12/301 ~ HARVEY (ka “Harry”) JOHN BRUCE
A message from James Koia of Geraldine was posted on MRNZ’s Facebook page in 2022 together with a picture of a pocket watch Fob, and read as follows:
Hi, I’m not sure this is something you do but my brother and I found this silver and gold fob medal while metal detecting in Geraldine, South Canterbury. We would love to be able to return it to the recipient’s descendants. We have done a bit of research and found some information out. From the Hallmarks we know it was made by Joseph & Richard Griffin in Chester, England in 1902. The initials on the medal appear to be “HJB.” There was a Sgt Harvey (Harry) John Bruce who grew up in this area and whose parents also lived in the area. But that’s as far as we’ve got. As we have been unable to tie the fob medal to him we haven’t tried contacting his descendants. Any help would be much appreciated, James.
I recalled seeing a newspaper article some time ago about metal detecting and in trawling the internet found the article dated 24 February 2022, entitled “Twin treasure hunters” written by Timaru Courier journalist Shelley Inon. Shelley’s story recounted the exploits of twin brothers James and Richard Koia of Geraldine who, new to treasure-hunting, had had considerable success since purchasing their state of the art metal detectors. The last part of the article was relevant to the message James had emailed me: “….. They still had one treasure they were trying to find descendants for: a fob medal found under some trees at the Geraldine Domain last year. James said ..“From the hallmarks we can tell it was made by Joseph and Richard Griffin in Chester, England in 1902. The initials on it are HJB,” James said. It was made of silver and rose gold.”
I contacted James and we discussed what and who he had found. James said that he had checked the local phone books for any sign of a link to the BRUCE surname but with no luck. Unsure if he was actually on the right track, James contacted MRNZ for assistance to try to locate a surviving relative to who they could hopefully return the Fob. Not long before finding the Fob, the twins had found two gold medallions at Browns Beach (near Temuka), each detected several months apart. These were successfully reunited with the descendant of a WW1 soldier from Temuka, 38864 Sjt-Maj William J. Husband – CIR, 25th Reinforcements.
Two days after receiving James’s email I had an answer for him. He had been correct with identifying the owner of the Fob. Harry Bruce had lived in South Canterbury in the early years of last century. Ancestry records confirmed this and with more research and connecting of dots, I was able to trace two of Harry’s great-grand nephews, Luke in Australia and Dr. Zane Bruce (a geologist) in Wellington. Luke immediately pointed me towards their father who lived in Staveley, a rural area west of Timaru, and who’s other son Hamish lives next door. Richard Roy Bruce, known as Roy, was the son of Harry’s younger brother Robert Allan BRUCE (1895-1975) and wife Fanny Augusta Elizabeth DIXON (1898-1974). Roy was the last surviving Bruce family member of his generation and therefore was also the custodian of the Bruce family memorabilia.
The Bruce dynasty
Harry Bruce’s grandfather Thomas BRUCE had been educated at Battersea College in London, his home town being Evington Lodge in Leicestershire. At the age of 21, Thomas and two others from Battersea College left Plymouth for New Zealand as Canterbury Association fare-paying (unassisted) passengers, suggesting they were of some means however there accommodation in a fore cabin of the ship, quite the worst there was, may have indicated otherwise. The Isabella Hercus departed Gravesend on 24 October 1850 and arrived at Lyttelton in March 1851.
Within five years of his arrival Thomas had married in Christchurch to Ellen GEE, a native of Lambeth in London, and established his first home at 592 Gloucester Street, now at corner of Linwood Avenue. Thomas bought four large sections on the Selwyn River, near Lake Ellesmere which he and Ellen moved to and farmed successfully while raising a family of five. An energetic proponent of agricultural and pastoral industry development in early Canterbury, Thomas developed additional sheep farming properties at Otaio (Waimate), Ashley and Saltwater Creek (North Canterbury).
A notable member of the Canterbury Agricultural & Pastoral Association, he was President and Vice-President of at different times. Thomas’s farming businesses made him a wealthy and respected man. He bought a large 16 room residence at 24 Hereford Street (now 365) for the family which he named “Evington Lodge” after his home town in Leicestershire. Thomas Bruce died at the Lodge on the 1st of May, 1887 at just 56 years of age. Ellen his wife died in 1928 and both were buried in the Linwood Cemetery.
