By Roselyn Fauth
I have memories of my parents holding my little hand while I balanced walking along the concrete wall at Caroline Bay. The balls were the tricky part. Stepping over them without wobbling felt like a real achievement. Making it from one end to the other was something to be proud of. the goal was not to touch the ground, and my dad used to carry me across the breaks in the walls to help fullfill the challenge.
Years later, our girls did the same thing. Arms stretched out, concentrating tounge position, stepping carefully over those same concrete spheres. I love relieving my memories with our children.
I was an 80s kid, so by the time I was playing here the sea was already a long way off. Before the construction of the Port, this was a stony shore where the sea could reach the cliffs. The port development enabled sand to be trapped at the bay. Over the years the sand filled in the bay and pushed the mean tide line out. The wall felt like part of the park, not the edge of the ocean. It’s only when you start looking at old photographs that you realise this really was the sea wall. A proper boundary. Sand on one side, paths and lawns on the other. If you are in the area, look out for the mean tide markers overs the years.
One afternoon, I was sitting on the wall while my daughter rode the carnival merry-go-round. When she hopped off, she came over and asked what the bronze plaque on the wall was for. I’d explained it to her before. She’d forgotten. But that's this thing with history hey, it doesn’t always stick, and needs to be revisted and told again and again. It doesn't have to be a big history lesson, it can be little snippets shared over ordinary moments like noticing the bronze plaque on the sea wall.
We had a lot of fun investigating the sundial that is part of the wall. If you don't know where it is, it's at Caroline Bay, midway along the First World War Memorial Wall, Timaru.
This is Timaru’s most prominent sundial. It has been there since 1929, when Caroline Bay was being developed into a Port Restort. Roads and paths were sealed, lawns were laid, and a new memorial sea wall was built. It was designed to do a few things at once. To hold back the sea, to hold memory and to spruce up the place.
On 30 April 1929, bronze plaques naming major First World War battlegrounds were installed along the length of the wall. Just over a month later, on 30 May, it was proposed that a sundial be erected near the centre to commemorate New Zealand’s Victoria Cross recipients from the war. By July, newspapers were already describing it as a “unique sundial memorial and wall”.
The sundial became the focal point. Its plaque lists the eleven New Zealand servicemen awarded the Victoria Cross during the First World War. None of them were from South Canterbury. That detail always stops me. This memorial wasn’t about honouring local names alone. It was about placing Timaru within a much wider national and international story.
Between 1914 and 1918, New Zealand, then part of the British Empire, sent more than 100,000 people overseas from a population of just over one million. That number is still hard to grasp. The war didn’t just happen somewhere else. Its effects landed here. In letters that arrived slowly or not at all. In names printed in newspapers. In empty desks at schools and farms that carried on without sons, brothers, and fathers.
Every now and then we host family visiting from the Netherlands and show them around our little city. They’re interested in how we commemorate the wars publicly, how remembrance sits in parks and along walkways rather than being hidden away. Standing at the Memorial Wall, I sometimes wonder if the stories closest to home for them were so brutal that the cost of the war across the sea is harder to fully comprehend. How small countries like ours sent young people so far away, and how that collective effort helped liberate places they now call home.
The Netherlands was neutral throughout the First World War and was neither invaded nor an Allied combatant. International law and diplomacy meant Allied forces, including New Zealand troops, could not operate there. Yet neutrality did not mean isolation from the war. The Netherlands became an important humanitarian and strategic crossroads, and it was through these indirect roles that the war created real and lasting connections between New Zealand and the Dutch people.
Although New Zealand soldiers did not fight on Dutch soil, the Netherlands was deeply affected by the conflict through the movement of refugees, the internment of soldiers, naval warfare in nearby seas, and post-war remembrance. Dutch ports, neutral territory, and diplomatic channels intersected with the wider Allied war effort, while New Zealand losses at sea and in Europe resonated far beyond the battlefields. In this way, the war linked New Zealand and the Netherlands not through combat, but through shared consequences of a global conflict that reached even those nations determined to stay out of it.
These places were commemorated on the memorial wall in Timaru because they mark where local men served, fought, and were lost during the First World War. For families at home, distant battlefields such as Gallipoli, the Somme, Ypres, and Passchendaele became familiar through letters, casualty lists, and newspaper reports. Inscribing these names in bronze connected global events to local lives and helped the community understand where sacrifice had occurred.
The memorial tablets at Caroline Bay reflect early twentieth-century ways of remembering war. Rather than detailing every action, they list key battlefields and theatres associated with New Zealand service, linking Timaru to the wider war effort. For many families, these place names stood in for graves that were far away or unknown, making the memorial both a record of service and a focus for collective mourning.
