Showing posts with label Austen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Austen. Show all posts
Monday, April 23, 2012
Lessons from a Sexton
sexton (skstn)n.
An employee or officer of a church who is responsible for the care and upkeep of church property and sometimes for ringing bells and digging graves.
On a lovely Autumn day we took another visit to the Waikumete Cemetery. We were extremely fortunate to have a trained sexton help identify the Captain's grave. (Usually you need to make an appointment for this wonderful service)
This is the burial map for the Wesley C section of the cemetery. The graves are laid out very exactly with all the bodies in the cemetery facing East - this is so on Judgement Day they will all rise to meet the Lord. They were not quite so exact with the compass setting and they face a little more SE than due East!
The Austen graves are marked on the map with small red crosses beside them. The pencilled hash marks indicate the number of bodies buried in each grave. Row 5 Plot 62 contains John James AUSTEN (1898) and William Edward AUSTEN (1911) - two of the Captain's sons.
Row 5 Plot 64 (next door - it is just like a street with odd numbers on one side and even on the other) contains
Captain John AUSTEN (1899), his wife Annie AUSTEN (1923) and their granddaughter Thelma WARD aged 5 weeks (1925) and her mother Elsie May WARD (1925) who died 15 days after the baby.
At the time of their burial free plots were available and all the plots on this map not squared in red are free plots. This means they do not have headstones - they would have originally had wooden crosses but over the years these have disappeared. We enquired about putting a plaque on the Captain's plot but first one needs to purchase the plot at "historical" prices. These, at well over a thousand dollars, seemed quite modern!
So here are the unmarked graves in the middle of the photo.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Gallipoli
"The sea was full of ships gliding through the darkness toward the Turkish coast...At half past eight the tows pulled alongside for the Aucklanders, who were to be the first New Zealanders to land... There was no excitement. Everyone was cool and quiet, but terribly determined to do their best".
Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 657-11
The war in the Dardanelles looked good on paper and still authorities say if it had been successful it could have shortened the war by as much as two years. Sadly the reality was very different. Those overseeing the battles seem to have had no idea of the terrain and conditions the men were fighting in. They had also grossly underestimated the Turkish forces fighting for their homeland. Those ships off loading men were several miles north of where they should have landed and the terrain was grim. The Turkish forces were up in the scrub of those high cliffs, sniper and machine gun fire rained down on the Aucklanders.
Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 657-5
Casualties far exceeded expectations and there were not enough evacuation boats or hospital ships to cope with the incessant stream of wounded. On the first day the Auckland Regiment lost 78 men with 220 wounded.
Water was at a premium. Dust, heat, flies, vermin, thirst, bad food, the terrible stench of the unburied dead, and the constant danger of sniper fire. Then came disease by July the men were going down with dysentery by the score. Men quickly became "most dilapidated and disreputable scarecrows".
The fighting went on, a truce in May to bury to bury the dead on both sides, a push in August when they captured some high ground then stalemate and winter coming on, a blizzard in November. The evacuation in December was the most well organised part of the mission. The men were bitterly disappointed - they were leaving behind their comrades in all 429 dead from Auckland. The Allies lost 252,000 men at Gallipoli, it is estimated that the Turkish losses were over 300,000.
And what of the Captain's grandsons, George's son Stanley was wounded in May - gunshot wound to the shoulder, he rejoined the unit in time for the August fighting, was wounded again "slightly - in action", and later hospitalised with gastritis. Three of Caroline's sons were at at Gallipoli - Arthur Postlewaite, was hospitalised sick in July and severely wounded by a bomb blast in August. He was evacuated to England and then home to New Zealand in November - his war was over. I have no record of injury or sickness for Sydney Postlewaight. Alfred Postlewaight was part of the third reinforcements and was probably there in time for for the landing, he was hospitalised with gastritis and debility and evacuated to England in October.
They would go on to fight in Eqypt and France and Flanders, but all six of the Captain's grandsons who went off to the first world war survived.
The war in the Dardanelles looked good on paper and still authorities say if it had been successful it could have shortened the war by as much as two years. Sadly the reality was very different. Those overseeing the battles seem to have had no idea of the terrain and conditions the men were fighting in. They had also grossly underestimated the Turkish forces fighting for their homeland. Those ships off loading men were several miles north of where they should have landed and the terrain was grim. The Turkish forces were up in the scrub of those high cliffs, sniper and machine gun fire rained down on the Aucklanders.
Casualties far exceeded expectations and there were not enough evacuation boats or hospital ships to cope with the incessant stream of wounded. On the first day the Auckland Regiment lost 78 men with 220 wounded.
Water was at a premium. Dust, heat, flies, vermin, thirst, bad food, the terrible stench of the unburied dead, and the constant danger of sniper fire. Then came disease by July the men were going down with dysentery by the score. Men quickly became "most dilapidated and disreputable scarecrows".
The fighting went on, a truce in May to bury to bury the dead on both sides, a push in August when they captured some high ground then stalemate and winter coming on, a blizzard in November. The evacuation in December was the most well organised part of the mission. The men were bitterly disappointed - they were leaving behind their comrades in all 429 dead from Auckland. The Allies lost 252,000 men at Gallipoli, it is estimated that the Turkish losses were over 300,000.
And what of the Captain's grandsons, George's son Stanley was wounded in May - gunshot wound to the shoulder, he rejoined the unit in time for the August fighting, was wounded again "slightly - in action", and later hospitalised with gastritis. Three of Caroline's sons were at at Gallipoli - Arthur Postlewaite, was hospitalised sick in July and severely wounded by a bomb blast in August. He was evacuated to England and then home to New Zealand in November - his war was over. I have no record of injury or sickness for Sydney Postlewaight. Alfred Postlewaight was part of the third reinforcements and was probably there in time for for the landing, he was hospitalised with gastritis and debility and evacuated to England in October.
They would go on to fight in Eqypt and France and Flanders, but all six of the Captain's grandsons who went off to the first world war survived.
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