Thomas and Ellen Bruce’s family of five children consisted of four boys and a girl: Thomas Holwell “Holly” BRUCE (1857-1951), Harvey “Harry” Aulsebrook BRUCE (1858-1934),** Arthur Shackleton BRUCE (1860-1938), Ellen Annie “Cissie” BRUCE – unmarr (1862-1957) and Alfred Selwyn BRUCE (1866-1936).** The boys all followed their father into the farming industry in the Canterbury region initially. It was also noteworthy that while researching the Bruce family, I discovered that sons Harvey and Alfred together with their uncle Walter Gee (mother’s brother) had submitted Letters Patent in 1896 for an “Improved method of and apparatus for operating roller blinds.”
Arthur Shackleton Bruce
Third son Arthur Shackleton Bruce was born on 27 April 1860 at Lyttelton, was schooled in Lyttelton and attended Christ’s College briefly for one year (1875). Arthur had had enough of schooling and headed home to the farm to work for his father. By 1888 Arthur had gained sufficient experience and capital to secure a freehold property at Prebbleton. Here he built a house he named “Bruce Coe Lodge.” In the intervening years he had also made the acquaintance of Christchurch born Helen Mary LADBROOKE (1860-1939), a career school teacher who had various teaching appointments in North Canterbury schools. After Helen’s mother died in 1861 her father re-married while living at Oxford and had several more children. Helen’s teaching career began there and she was later joined in the profession by one of her half-sisters, Charlotte.
In the late 1880s Arthur Bruce took up the position of Farm Manager at St. Andrews in South Canterbury, which is about 20 kilometers south of Timaru. Arthur and Helen subsequently married at Temuka in May 1889 and the first of three children was born the following year at Prebbleton, Thomas Arthur Bruce in 1890. He was followed by Harvey John “Harry” Bruce in 1891 and Laurence Ladbrooke Bruce in 1892. Laurence sadly did not survive and was buried with his grandparents in Prebbleton.
In 1893, Arthur became the Farm Manager of “Bankfield”, a large property about five kilometers west of St Andrews, midway towards the Esk Valley. Arthur’s family moved from Prebbleton to “Bankfield” in 1893 where the first of a further five children were born. The first was Ida Marjory Bruce in 1893 however she died just five years later. More Bruce boys followed – Robert Allan Bruce (1895-1975), Alfred Roy Bruce (1897-1970) and the first child of a new millennium, Charles Kenneth Bruce (1900-1973).
The new millennium also signaled a move for the Bruces to Fernside, Rangiora while Arthur managed a farm for the next few years at East Belt on the outskirts of Rangiora township. The Bruce’s last child was born at Fernside and named after her mother – Helen Mary ”Molly” [Bruce] WATSON (1903-1999).
Prior to the First World War the family was again on the move, back to South Canterbury to Kakahu Bush, a rural area west of Geraldine where Arthur and his now adult sons farmed. By 1920 Arthur was then sixty and not that far from retirement while also dealing with some health issues. He and Helen needed to be closer to facilities and so moved to a house they called “Windswept” in Darby St, Geraldine leaving Allan to manage the farm at Kakahu. The remainder of the Bruce men and families spread to other farming locations around Canterbury which included stays for varying length of time at Eiffleton, Ashburton, Orari Bridge, Four Peaks (Fairlie) and Coalgate over the ensuing years. Arthur and Helen eventually moved to Christchurch and a smaller cottage at 103 Bristol Street in St Albans. Here Helen died in 1932 and Arthur six years later in 1938 in his 79th year.