I think it was very clever to include the stunning sculpture by Margret Windhousen called the Face of Peace. She looks over the wall, the sundial and the information signs. She reminds us what we must remember and what we must not overlook too.
With my Dutch and Kiwi roots, I’ve grown up hearing stories and carrying memories from experiences of the war. I have family who survived concentration camps in Europe and who worked on the Burmer Line. My grandmother and her sisters told me about their horrors and triumphs. My great aunt Tantie Els tells me she can remember the tanks rolling into Amsterdam, and then when defeated, rolling out. They aren’t abstract stories. They’re personal, handed down careflly through families. Some are hard to hear. Places like this sundial, the wall, the signage, the sculpture, matter because they keep those stories in the open. They remind us what happened, what it cost, and why we have a responsibility to pass those learnings on, so the atrocities of war are never forgotten and never repeated.
The sundial itself was made by James Stewart of Invercargill, often called New Zealand’s “sundial king”. He designed around 200 sundials across the country, each one individually calculated for where it would stand. Sundials aren’t generic objects. They rely on latitude, longitude, and the angle of the sun.
If you look closely, you’ll see Roman numerals, signs of the zodiac, and a Latin motto that reads Horas non numero nisi serenas — “I count not the hours unless they be bright”. There’s no longitude correction for modern clock time. It isn’t wrong. It’s simply telling solar time.
By the time this sundial appeared at Caroline Bay in 1929, people had been reading shadows for thousands of years. Cultures across the world watched the sun and learned to understand its movement long before clocks existed. This is a simple shadow, doing ancient work.
When the Memorial Wall was built, it marked the edge of the beach. Before the port was constructed, waves reached the base of the cliffs. Harbour works later changed the way sediment moved along the coast, trapping fine sand and slowly pushing the shoreline outward.
The wide bay we enjoy today didn’t always exist. The wall and the sundial now sit many metres back from the water, quietly recording how the landscape has shifted through human decision as much as through nature.
Every time I sit on that wall now, I notice something different. A child balancing carefully. Someone stopping to read a plaque. The shadow on the sundial moving almost imperceptibly.
This wall has been many things. A sea defence. A war memorial. A playfull challenge. A resting place during carnival rides. And at its centre, a sundial that reminds us time doesn’t just pass. It layers.
Sometimes all it takes is a small hand asking a question to bring it back into view.
These are the men who are recognised on Timaru's sundial as recipients of the Victoria Cross.
Left to right, top to bottom: Private Henry James Nicholas, M.M. (killed in action); Corporal Leslie Wilton Andrew; Sergeant Samuel Frickleton; Sergeant D. F. Brown (killed in action); Corporal C. R. G. Bassett; Private James Crichton; Sergeant John Gilroy Grant; Sergeant Harry John Laurent; Sergeant R. S. Judson; Sergeant Samuel Forsyth (killed in action); Sergeant Richard Charles Travis (killed in action). Source: Visitors' guide to Timaru and Victoria Cross records. Aoraki Heritage Collection, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/297
NEW ZEALAND VICTORIA CROSS PROFILES (Extracts from Official Records)
PRIVATE HENRY JAMES NICHOLAS, M.M. (Killed in action.)
An enemy Strong Point garrisoned by 16 Germans with a machine gun offered stubborn resistance. The section commander and several of the men attacking it were killed. Then Pte. Henry James Nicholas, M.M., rushed forward, followed at about 25 yards by the remainder of the section. A moment’s hesitation would have cost him his life, but he was on the parapet before the Germans realised it. Firing point-blank at the German platoon commander he shot him dead, and then instantly leapt down among the remainder. Those nearest him he bayoneted. At the others further up the sap, he flung his deadly effort, his own bombs and the German bombs lying about him. He thus killed the whole of the garrison, except four. These were wounded, and these he took prisoners. The machine gun remained in our hands. After winning the V.C., Nicholas, who was in every respect a particularly fine soldier and man, remained with the Company till his death, setting always an invaluable example of steadfastness and faithfulness.
