight camels with four pontoons between them. Marched all that way!

They reached the Canal at nighttime and put the pontoons in the canal and the Turkish soldiers got in but, before they could get very far across, the 12th Nelson Brigade stationed there opened fire on them. It was an absolute failure from the Turkish point of view.

A few days later we were sent back to camp.
Our camp was about ½ mile from The City of the Dead. There was one day when we weren't drilling or anything - a day off - and one of my mates, Bill Bander,

[update from Kete visitor:

'I would like to inform you that the name of Charles Welby's friend, Bill Banders, mentioned in the article when Charles went into the tomb in Egypt, is incorrect. The correct name is William (known as Bill) Bannister. He was my Grandfather. ...'

March 2015]

and I decided to go over to the dead city and try our luck with digging up a grave. We borrowed a shovel and went over there. It was just a case of digging where it hadn't been dug because a big area had been dug over by tourists. Anyway, I'm digging away and I got down to something hard. It was a marble block. I took that out and dug down further until I came to what looked like a little cave.

I put my head in but couldn't see, so my mate gave me a match. I held the light and the form of somebody that had been buried there just disintegrated. While I watched it! My mate said "Well, just see if there is any artifacts there." I took out some beads and scarabs and bracelets and a few more
other things and we put then in a bag and walked back to camp.

Next morning I felt very ill. I could hardly move and when the sergeant came along and said " Come on, you're late for your breakfast parade." I told him "Sorry, sergeant, I can't move."

He got the ambulance I was taken to hospital at Heliapolis. I felt ill. I didn't want to move. My breathing was laboured. I don't think they knew anything for several days at the hospital. The doctor came and examined me. It was a French doctor - the French had the hospital at that time - and I can remember him chatting away in French and talking to the nurse. I remember him saying "Je ne sais quoi." - I don't know what's the matter with him.

I must have been there for something over two weeks when our doctor came and talked to me and the result was he said "I think we'll send you home." I think they thought I had T.B. so home I went on the hospital ship 'Tahiti'
I was much improved by the time I got to Wellington I was able to march with the rest of the sick to Buckle Street and after waiting our turn I got my discharge and a ticket back to my home in Levin.

It was a bit strange for T.B, to clear up as quickly as that, that's why I don't think it was T.B.

I think it was The Curse of Egypt. It struck-Lord Canarvon's team when they were excavating Tutankhamen's tomb. One of his men died suddenly from an unknown cause. But you could say the Curse saved my life for while I was on my way home to New Zealand, my battlion, with the main body, was sent to Gallipoli and most of them perished, including Bill Banders, my mate.'

Related Items

• 01 Charles Welby - Introduction
• 02 About father coming to NZ
• 03 About his mother and brother
• 04 Chas came to Levin
• 05 In 1892 his father got 5 acres
• 06 Early lighting in Levin
• 07 School recollections
• 08 Chas left school
• 09 His father died aged 46
• 10 Sydney Welby
• 11 Chas went to work
• 12 When he was in Masterton, war broke out
• 13 Levin's first car
• 14 Worth's circus
• 15 Memories of his happy childhood
• 16 He came from a long-lived family
• 17 Chas was accepted into the Army
• 18 Army training
• 19 The troop ships travelled in convoy
• 20 The troop ship travelled to Colombo
• 21 They did't know where they were headed for
• 22 Off to Suez
• 23 Remained in Egypt
• 24 Visit to the City of the Dead
• 25 The next morning
• 26 Back in New Zealand
• 27 Prison guard