Sons volunteer for war
Unlike his brothers, Harvey John Bruce who called himself “Harry” (Harvey was not a name Harry particularly cared for) chose a different path which took him away from the established Bruce farming heritage of his family. Born at Prebbleton on 25 March 1891, Harry was educated at both the Prebbleton and Esk Valley (near St. Andrews) schools. Harry’s secondary education was undertaken at Rangiora High School after the Bruce’s relocated to Fernside around 1900. All high school aged boys of 14-18 years were required by law to undertake military training in the resident School Cadet Battalion that most established secondary schools had. Military training was something Harry quickly showed an aptitude for. He was a crack shot with the rifle and a member of the Rangiora High School Cadet Battalion’s shooting team. The team was successful in winning the South Island championship medal for marksmanship.
When he left high school Harry (about 17) continued his military training with the Rangiora Rifles and one of the local mounted rifle units, possibly the Cust Mounted Rifles which would have been one of the closest mounted units to Fernside and Rangiora. All of the smaller units north of the Waimakariri River when combined for exercises formed the 1st Battalion, North Canterbury Mounted Rifles. Harry also started full-time work at the Rangiora branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Co-operative Association in High Street, Rangiora. Coincidently, Harry very likely would have known and worked with my own grand-uncle, Hubert “Lal” Martyn who was not only the same age as Harry but also attended Rangiora High School (as did my own father), was a member of the Rangiora Rifle Volunteers shooting team and, also an employee of the NZ Farmers Co-op! Unlike my uncle who stayed with the Farmers for most of his working life, Harry sought a profession and on 11 August 1911, joined the staff of the Rangiora branch of the Bank of New Zealand as a Clerk. In January 1913 he was transferred to the BNZ in Morrinsville.
Mounted Infantry
In Morrinsville, Harry (21) continued his military association by enlisting with the 6th (Hauraki) territorial battalion, an amalgamation of units from the Bay of Plenty and the odd Waikato unit, a mix of mounted and dismounted infantry. The unit had its origins with militia volunteer units of the 1860s which were constituted into a single entity in 1898, thereafter known as the 2nd (Hauraki) Battalion, Auckland Rifle Volunteers. When the Territorial Force (TF) was created in 1911 following the passing of the Defence Act 1909, the unit’s designation was changed to 6th (Hauraki) Regiment. One of Harry’s unit colleagues at this time was a young 23 year old London born gentleman and NZ champion swimmer, Bernard Cyril Freyberg. Bernard, also from Morrinsville at the time, had been commissioned in Nov 1911 as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 6th (Hauraki) Regiment. When war was declared in August 1914, he returned to England and secured a commission in the Royal Naval Division’s Hood Battalion. By September 1914 he was on the Belgian front.
Harry Bruce rose quickly from Private to Sergeant in the Hauraki’s and by 1914 had passed the necessary examination to be a commissioned Infantry officer. However the advent of World War 1 intervened in any promotion plans as the New Zealand government sought to quickly assemble an Infantry Brigade in response to the King’s request for support from the countries of the Empire after Britain declared war on Germany.
The Auckland (Infantry) Battalion as it was then known, was to be one of four regional infantry groupings (along with Canterbury, Otago and Wellington) which would make up the bulk of New Zealand Expeditionary Force’s (NZEF) infantry. In the Auckland District there were in existence four Infantry Regiments: the 3rd (Auckland), 6th (Hauraki), 15th (North Auckland), and 16th (Waikato). The regiments each provided a Company (about 120 soldiers) to form the 1st Auckland Battalion for service overseas. The four companies retained the names and badges of the territorial regiments from which they were drawn. Each Company consisted of four Platoons, the 6th Hauraki platoons being numbered 5, 6, 7, and 8. Each platoon was further sub-divided into four sections of 12 men.
12/301 Sergeant Harry Bruce
Service in the Territorial Force obligated its members to serve in New Zealand however service overseas was strictly voluntary. Territorial officers and soldiers were given preference to enlist for overseas service and very quickly filled the main Body’s infantry and mounted rifles establishment. Twenty three year old TF Sgt. Harry Bruce certainly didn’t hesitate. He had made significant progress since joining the Hauraki’s and was highly motivated towards military training and the lifestyle in general. Within days of war being declared on 4 August 1914, and Britain accepting the New Zealand government’s offer of an Expeditionary Force, Harry enlisted (as “Harry John Bruce”) for overseas service on 11 August 1914 at the Paeroa unit headquarters. Ironically Harry’s enlistment medical was dated the same day but shown as having being undertaken at Prebbleton! (must have been a sound barrier breaking trip from Paeroa to Prebbleton, Christchurch, or perhaps a little ‘creative’ administration to meet a need?).