CORPORAL LESLIE WILTON ANDREW
Special arrangements had been made to deal with the estaminet on the Warneton road which had proved so troublesome to Devery’s men on the 27th, and two sections under L.-Cpl. Leslie Wilton Andrew were detailed expressly for the destruction of its occupants. As they moved forward, pushing close behind the barrage, they threatened a machine gun post on the railway line to the north which was holding up our troops on the left. Diverging towards it they captured it, killing several Germans, and then dashing after the barrage picked it up afresh, pushed right into it for their proper objective, and ran towards the estaminet. In it a machine gun fired continuously. Its assailants made a detour round one side. Crouching and worming their way through a patch of thistles, they crept within striking distance of their prey. They flung a shower of bombs and rushed. Some of the Germans fled towards the river, in the wake of our barrage. The others were killed or the gun captured. While the rest of our party withdrew with the gun, Andrew himself and Pte. L. Ritchie undertook a reconnaissance towards Warneton as far as our standing barrage permitted. On the very threshold of the village was a wayside inn, “In der Rooster Cabaret,” and in its cellars some of the hunted Germans sought refuge. A machine gun post was an open trench beside it. The post was rushed, the cellars and adjoining dugouts were thoroughly bombed, and only then did the two men turn their faces towards our line. For his leadership and gallantry Andrew was awarded the Victoria Cross.
SERGEANT SAMUEL FRICKLETON
The 3rd Battalion companies, with the platoons attached from the 2nd Battalion, reached the neighbourhood of the Brown Line without opposition, but here they came under intense fire from a well-posted machine gun on the edge of Messines. The officer commanding the company opposite the gun was killed. Men fell rapidly, and the line was checked. Then L.-Cpl. Samuel Frickleton, although already slightly wounded, called on his section to follow him and dashed through our barrage with his men. Flinging his bombs at the gun crew, he rushed and bayoneted the survivors and then, still working within our barrage with the utmost sang-froid, attacked a second gun some 20 yards away. He killed the three men serving the gun and then destroyed the remainder of the crew and others, numbering in all nine, who were still in the dug-out. The infantry at once swept on to the trench. Frickleton, who was later severely wounded, was awarded the V.C. for the magnificent courage and leadership which prevented many casualties and ensured success.
SERGEANT D. F. BROWN (Killed in action.)
Lower down the hill and consequently more sheltered than their companions on the right flank of the Gird machine guns, the Otago left companies attacked the branch of Circus Trench which led to the Abbey Road. As the storming line pressed nearer, they were at one point checked by a machine gun. Sergeant Brown rushed at the guns single-handed and bayoneted the crew. The checked line of skirmishers at once poured breathlessly into the trench. The garrison were killed or fled. Many fell to Lewis guns and Otago rifle fire. It was while sniping coolly at the flying enemy that the heroic Sergeant Brown was killed by long-range machine gun fire. His magnificent conduct throughout the Somme battle won the dead soldier the first Victoria Cross received by the Division in France.
CORPORAL C. R. G. BASSETT
Corporal Cyril Royston Guyton Bassett, N.Z. Divisional Signal Company: “For most conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty on the Chunuk Bair Ridge in the Gallipoli Peninsula on the 7th August, 1915. After the New Zealand Infantry Brigade had attacked and established itself on the ridge, Corporal Bassett, in full daylight and under a continuous and heavy fire, succeeded in laying a telephone line from the old position to the new one on Chunuk Bair. He had subsequently been brought to notice for further excellent and most gallant work connected with the repair of telephone lines by day and night under heavy fire.”
PRIVATE JAMES CRICHTON
Despite intense fire and a serious wound, Private Crichton volunteered to carry messages across a river and open ground swept by machine-gun fire, twice swimming the canal, delivering vital intelligence, locating missing men, and personally removing mines from beneath a stone bridge under enemy fire. He made repeated crossings without complaint, concealed his wound until no longer necessary, and continued to assist as a stretcher-bearer. His outstanding gallantry and resourcefulness were rewarded by a Victoria Cross.
SERGEANT JOHN GILROY GRANT
Facing five enemy machine guns under point-blank fire, Sergeant Grant dashed ahead of his platoon and leapt into the central post, demoralising the gunners. He then cleared successive posts in rapid succession, allowing his company to secure the crest. Grant was awarded the Victoria Cross. L.-Cpl. C. T. Hill received the D.C.M.
SERGEANT HARRY JOHN LAURENT
Mistaking his position, Sergeant Laurent led a small patrol far beyond their objective and resolved to attack enemy supports. With only seven men remaining, he led a surprise charge, breaking through the support line, killing twenty of the enemy and capturing the remainder. Despite being surrounded and under fire from all sides, Laurent ensured the safe return of prisoners and his party. This extraordinary enterprise won Laurent the Victoria Cross.
SERGEANT R. S. JUDSON
Under overwhelming fire, Sergeant Judson captured a machine gun, then advanced alone 200 yards up a sap, bombing two further machine gun crews. Standing on the parapet, he demanded surrender. When fired upon, he leapt among the enemy, killed two, routed the rest, and captured two machine guns. This prompt and gallant action won Judson the Victoria Cross.
