Dave Gallaher - Captain
Sergeant Dave Gallaher, captain of the 1905 All Black "Originals", was fatally wounded early in the morning of October 4 as the successful push to take ‘s Graventafel Spur took place.
In drizzly rain, his Second Battalion of the Auckland Regiment had advanced through the deep mud of a small river and up the slopes ready to take over from the leading battalions for the second stage of the attack.
It was as they took over that they came under heavy fire from a German stronghold named Korek, situated on the highest point of 's Graventafel ridge, and Dave Gallaher became one of the 330 New Zealanders to lose their lives in what is known as the Battle of Broodseinde. His grave is at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Nine Elms Cemetery and is frequently visited by everyone from All Blacks and French rugby greats through to small groups of New Zealanders and rugby fans from other countries as they pass through the region.
"In death, he acquired a mystique. His grave became a shrine," Terry McLean wrote in his 1987 book New Zealand Rugby Legends.
Dave Gallaher was born in Ramelton, County Donegal, on October 30, 1873. In May 1878 the family left Ireland for a new life in New Zealand and initially farmed at Katikati in the Bay of Plenty before moving to Auckland in the 1890s.
First Ranfurly Shield match
At 183 cms tall and weighing 84 kg, he was a big man for his time and, in fact, began his rugby career as a hooker in the old scrum formation. He became a departmental head at a freezing works and a "stalwart" of the Ponsonby Rugby Club, winning the Auckland senior championship with them in 1897. Between 1896 and 1909 he played 26 representative matches for Auckland, including the first Ranfurly Shield match against Wellington.
In January 1901 he joined up to serve in the Boer War, giving his age as 24 rather than the 27 years he was. It was a habit which was to follow him around - for the 1905 All Blacks "Originals" tour to the UK and France he gave his age as 29 when he was 32, when he joined up for World War One he put his birth date three years forward, while his headstone at the Nine Elms Cemetery records him as 41 whereas he was, in fact, a few days short of his 44th birthday when he died.
In South Africa he saw service in Transvaal, the Orange Free State and the Cape Colony, first as a corporal and later as a squadron sergeant major in the 10th New Zealand Mounted Rifles.
Training for Passchendaele
Following the death of his youngest brother in France in 1916, Dave Gallaher, a married man, a father and over the age of 40, signed up on July 25. He was made a sergeant shortly before the Battle of Messines in June 1917and his unit was in action near La Basseville a few kilometres from Messines later that month. At the end of August the New Zealand battalions began training for Passchendaele in the area around Lumbres, south-west of Dunkirk in what is now known as the Pas de Calais in France.
On October 1, the Auckland battalions marched through what remained of Ypres and on the evening of October 3 were camped at what is now St Julian-Langemark preparing for the next morning's battle. His battalion was part of the second wave of New Zealand's attack, stepping over the first wave at 8 am and tasked with continuing the attack behind the advancing artillery barrage as far as Ravebeek.
Evacuated from battlefield
It was very shortly after the "step over" that Dave Gallaher was wounded in the head. He was evacuated from the battlefield to an Australian Advanced Dressing Station on Abraham Heights, some 700 metres from where the New Zealand Memorial now stands at 's Graventafel. Later he was transferred to the Third Australian Casualty Clearing Station near Poperinge but died of his wounds later that day.
Of the nine Gallaher brothers, six had joined up for service in the war and three lost their lives - Dave, Henry and Douglas, the youngest. Dave Gallaher was also one of the 13 All Blacks who died in the war.
Dave Gallaher had become All Black number 97 when he made his debut on Saturday July 11, 1903, against Wellington Province at Wellington. His international debut came just over a month later on Saturday August 15, 1903, against Australia at Sydney, and his last Test was as captain of the "Originals" on New Year's Day 1906 against France in Paris.
He played six Tests, four as captain, and a total of 36 All Black matches, 27 as captain. The only Test match he lost was the match against Wales that featured the controversial try in Cardiff during the "Originals" tour.
All images on this page are published with the kind permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library. Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, must be obtained before any re-use of these images.