Nine days after the outbreak of war the first draft of Hauraki volunteers left Paeroa for Epsom Camp which was established at Alexandra Park in Auckland. Here the volunteers were rapidly schooled on military structure of Infantry in the NZEF, routines and disciplinary requirements. Foot and arms drill, plus route marches of 15 miles (24kms) to Manurewa and back were a regular feature of the training. Time was also allowed for local leave and recreation.
Promotion
It was the norm for those who had held territorial force rank in general were reduced back to Private soldiers on enlistment as their skills and experience were not at the level of full-time professional soldiers holding the same rank however exceptions were made by necessity. In Harry’s case, his prior record and the fact he had passed his examination for commissioning no doubt accounted for his being permitted to retain his Sergeant’s rank. His promotion was formalized six days after his enlistment on 17 August, and he was appointed to take charge as the Platoon Sergeant of No.7 Platoon, 6th (Hauraki) Company.
The Main Body units of the NZEF embarked on their transport ships at Port Chalmers (Otagos), Lyttleton (Canterburys) and Auckland all around the same time in Sep/October 1914. The Auckland Battalion was embarked onto two ships, HMNZT 8 Star of India and HMNZT 12 Waimana. The ships co-located at Wellington however an unforeseen delay of three weeks while additional naval escort ships were awaited. The Auckland Battalion ships returned to Auckland for the duration. Finally, the 10-ship NZEF convoy was re-assembled at Wellington on 16 October and departed for Albany, Western Australia, via Hobart where a couple of AIF transports would join the convoy. Once in Albany, day leave was permitted while the convoy was re-configured with the addition of the 26 AIF transport ships. A course was then set for Suez, via Colombo. The voyage had been expected to terminate in England however on 3 Dec 1914 once through the Suez Canal, the ships put into Alexandria where troops, horses and equipment were offloaded. The Main Body was now to stay and train in Egypt. The Auckland Battalion was entrained to Zeitoun north of Cairo, where a NZEF Depot Training camp was to be established when the infantry battalions and mounted regiments arrived.
For the next month or so the battalion organized itself at Zeitoun and began training with long marches into the desert to acclimatize and condition the soldiers, along with plenty of marksmanship training. In January the NZ Brigade was dispatched to the town of Ismailia situated on the west bank of the Suez Canal about 80 km south of Port Said, the Mediterranean Sea entrance to the Canal. They were to reinforce the British and Indian units established in defended posts, to secure the Canal against Ottoman attack from east. The Auckland Battalion had its first taste of live action when the Ottomans launched their first and only concerted attempt to seize control of the Canal. The defences held and although superior in numbers, the Ottoman attack failed and they withdrew into the Sinai Desert.
Note: Private William Arthur Ham, 12th (Nelson) Company, Canterbury Battalion from Ngatimoti in Tasman, sadly became New Zealand’s first death of the war. On 3 Feb 1915 a Turkish bullet ricocheted off Willie’s rifle and entered his neck, breaking his spine. He died two days later on 5 Feb 1915 in the Ismailia Hospital, Egypt.
After four weeks in defence, the battalion was withdrawn on 26 Feb and returned to Zeitoun to continue training for an as yet unknown destination. The attack on Gallipoli was not made known until 4 April when battle orders were issued; the Auckland Battalion readied itself for embarkation.
Lemnos, Mudros & Anzac Cove
On 10 April 1915, the Auckland Battalion together with half of the Canterbury Battalion embarked on the TS Lutzow, a German liner that had been captured in August 1914 in the Suez Canal (later renamed HMT Huntsend). Sgt. Bruce’s No. 7 Platoon consisted of the four Sections numbered 9, 10, 11 and 12; Harry embarked with 9 Section. The Lutzow left for the island of Lemnos in the Aegean Sea which was the Australian and New Zealand forces base for hospitals, supplies and a refuge (rest camps). In spite of the reportedly lousy food on board Lutzow, the spirits of the men were high as they anticipated their long awaited crack at “Johnny Turk.” The Lutzow arrived at Lemnos on 12 April to join the 3,000 waiting Australians who had been at Lemnos since the 4th. Also on the island were thousands of British and French troops all waiting for the start of operations.