SERGEANT SAMUEL FORSYTH (Killed in action.)
Attached to infantry on probation for a commission, Sergeant Forsyth repeatedly rushed machine gun positions, conducted daring reconnaissance under fire, coordinated tank support despite wounds, reorganised men under fire, and led successful flanking movements. He was killed by a sniper while directing his men. His courage, initiative, and leadership saved many lives and secured the objective. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
SERGEANT RICHARD CHARLES TRAVIS (Killed in action.)
Hearing machine gun fire threatening the success of an operation, Sergeant Travis rushed forward with revolvers in both hands, killed seven gunners, captured the guns, and then shot four advancing Germans single-handed. He was later killed by shellfire while encouraging his men. He had never missed an operation, went over the top fifteen times, and was awarded the D.C.M., M.M., Belgian Croix de Guerre, and the Victoria Cross. His death cast a gloom over the Battalion.
NOTE: Victoria Cross awards confirmed in the London Gazette, 27 September 1918.
Each ball on the memorial wall marks a plaque location. the Bronze plaques carry the place names
GLOSSARY OF NAME PLACES
Connected with THE GREAT WAR 1914–1918. MOSTLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE OPERATIONS OF NEW ZEALAND DIVISIONS. These Names are Commemorated in Bronze Tablets on THE V.C. WAR MEMORIAL PARADE, CAROLINE BAY, TIMARU.
Transcribed from: Source: Visitors' guide to Timaru and Victoria Cross records. Aoraki Heritage Collection, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/297
WESTERN FRONT.
FRANCE AND FLANDERS.
AISNE.—A river in France. The Cyclist Battalion and Otago Mounted Rifles were entrenched near the Aisne with the XXII Corps in 1918.
ALBERT.—A Picardy town close behind the British Zone at the battle of the Somme in 1916. It was the scene of much fierce fighting and was taken and destroyed many times, during these engagements the town was totally destroyed.
AMIENS.—A large French city behind the area of the Somme fighting. In March, 1918, the German attack drove very near this important railway centre and both N.Z. and Australian troops played an important part in saving it.
ANTWERP.—The Belgian Port to which a hasty organized expedition was dispatched at the beginning of the war to resist the invasion of this important town, but Antwerp fell into the hands of the Germans and was occupied by them throughout the war.
ARMENTIERES.—An industrial town in northern France. The N.Z. Division that first entered the line in France (May, 1916) was quartered in the neighbourhood of this place and reserve brigades lived in the town.
ARRAS.—A town in northern France well known for its cloth manufacturing industry. It was close to the front line throughout the war. The N.Z. Division troops operated in this locality.
BAPAUME.—A Picardy town captured by the N.Z. Division in August, 1918. This town had been taken by the British during the German retreat to the Hindenburgh line early in 1917 and retaken by the Germans in 1918.
BEAUVOIS.—One of the large villages captured by the N.Z. Division in the final advance of October, 1918. It is situated on the Cambrai–Le Cateau Road.
BELL VUE.—Bellvue Spur was the locality where many of the strongest German pillboxes and thickest wire entanglements were situated causing enormously severe casualties to the 2nd and 3rd N.Z. Brigades in the attack on Passchendaele on the 12th October, 1917.
BETHUNE.—A town close to the front line some miles south of Armentieres. It is well known to all troops who fought near the Neuve Chapelle, Lens and Loos area.
BASSEVILLE.—A hamlet just south of Messines where the N.Z. Division (particularly the 2nd Brigade) had a great deal of heavy fighting during the weeks following the Messines battle.
BRIASTRE.—A village near Beauvois which the N.Z. Division passed through in the last month of the war during the final advance.
CAMBRAI.—An old and historically famous town in N.W. France. It was occupied by the Germans until October, 1918, when it was taken by the British. The N.Z. Division advanced within view of Cambrai on this occasion.
COLINCAMPS.—A small Picardy village where the leading N.Z. troops sent to assist in stemming the German attack in March, 1917, first encountered the enemy, and checked and drove him back.
COURCELLES.—A village about half a mile from Colincamps where the N.Z. troops saw a good deal of active war service.
CREVECOEUR.—A village on the Escaut canal taken by the N.Z. Division early in October, 1918.
ESNES.—Captured by the N.Z. Division on the 8th October, 1918.
ESTAIRES.—A town in Flanders well known to the N.Z. troops who served in 1916 and early 1917. It was a reserve billets area.
ETAPLES.—The base camps for drafts and reinforcements coming from England to join the armies in France were situated here.
