Sportsmen who lost their lives in Flanders
With huge goodwill and support from national sports federations and other organisations in New Zealand, two expats in Belgium have been enquiring into, researching and compiling a booklet that identifies and describes some of the prominent New Zealand sportsmen who lost their lives on or close to the Ypres Salient during World War One.
By focusing on sportsmen they hope the publication will provide an insight into the very real impact the war in Flanders had across New Zealand society and in every corner of the country, as well as its legacy today. The booklet also aims to show in a representative way that those who died in Flanders are not simply names on graves and memorials but were real people with real lives, real ambitions, real achievements.
The subjects range from All Blacks and New Zealand Maori players to cricketers, boxers, tennis players, mountaineers, motor racers and more. The most well-known is, of course, Dave Gallaher, Captain of the 1905 "Originals" who died of wounds he received at Passchendaele.
The booklet will be published in both Flemish (Dutch) and English and will be available free of charge from museums on the former Salient. Three of those featured in the booklet appear below:
Autini Pitara Kaipara
Poverty Bay Captain, North Island & NZ Maori Rugby Player
Prowse Point Cemetery near Messines
Autini Kaipara was one of New Zealand rugby's most outstanding second five-eighths of the decade leading up to World War One. The son of Takawhata Pitara Kaipara and the husband of Hina Katerina Kaipara, he became a second lieutenant in the Maori (Pioneer) Battalion. He was killed in action at the age of 30 on August 4, 1917.
Autini Kaipara represented Poverty Bay from 1906 until 1913. Captain of the side from 1910, he led two Ranfurly Shield challenges against Auckland as well as playing for the North Island in 1910, 1911 and 1912. He represented New Zealand Maori in 1910 and 1911, was a member of the North Island Country team that toured the South Island in 1912 and also played for the North Island B team in 1914.
Autini Kaipara's status was such that he was described by the media of the time as the "india rubber man" and was still being written about decades after his death. In 1953 a correspondent wrote in "Te Ao Hou": "... As a young fellow in Gisborne I have happy recollections of seeing outstanding Maori footballers in Poverty Bay. One such man was A. P. Kaipara - in the opinion of S. S. Dean, noted rugby administrator - one of the greatest five-eighths New Zealand has produced."
Autini Kaipara was a law clerk and was also registered as an interpreter under the Native Land Act. He lived in Gisborne where, in the years immediately prior to the War, he played for the Young Maori Party Club, a club that still exists today.
With thanks to Bob Luxford and the New Zealand Rugby Museum, Palmerston North
Arthur Talbot
Explorer and Mountaineer
Tyne Cot Memorial; New Zealand Apse, Panel Two; Passchendaele
Second Lieutenant A. E. (Arthur) Talbot was 41 when he died at the Battle of Passchendaele on October 12, 1917. A member of the Second Battalion, Canterbury Regiment, he left a wife in Timaru and a daughter he had never seen.
Born into a farming family near Temuka, South Canterbury, Arthur Talbot became a teacher at Greymouth High School. But it was climbing he was known for.
He was a member of the W. G. Grave group which, among other achievements, identified a possible route to Milford by discovering what was later named the Grave Talbot Pass. The Grave expeditions also recorded a number of first ascents and are described in the book "Beyond the Southern Lakes".
Following Arthur Talbot's death at Passchendaele, what is now a much photographed mountain at the head of the Hollyford Valley was named for him - Mt Talbot. Sir Thomas Hunter, another member of the Grave Group, described Arthur Talbot as a reserved man of courage and fidelity who would not let a companion down.
Reading more: "Beyond the Southern Lakes"; Anita Crozier; Reed Publishing (NZ) Ltd; Auckland; 2001 edition
With thanks to Hilary Talbot, granddaughter of Arthur Talbot.
(Photograph of Arthur Talbot, left, and W.G. Grave: Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.)
George Wilson
Canterbury Cricketer
Polygon Wood Cemetery; Zonnebeke
George Charles Lee Wilson was a Canterbury leg-spinner who, in February 1914, played against the private Australian team which was led by Arthur Sims and included the great Victor Trumper.
The Saturday of the match has gone down as one of the most remarkable days in New Zealand cricket history - Trumper and Sims shared an eighth wicket stand of 433, still the world first-class record for that wicket, with Trumper making 293 in 190 minutes. George Wilson did not take a wicket but returned good figures in the circumstances of 19 overs, two maidens, for 95 runs.
George Wilson also played five representative matches for Canterbury that season and recorded best bowling figures of 7-80 against Wellington. In his total of six first-class matches that season, he took 31 wickets for 716 runs at an average of 23.09. He also recorded two 10-wicket matches and four five-wicket innings. The figures mark him out as a quality leg spinner.
The son of Samuel and Jane Wilson, of Christchurch, George Wilson was a carpenter before he became a private in the First Battalion of the Canterbury Regiment. He died on December 14, 1917, at the age of 28.
Another member of the same Canterbury XI that played the Australians also died in the war. He was Rupert George Hickmott, an opening batsman who played 17 matches for Canterbury from 1911. Rupert Hickmott died aged 22 in 1916 on The Somme in Northern France.)
With thanks to Francis Payne and New Zealand Cricket