Why do I have a New Zealand hero in my novel A Poppy in Remembrance?
I chose Nigel specifically because I wanted to honor the great sacrifice made in World War I by New Zealand.
They lost a lot of men and I want to acknowledge their sacrifice.
Memorial in Auckland
I knew nothing of the New Zealand sacrifice during WWI before I arrived in Auckland.
That 2002 first day, my family dumped our luggage at the motel and then went into the capital.
We ended at the Auckland War Memorial Museum–where the top floor honored New Zealand soldiers lost in wars.
It’s a lovely, poignant spot.
We also visited a facsimile of trenches at that museum and got a sense of life at the Western Front–so far away from New Zealand.
Memorials in small towns
I didn’t think much of it at the time, but as we camped around the country, we traveled through small towns.
It seemed like every town had a reminder of men lost in battles far from their beautiful island home.
Not the one I saw, but similar. North East Valley School memorial, NZ War Memorial Commission
One in particular stuck with me.
At a little town near the ocean a statue stood in the middle of a roundabout.
A young soldier stood tall, WWI hat on his head, rifle in hand, backpack in place.
His face turned away, looking far above our tall caravan’s roof–as if wistfully remembering where he lost his life so long before.
Two weeks into our trip, the enormity of how many men died hit me.
New Zealanders mourned men everywhere.
A New Zealand hero
The casualty rates for New Zealanders was appalling.
More than 100,000 soldiers went to war over WWI’s four years, out of a population of about one million people. 2700 soldiers were Maoris, the indigenous people of New Zealand.
42% of military aged men in New Zealand served (Men ages 18 to 40). Nearly 16,700 soldiers died, 42,000 were injured.
If you include New Zealanders who died from war-related injuries within a few years following the war, the casualty rate hit 58%–the highest rate in the world.
They’re often lumped together with the Australian army and most people know the acronym: ANZAC. (Australian, New Zealand Army Corps).
They trained in many places, fought in France, Gallipoli and the Middle East.
A number of them visited Oswald Chambers’ YMCA hut at Zeitoun–since their camp was right next door.
Since my character Nigel in A Poppy in Remembrance served in the army, I made him a New Zealand native who happened to be in England at the start of the war studying at Oxford.
Why fight?
Caterpillar Valley Cemetery (Wikipedia Commons)
New Zealand and Australia were both members of the British Empire.
As “colonialists” they had something to prove–they were as good as the nation their ancestors left behind.
Many were wranglers, farmers and one of the slang terms used for them was “diggers.” (They spent a lot of time digging trenches).
They proved their merit well and fought at the Somme–which is where my husband and I visited, for that reason.
Many are buried at the cemetery in Longueval called “Caterpillar Valley Cemetery,” where they fell.
In A Poppy in Remembrance, Claire asked Nigel why men go to war.
His answer:
Nigel stared at his typewriter, his face a mask, his voice without inflection. “A man enlists because he has no choice. His nation demands it of him; his father suggests he’s unworthy if he does not; and strangers bedevil him for cowardice. A man volunteers for a hundred reasons; few of them good.”
He was commissioned a week later and served honorably.
Far from home
The lands down under are a long way from the Western Front that coiled across France during World War I.
By the time my New Zealand hero Nigel arrived at the Somme any beauty was long gone–scraped away by the horrors of trench warfare and continual barrage.
(Wikipedia Commons)
In those muddy trenches it must have been so difficult to remember the clear blue sky, flourishing green fields and beauty of their home lands.
So many fought, so many died.
I wanted to honor them with Nigel Bentley-Smith.
You’ll have to read the novel to find out if he got the girl in the end.
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The need to honor New Zealand soldiers’ sacrifice during WWI with a hero. Click to Tweet
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