FLERS.—Captured and held by the 3rd N.Z. Rifle Brigade in September, 1916. Of this N.Z. Division’s fighting the Army Commander said in a special Order: “Their success in the Flers neighbourhood will rank high among the best achievements of the British Army.”
FLEURBAIX.—A village south of Armentieres which gave the name to a sector where the N.Z. Division held the line during the 1916–1917 winter.
FRICOURT.—One of the strongly fortified villages in the forward German trench system captured by the British on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, 1916.
GINCHY.—A fortified village round which heavy fighting occurred in the battle of the Somme, 1916.
GOMMECOURT.—Gommecourt Wood was one of the most elaborately fortified positions in the German trench system during the battle of the Somme in 1916, and resisted British attacks for many months. Some fighting in 1918 it was in the N.Z. Divisional area.
HAVRINCOURT.—Havrincourt Wood was taken by the N.Z. Division in September, 1918, during the final series of British advances.
HEBUTERNE.—A village in the Somme area. In its neighbourhood the N.Z. Division first closed the gap driven by the German attack between the 2nd and 5th British armies in March, 1918.
HERBIGNIES.—A small village almost in the Forest of Mormal and taken by the N.Z. Division in its last battle of the war.
HOOGE.—East of Ypres on the Menin Road. Noted for heavy fighting in its neighbourhood during the war. All New Zealanders passed through Hooge on the way to and from the line during the 1917–1918 winter.
HOUPLINES.—A small village immediately north of Armentieres. Many New Zealanders did their first term of trench duty just outside this village.
KEMMEL.—Mount Kemmel is one of the commanding features rising out of the Flanders plains. It afforded an extensive view over all the battle areas from Ypres to Armentieres.
LA SIGNY.—A farm on the commanding ridge near Hebuterne. A New Zealand attack against this ridge on the 30th March, 1918, was extraordinarily successful over 100 machine guns being captured from the enemy with very small loss to the attacking battalions.
LE CATEAU.—A town in N.W. France, which gave its name to the battle of August 25th, 1914, in which the Second British Army Corps under General Smith-Dorrien made its famous stand during the retreat from Mons.
LE QUESNOY.—A town with 17th century fortifications and the last place of any considerable size captured by the N.Z. Divisions during the War. It was taken by assault with scaling ladders on the 4th November, 1918, a week before the Armistice.
LILLE.—A large manufacturing city near the Belgian border in northern France. From Armentieres its factory chimneys could be seen. It was recaptured from the Germans in 1918, but was held by them during the greater part of the war.
LONGSART.—A hamlet near Esnes captured in the course of the Somme advance in October, 1918.
LOOS.—A mining town in Northern France notable for the great and costly British attack made in 1915, and subsequently the scene of much fighting during the greater part of the war.
LOUVAIN.—A Belgian town where notorious atrocities were committed by one of the German divisions during the invasion of Belgium at the beginning of the war.
MARCOING.—A village on the Escaut canal near Masnieres, associated with the advance of Auckland and Wellington infantry at the end of September, 1918.
MARNE.—A French river and the line on which the initial German advance in 1914 was checked and whence the invading armies were pushed back to the Aisne.
MASNIERES.—The N.Z. Division passed close to this village which is situated on the Escaut canal a few miles from Cambrai. This was in the advance to Crevecoeur at the end of September, 1918.
MESSINES.—A small town situated on a commanding ridge between Ypres and Armentieres. The British attack on this ridge on the 7th June, 1917, was one of the most perfectly prepared operations of the war. On this day the town was taken by the N.Z. Division.
METEREN.—A village near Bailleul, known to the New Zealanders as a back area village in Flanders. It was taken by the Germans in their Lys attack in April, 1918, and the N.Z. Entrenching Battalions suffered heavily in this area.
MIRAUMONT.—One of the villages captured by the N.Z. Division at the first outset of the advance to victory in August, 1918.
MONS.—Famous as the place of the first encounter of the British Expeditionary Forces with the Germans in August, 1914.
NIEPPE.—On the Bailleul–Armentieres road, the locality for N.Z. Reserve Battalions during the occupation of the La Biez sector in June, July and August, 1917.
NIEUPORT.—A Belgian coastal town on the extreme north flank of the Allied line in Flanders.
PASSCHENDAELE.—A town on the highest part of the ridges overlooking Ypres from the east. In an attack aimed at this place during appalling weather conditions on 12th October, 1917, the N.Z. Division suffered its one reverse in a major operation. The progress of the attacking troops was physically impossible, deep mud and uncut wire entanglements blocking the way. The casualties were extraordinarily heavy—the heaviest experienced by the N.Z. troops during any engagement in France.
PERONNE.—One of the well known large towns in the Somme area—it was taken and retaken several times by the opposing forces.