Lutzow steamed into Mudros Bay on the southern side of Lemnos. The harbour was a mass of shipping – there were battleships, cruisers, destroyers and submarines of the British Navy; auxiliary cruisers, Channel piquet boats, tugs, river boats, oil tanks, water tanks, colliers, store ships, quaint French men-of-war of peculiar construction, and Russian vessels, and then row after row of troop transports crowded with fighting-men. Atlantic liners, battered tramp steamers, boats of the Cunard line and the Castle Company were moored with the vessels of the Nord-Deutscher Lloyd, with Hamburg and Bremen boats, and with Turkish and Egyptian vessels. The troops remained aboard until the order for operations to commence was given.
The Landings, 25 April 1915
Three battalions of the Australian 3rd Brigade leave their transport which had been waiting in the darkness of the 24th at an appointed rendezvous point near the Gallipoli shore. The Ottomans have been aware of the impending attack since spotting the ship silhouettes around 0200, so are at the ready. The first wave of the Australian 3rd Brigade are towed in small craft towards the beach and start landing at around 0430 hours. The Ottomans have preemptively lit beacon fires on the beach as the boats approach. Regrettably for the Australians, they are about to land on the wrong beach! They are too far north and faced with steep up-hill cliff faces to scale. Ottoman opposition is instantaneous from the trenches above the Australians and casualties huge. Rifle, machine-gun and artillery fire pound the landing troops as they fight to get to the shore and under cover before advancing up the steep slopes of Ari Brunu ahead of them. The landing of Australian troops continues throughout the morning further south in Anzac Cove while the Ottoman’s bring their artillery and small arms fire to bear on Shrapnel Valley and Plugge’s Plateau.
The New Zealand Brigade transports arrived around 1000 hours and anchored several kilometers off-shore from the Peninsula. At 1100 the first men of the Auckland Battalion and half of the Canterbury Battalion start leaving the Lutzow in barges which soon comes under fire. Bullets began taking their toll of the soldiers in the barges still many 100’s of meters from the Anzac Cove beach. 12/23 Pte. Charlie Skinner, AIB, had the ‘honour’ of becoming the battalion’s first casualty. Charlie was shot in jaw, survived and was evacuated to NZ in September. The first NZ troops hit the beach at around 1100 hours, both the Auckland Battalion and the two companies of Canterbury men are ashore by 1300.
Ottoman machinegun fire and artillery shells were pummeling the Australians who had established a firing line about 1.5 kilometers from the beach along a ridge line, accessing if from the comparative safety (in parts) of Shrapnel Valley, roughly the centre of the Australian line. The battalion at first is ordered to move left towards Plugge’s Plateau to reinforce the Australian flank, but then a sudden change has them turnabout and head into Shrapnel Valley. As the battalion clambers up towards the Australian line, they immediately start taking casualties from the concentrated artillery and machine-gun fire. It is early afternoon, the sun is high and bright, and the men are being cut down mercilessly left right and centre, the dead and dying scattered in the scrub.
Among the wounded is Sergeant Harry Bruce who had been urging his now scattered platoon, onward and upwards. Harry and five other near him are the victims of an artillery shell that exploded close to the group and cut them all down. Harry had been on the Peninsula less than two hours! While his wounds were critical, Harry remained where he fell with the others until he could be extracted and removed by stretcher bearers to the battalion’s nearest aid post in “Artillery Lane”, an area of dead ground that was protected from small arms fire but not from shrapnel! Here, dozens of casualties lay waiting to be triaged by the battalion’s doctors; the dead among them were no longer in need. Harry and many other wounded lay in the battlefield for many hours until they could be safely removed to the beach. On the beach lay rows of dead and wounded Australian and New Zealand soldiers waiting to be removed on barges to the Hospital Ships and troop transports. The Landings were a slaughter – an utter disaster that cost the Auckland Battalion alone the lives of 19 officers and 410 NCOs and men.