PLOEGSTEERT.—A famous Flanders wood, the scene of much fighting in the early days of the war. It was held by the N.Z. Division from February to August, 1917.
PLUS DOUVE.—A farm on the western slope of Messines Ridge taken by the N.Z. Division on the 7th June, 1917. It is in the vicinity of Hill 63 where much fighting took place.
POLDERHOEK.—A Chateau situated on a commanding ridge north of Gheluvelt. It was the objective of a minor operation by the 2nd N.Z. Infantry Brigade in December, 1917.
POLYGON WOOD.—A wood east of Ypres. In the fighting of 1917 this wood was completely destroyed by shell fire. Throughout the 1917–1918 winter it was included in the sector held by the N.Z. Division.
POPERINGHE.—A Belgian town on the main road to Ypres and well known to all troops engaged in the Ypres area throughout the war.
POZIERES.—One of the fortified villages in the German positions of the first Somme battle in 1916. After resisting a number of attacks it was finally assaulted and taken by Australian troops.
PUSSIEUX.—One of the villages taken by the N.Z. Division in August, 1918, during the final advance to victory.
RHEIMS.—A famous French Cathedral town which was close to the front line throughout the war, and suffered much damage from shell fire.
ROSSIGNOL.—A wood cleared by the N.Z. Division just prior to the series of advances which ended the war.
SAILLY.—There are two Sailly’s well known to New Zealanders; Sailly-sur-la-Lys during Flanders days in 1916 and early 1917, and Sailly-au-Bois where one of the Brigade headquarters was located in the second Somme battles from March to August, 1918.
SOMME.—A river in N.W. France which gave the name to the most bitterly contested and prolonged battles of the war which lasted from July to November, 1916, and in the course of which each side suffered approximately half a million casualties.
ST. OMER.—A large railway junction in the war area of the British Army zone in northern France, and at one time the Headquarters of the British Expeditionary Forces.
ST. QUENTIN.—A town of considerable size in North West France which figured prominently in the history of the war.
ST. YVES.—A hamlet on a small knob just inside the British front line forward of Ploegsteert Wood. It was in the New Zealand sector from February to August, 1917.
THIEPVAL.—A strong German centre of resistance established by the Germans in this village before the opening of the battle of the Somme in 1916. It resisted British attacks for many months.
TOURCOING.—A manufacturing centre near Lille. It was occupied by the Germans till the last few weeks of the war.
TRESCAULT.—A village near Havrincourt wood. The line of the N.Z. Divisions advance in September, 1918, passed close to the right of this place.
WARNETON.—A hamlet between Messines and the Lys River. The N.Z. Division had some hard fighting here shortly after the battle of Messines (1917).
VIMY RIDGE.—A ridge near Arras principally noted for the Canadian attack which wrested control from the Germans in April, 1917.
YPRES.—A famous Belgian city which was entirely destroyed during the war and in the defence of which the British and allied armies suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties.
ZONNEBEKE.—A village a short distance east of Ypres situated within the Ypres salient.
EASTERN FRONT.
EGYPT—GALLIPOLI—PALESTINE.
EGYPT.—By a strange circumstance the oldest civilised country on earth was selected as the cradle where volunteer soldiers from the youngest countries were assembled in the service of the greatest Empire that exists or has ever existed. Here among surroundings that date back thousands of years before the Christian era Australian and New Zealand troops were joined and trained for the great adventure connected with the invasion of Gallipoli, an adventure that involved great sacrifice of life, thus cementing a unity to be known for all time under the sacred name of ANZAC.
ISMAILIA.—A garrisoned post on the Suez Canal to which N.Z. soldiers were dispatched in January, 1915, from Egypt.
KANTARA.—Another strongly garrisoned post on the Canal to which men from the N.Z. Infantry Regiments were posted, and where they received their first baptism of fire on the night of the 2nd February, 1915.
SERAPEUM.—A strongly garrisoned position about 20 miles south of Ismailia and 40 miles south of Kantara. On the night of the 2nd February, 1915, at the same time as the Turks attacked Kantara, an attempt was made to cross the canal in pontoons. Men belonging to the Nelson Company of the Canterbury Regiment played an important part in defeating this movement and enemy was repulsed and suffered heavy loss. The first casualties experienced by the New Zealand forces in the War occurred here, one Sergeant of the Nelson Company was wounded and a private died of wounds received in this engagement.
ZEITOUN.—The military camp in Egypt situated about 8 miles from Cairo where the New Zealand troops were trained and from which the divisions for Gallipoli and Palestine were dispatched into active service.
ANZAC.—A name formed from the initial letters of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. First used (written A. and N.Z.A.C.) in Egypt when the Army Corps was formed. It soon became ANZAC and the name and was obvious that the full stops were unnecessary. It gave the name to Anzac Cove, a little Bay where the principal landing of Australian and New Zealand troops was made on the 25th April, 1915.
CHUNUK BAIR.—A ridge about 800 feet high on the Sari Bair below Hill Q and above Rhododendron Spur.
GABA TEPE.—A headland about a mile and a quarter south of the Anzac right flank. The Anzac landing was originally known as the Gaba Tepe landing. Most of the earlier gazetted decorations were prefaced “in the neighbourhood of Gaba Tepe” which really means Anzac.
GALLIPOLI.—The name of the Gallipoli Peninsula is derived from a seaport town of Turkey in Europe at the N.E. extremity of the Dardanelles and 130 miles S.W. of Constantinople. The invasion of Gallipoli with the object of capturing the Dardanelles was secretly planned and the memorable landing of British, Australian and New Zealand troops was made on the 25th April, 1915, but after prolonged fighting the evacuation of Gallipoli was carried out successfully in the closing days of that year without a single casualty. The final evacuation of the Peninsula was made at Cape Helles on the 8th January, 1916, closing one of the most valiant but unsuccessful exploits in the history of the British Empire.
KRITHIA.—In May, 1915, reinforcements were landed near Cape Helles, its objective being an attack on Achi Baba through Krithia. Although assisted by a large number of battleships, including the “Queen Elizabeth,” the vessels storming the hills in protection of the landing force, the attack proved unsuccessful. The subsequent attack on Krithia was equally futile and Achi Baba remained impregnable throughout the occupation of Gallipoli.
QUINN’S POST.—A famous front line post at the head of Monash Gully, the salient of the Anzac line. It was named after Major Quinn of the 15th Australian Infantry Brigade who was killed defending this post.
SARI BAIR.—The name given to the commanding main feature which lay in front of the troops at Anzac. It consisted of a tangled mass of hills and watercourses inland from Anzac and Suvla culminating in Hill 971 and was never wrested from the Turks.
SUVLA.—A bay on the Gallipoli Peninsula to the left of Anzac from which an attempt to launch new troops against Sari Bair from the left flank ended in failure.
AMMAN.—A Turkish garrison town situated on the Hedjaz Railway. It was strongly held and repulsed an attack of Allied troops in March, 1918. N.Z.M.R. suffered severely in this attack (it was subsequently captured by General Chaytor’s Forces in September, 1918).
ES SALT.—A town in the mountains of Moab beyond the Jordan—familiar to N.Z. Troops during operations against Amman (captured September, 1918).
GAZA.—A town of 40,000 inhabitants on the Palestine Coast. Associated with doings of Samson; it was there the destroyed the temple of Dagon. The N.Z.M.R. Brigade was associated with other troops in futile attacks in March and April, 1917. (The city fell to General Allenby in November, 1917).
JAFFA.—The seaport of Jerusalem—the name means “beautiful.” The town itself does not justify this claim but the surrounding country does. Surrendered to the N.Z.M.R. Brigade 16th November, 1917.
JERICHO.—A town in the Jordan Valley. Surrendered to Auckland Regiment N.Z.M.R. 20th February, 1918.
PALESTINE.—The Homeland of the Jews—under Turkish domination for centuries until released by victorious Allied Troops in December, 1917—the scene of much fighting by N.Z.M.R. Brigade.
RAFA.—A Turkish post on boundary between Egypt and Palestine. Captured by British Forces (of which N.Z.M.R. were part) on 9th January, 1917.
BAGHDAD.—Capital of Iraq standing on both banks of the Tigris River and situated about 300 miles from the head of the Persian Gulf. The city is the most famous city in the Moslem East. It was captured in March, 1917, and remained under British control till the end of the war.
MARQUETTE.—This tablet commemorates the loss of the “Marquette” which was sunk by a German submarine whilst conveying troops from Egypt to Salonika. The heavy loss of life included a number of New Zealand nurses and other units of the N.Z. Ambulance Brigade.
MESOPOTAMIA.—Part of the Iraq (Arab territory) lying between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the scene of many ancient battles. Operations in this area were conducted by the Indian Government mainly with Indian native troops. The object of the campaign was to divert the strength of the Turkish defence of Palestine and Gallipoli, also to protect the highway to India from the Persian Gulf.
SALONIKA.—A great commercial city of Greece and chief European port of the Aegean Sea at the head of the Gulf of Salonika. In 1915 an Anglo-French force landed here, and after the evacuation of Gallipoli and the abdication of King Constantine of Greece, a huge allied force was collected which finally in 1918 completely crushed the Bulgarian alliance with Germany.