After many hours on the beach with only medics to make the casualties as comfortable as possible, Sgt. Bruce was finally loaded onto a barge and transferred to Her Majesty’s Australian Transport (HMAT) A.15, the Star of England which was anchored off-shore at a safe distance. Once loaded, AT.15 departed several hours later for Alexandria. Harry’s wounds were severe but sadly there was nothing more that could be done to save him. Twenty four year old Sgt. Harry (Harvey) John Bruce died of his wounds, barely 36 hours later on April 27th two days out from Alexandria. He was buried at sea with military honours.
SUN (CHRISTCHURCH), 15 JULY 1915.
Notes: The Governors of the Rangiora High School passed a motion of sympathy with the deceased’s parents, who have another son at the front, Robert Allan Bruce.**
Medals: 1914/15 Star, British War Medal 1914/18, Victory Medal; Memorial Plaque & Scroll + Anzac (Gallipoli) Commemorative Medallion (1967)
Service Overseas: 1 year 195 days
Total NZEF Service: 2 years 309 days
We will remember them …
Although buried at sea Sgt. Harry Bruce is remembered on the Lone Pine Memorial at Anzac Cove.
Harry is also remembered in Wellington Central at the head office of the Bank of New Zealand. In the bank’s entrance at Harbour Quays is a memorial plaque to commemorate all BNZ employees who gave their lives during World War 1 and World War 2.** Sgt. Bruce is also commemorated on the Geraldine War Memorial, on the Esk Valley School Memorial where he went to primary school, and in the Auckland War Memorial Museum, World War 1 Hall of Memories.
Note: Medals Reunited NZ’s first ever case was for medals of a BNZ clerk from Kaitaia, 48465 Private Henry George DICKIN. Henry was two years younger than Harry and had embarked in July 1917 with the 3rd Battalion, Auckland Infantry Regiment. He was Killed in Action on 20 November 1917, a week after the Battle of Passchendaele, Belgium.
Brothers at War
** 7/21 (Trooper) Corporal Robert Allan Bruce – Canterbury Mounted Rifles (CMR), Main Body. Allan had started school at Esk Valley, west of St Andrews but by the age of six had transferred to Fernside School. After his schooling he began farming with his father at East Belt, Rangiora before moving with the family to Kakahu Bush, Geraldine where he continued to work for his father together with brother Harry and Roy. Allan and younger brother Roy both joined the 8th (South Canterbury) Mounted Rifles. After enlisting at Geraldine on 15 Aug 1914, four days after brother Harry enlisted at Paeroa, Allan headed to Christchurch’s Addington Racecourse where the remainder of the CMR had assembled (including Tpr. Leonard Kinzett from Nelson, the subject of a previous website post). Allan no doubt met up with Harry, either at Wellington when the convoy was delayed for the three weeks, or at Albany, Western Australia when the troops were allowed off the ships for a brief period of leave. Thereafter they travelled to Zeitoun on the same train and very likely trained together in the following months. What is known is that both brothers were at the “Battle of Wazzir” that occurred on 2nd April 1915 (Good Friday) in the red light district of Cairo. Kiwi and Australian soldiers numbering around 2500 many of whom had been drinking on their day off, began rioting in the afternoon allegedly as a reprisal against the spread of venereal disease and which was inflamed by rumours that Egyptian pimps had stabbed soldiers.
Trooper Bruce arrived on Gallipoli in May 1915 when the NZ Mounted Rifles were bought into the battle as reinforcements in the dismounted role. He was involved in the capture of a Maxim machine-gun by with the Harper brothers (currently on display at Te Papa). He went on to fight at the Battle Passchendaele after hospital in England.
In August he was wounded in the left leg however recovered to continue his service in France, significantly surviving the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium. He was transferred to the ANZAC Provost Corps and promoted to Corporal, however was later reduced to ranks (Trooper) for irregular conduct on parade. He returned to New Zealand on 23 July 1919 arriving in late August. In 1923 he married Fanny Augusta Elizabeth DIXON at Dansey’s Pass, had a family, and farmed at Kakahu Bush. Robert Allan Bruce died in Christchurch in Dec 1975 at the age of 80.