NAVAL ENGAGEMENTS.
FALKLAND.—Following the destruction by a German squadron of three British armoured cruisers off Coronel, on the coast of Chile, South America, on 1st November, 1914, a squadron of British battle-cruisers left Portsmouth secretly and succeeded in reaching the Falkland Islands (the southernmost British possession in the South Atlantic Ocean), without the knowledge of the enemy. The German squadron, which was steaming up from Cape Horn with the object of seizing the Falkland Islands and establishing a base there, was surprised by the British fleet on 8th December, 1914. Although the Germans scattered, all save one of their ships were destroyed in a running action and Coronel more than avenged.
JUTLAND.—The decisive naval action of the War was fought in the eastern arm of the North Sea off the coast of Jutland, a province of Denmark, north of the Kiel Canal. On 31st May, 1916, the German High Seas Fleet emerged from Kiel and Wilhelmshaven and was promptly engaged by the British First Battle-Cruiser Squadron, which endeavoured to hold the enemy until the Grand Fleet arrived. The Germans retired in disorder when the heavily-armed British battleships appeared on the horizon. In the intervening hours both sides had suffered heavy losses, but the German High Seas Fleet was so crippled as to be useless for months afterwards—it did not emerge again while the war lasted—while the British Fleet, after completing fuel, was ready immediately to fight another action, if this had been offering.
OSTEND.—A well-known Belgian Port and watering-place, and the terminus of a great canal system. After being taken by the Germans in August, 1914, it was strongly fortified by them and used as a submarine base. In consequence, and also because of its proximity to both France and England, it was closely watched by the Royal Navy (Dover Patrol) throughout the War, and frequently bombarded by monitors protected by destroyers and drifters from submarine nets. It was also raided by special naval detachments.
ZEEBRUGGE.—A town and port on the Belgian coast which, though considerably smaller than Ostend, was used by the Germans in a similar way, and by 1916 had become their principal submarine base. Like Ostend, it was closely watched by the Dover Patrol of the Royal Navy throughout the War and bombarded at regular intervals. On 22nd April, 1918, a specially recruited volunteer naval detachment, in the course of a thrilling action, landed on the pier, and there was considerable hand-to-hand fighting while the patrol itself successfully blocked the channel to the port by sinking H.M.S. “Vindictive” and other old vessels in the fairway and thus putting Zeebrugge out of action as a submarine base.
Did you know at one point we had to fortify the bay for the Second World War?
The fortification of the Bay occurred after Japan entered the Second World War. Because of this escalation of the war, Caroline Bay was treated as a potential defence risk, particularly as a possible landing site. Wartime conditions required civil defence and military preparedness in coastal towns such as Timaru. Public recreation at the Bay was restricted as part of the war effort.
According to a book celebrating the history of the bay: A Century of Canivals, I learned that the fortifications put in place were:
- Large concrete cylinders were laid on their sides and set into the sand to block potential landing areas.
- These concrete obstacles extended from the Benvenue cliffs across Caroline Bay to the port.
- A gun emplacement was established on the Smithfield freezing works headland.
- An army camp was set up at the Showgrounds.
- An air raid shelter was constructed by digging into the clay bank in Station Street.
- The air raid shelter had three entrances.
The fortifications were undertaken as part of New Zealand’s wartime defence measures.
The presence of a gun emplacement and an army camp indicates involvement by the New Zealand Army.
The air raid shelter and coastal defences were part of civil defence preparations, likely organised in coordination with local authorities.
The Carnival Association and local community redirected all carnival profits to the Patriotic Fund during the war years, supporting the broader war effort.
Many usual volunteers were absent due to overseas war service, indicating direct local participation in the conflict.
Use of Caroline Bay for recreation was significantly limited during the war years.
Carnivals were transformed into Patriotic Carnivals with lighting restrictions and no New Year’s Eve bonfires.
All profits from carnivals during this period were donated to the Patriotic Fund.
Despite restrictions and adverse conditions, community support for patriotic fundraising remained strong.
I've been hunting for photos for a Caroline Bay timeline and came across this... are these the anti-tank concrete teeth that I heard about?
Ian Blackmore wrote on a WuHoo Timaru Facebook post in 2025: I can recall a couple of those concrete 'Tank Stops' positioned each side of the Bay Viaduct entrance at the bottom of the Bay Hill during WW[[. There was barbed wire stretched out across the sand to hinder enemy troops. John Smallridge wrote, they were Anti tank are dumped down patiti point.