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50331 (Trooper) Sergeant Alfred Roy Bruce – NZ Mounted Rifle Brigade, 36th Reinforcements. Third son and two years younger than Allan, Roy Bruce was a Farmer and Stock Agent who followed a similar path to brother Allan, both in schooling and enlistment in the territorial 8th (South Canterbury) Mounted Rifles. He embarked for service overseas on 21 Feb 1918, went to France briefly and was discharged on 12 October 1919.
He returned to NZ and farming at Kakahu Bush, married Margaret Sutherland at Matamata in 1926, had a family and moved into Hamilton about 1930. In Hamilton, 203908 Sgt. Roy Bruce joined the Territorial Force’s 4th (Waikato) Mounted Rifles, a unit that would be absorbed into the fledgling New Zealand Armoured Corps formed in 1942. Sgt Bruce was a member of the 4th Light Armoured Fighting Vehicle squadron, formerly the 4th Wellington Mounted Regiment. He was promoted rapidly to Warrant Officer Class 1 (WO1) and appointed the Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) of the unit. On the outbreak of World War 2, Roy was farming and working as a Petrol Bowser Attendant in Hamilton.
In 1939 he was appointed RSM of the 1st NZ Armoured Regiment’s 4th Wellington Mounted Regiment. His Home Service involved the training of the National Military Reserve until discharging at the end of the war. After WW2, Roy went to work for the Farmers Auctioneering Company in Hamilton. In 1949 as 568436 WO1 Bruce, Roy volunteered for further territorial service and was again appointed RSM of the unit. He subsequently applied for a commission but was denied. WO2 Alfred Roy Bruce, RNZ Armoured Corps was discharged for the NZ Army (TF) in 1950, and died at Hamilton in 1970 at the age of 73.
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Fob returned to Staveley
Having completed the research and spoken with Roy (Richard) Bruce at Staveley, a meeting was arranged with James and Richard Koia to personally handover Harry’s Fob. The existence of the Fob was unknown to Roy and after discussion it was agreed the fob was more than likely a birthday, possibly when Harry turned 21 in 1913, or a farewell gift. A visit from to his mum and dad at Kakahu Bush prior to embarkation was highly likely, and a picnic or other event at the park area in Geraldine where the Fob was found. Roy Bruce was amazed at the Koia brother’s find and very grateful for the Fob’s return.
Roy said the family have only three photographs of Harry and showed to James and Richard the few memories of Harry that had been passed to Roy over the years. Harry’s kitbag, named in bold letters “12/301 SGT H. BRUCE 6th COY“, had been returned to his parents at Kakahu following Harry’s death but as Roy said, Harry’s mother would not unpack the kitbag when it arrived, nor would she let anyone else open it during her lifetime – and it never was! Roy remembers when the bag was finally opened sometime around 1944, some 25 years later! The uniform inside had rotted to pieces and was not worth keeping. In addition there was a khaki felt covered metal water bottle, and Harry’s pair of binoculars complete with case. Roy was delighted to receive the Fob from the ‘treasure hunters’ that would join these few precious keep-sakes treasured in Harry’s memory.
Roy Bruce is also a foundation member of the NZ Antique Arms & Armour Association and an avid collector of militaria, as is his son Hamish who lives next door. Hamish had been involved with Peter Jackson’s projects for the First World War’s 100th Anniversary displays. Hamish had built the WW1 tank mock-up for the display at Te Papa. He has also completely restored a WW1 German 77 mm field gun which Roy salvaged in 1964 , the first of several which have since been restored. Hamish has also completed an amazing restoration of a large German “Minniwerfer” mortar of the type that were being used at Gallipoli. The Fob and Harry’s belongings are definitely in good hands with this Bruce family.
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Thank you “Treasure Hunters” – keep up the great work James and Richard. I am sure there will be many more grateful recipients of family heirlooms they never ever expected to see, in the future.
The reunited medal tally is 458.
