7/221 ~ LEONARD JOHN KINZETT
A Trade-me auction post for a portrait of a WW1 mounted rifleman from Nelson, was also circulated on social media and drew my immediate attention. The oak framed portrait had been found locally at a house in Brightwater and was put up for auction by a well known Nelson trader. The un-named sepia photograph was of 7/221 Trooper Leonard John Kinzett, 10th (Nelson) Regiment, Canterbury Mounted Rifles. The photo and frame were in very good condition (minus glass) given its age and also prompted several comments of support for the picture being returned to family. Having not seen these comments initially, I had already formed the same opinion and was a step ahead in making this happen.
As internet bidders rarely use their own names, each is known by ‘handle’ which regular traders recognise and are aware of the real identity of that person. Since most ‘handles’ are unknown to others, generally a bidder will have no idea whom they are bidding against. As I watched the initial bids for the photograph register on the Trade-me site, I became concerned that the location of some of the bidders, if successful, could see the picture leave the New Zealand for a private collection in Australia or elsewhere in NZ. Since many of New Zealand’s war medals and items of ephemera are bought for collections and/or profit by persons domiciled in Australia, I was also concerned that any Kinzett descendant family might not get the chance to see that it was for sale, let alone have any hope of bidding for it.
As I have a particular interest in seeing medals and military ephemera returned to descendants of the original owners of these, I decided to enter the bidding race for this picture. My intention was to firstly ensure the picture remained in the Nelson-Tasman area, secondly, to endeavour to get it back to the descendant family which I was fairly confident of once I learned the soldier’ name, and last, in order to achieve the foregoing, I had to beat out-bid all other potential buyers – and I did!
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Kinzett family
Leonard’s father William James KINZETT (1844-1911) had been born in Nelson after his grandparents had emigrated from Warwickshire on the “Thomas Harrison” in 1842. Brought up with farm work, William Kinzett had been a bullock driver between Nelson and the West Coast at the time of the gold rushes. After he was married in July 1867 to Sophia Dora Elizabeth BUSCH (1847-1929) from Aniseed Valley in Nelson, William began farming at Spring Creek near Blenheim where he farmed 65 acres for thirteen years before selling up and returning to Waimea South, Tasman in 1883. During their time in Marlborough, eight of the Kinzett’s eventual ten children were born variously in Marlborough, six in the Wairau Valley – George William Kinzett (b1868), Amelia (Kinzett) DUNCAN (b1871), Arthur Frederick Kinzett (b1874), Mary Maria (Kinzett) KERR (b1877), Sarah Ann (Kinzett) KERR (b1877) and Minnie Alice (Kinzett) KENYON (b1878). Arthur Frederick Kinzett (b1880) was born in Blenheim and Alfred Kinzett (b1881) in Picton.
In 1885 William Kinzett sold his Spring Creek property and bought 400 acres at Tadmore near Tapawera in Waimea South, 200 acres of which were leased plus he had another 113 acres at Upper Tadmor where he grazed about 1000 Romney Marsh sheep. He erected a large hop kiln which could dry 350 bushels on the floor. After undergoing many hardships he established a comfortable home at Tadmor. For six years he was a member of the Motueka Valley Road Board, served on the Tadmor Road Board and local school committee, and was Chairman of the old Licensing Committee. William was also a Rifles Volunteer for six years and regularly competed at the Rifle Association meetings. The last two Kinzett children were born at Tadmor – Ida Helen (Kinzett) SANGSTAR (b1887) and last born, Leonard John Kinzett on 7 December 1890.
William and Sophia Kinzett died at Tadmor, he in 1911 aged 82, and Sophia in 1929 at 81 years of age. Kinzett’s Creek and Hambone Creek were named after and by William Kinzett.
Source: Cyclopaedia of NZ
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First World War
Leonard Kinzett did what most young men were encouraged to do in those days and that was to join a local territorial army unit, a part-time soldiering organisation that included both mounted and dismounted infantry capabilities. These had their genesis in the early pioneering days when militia units were raised for the protection of their communities. As the country marched inexorably towards war in 1914, when a general ‘call to arms’ came for volunteers to serve overseas, the territorial soldiers (including Leonard) were the first to willingly answer that call as the New Zealand government sought to support our King and Empire. In fact the whole CMR to a man volunteered. Not all were taken as horsemanship, rifle firing and medical fitness tests weeded out the unsuitable. For mounted units, some preference was given to those who could provide their own horse.
7/221 Trooper Leonard Kinzett joined the Nelson Mounted Rifles, one three territorial force units that comprised the Canterbury Mounted Rifles (CMR) regiment. The 10th (Nelson) regiment (re-named Squadron) as they became, was one of three mounted units that comprised the Canterbury Mounted Rifles (CMR), the others two being 1st (Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry) Squadron and 8th (South Canterbury) Squadron. The CMR together with the Auckland and Wellington MR squadrons completed the NZ Mounted Rifles Brigade (NZMR Bde) that deployed as part of the NZEF’s Main Body. Following periods of localised mounted training at Tapawera, the men and horses of the 10th (Nelson) Sqn were concentrated i September at Addington with the other two units of the brigade in preparation for embarkation.
On 23 September 1914, the CMR left their camp at Addington and rode to Lyttelton. There they were embarked on two transport ships, the Headquarters and the 1st (CYC) Sqn on to HMNZT 4 Tahiti, while the 8th (S.Cant) and 10th (Nelson) squadrons embarked on HMNZT 11 Athenic. Because of a lack of space on the transports, one officer and 40 men from the CMR had to travel to Dunedin and embark with the Otago Infantry Battalion. The ships then proceeded to Wellington to join the remaining eight NZ transports that assembled from Auckland, Wellington and Port Chalmers in Dunedin. Once in Wellington a delay of several weeks resulted from the assessed inadequacy of the ships allocated to provide effective armed escort assistance to the convoy and so while more suitable protection arrived, the troops were disembarked and placed in temporary camp facilities. The CMR were split with the 1st (CYC) Sqn camped at Lyall Bay while the 8th (Sth.Cant) and 10th (Nelson) Squadrons accommodated at Trentham Military Camp.
On 15 October, the NZEF Main Body units completed re-embarkation and the ten-ship convoy set sail from Wellington for Albany Western Australia via Tasmania. Once at Albany the NZ ships would join with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) convoy and travel as one under the armed protection of battleships to the Suez Canal via Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). German submarine activity was the principle threat the convoy needed to avoid. Anticipating their destination to be England and the Western Front, once through the Suez Canal, the troops were disembarked at the Port of Alexandria. From here they were entrained to the NZEF Training Depot camp at Zeitoun, about nine kilometers north of Cairo which the new arrivals were tasked with establishing.
Once the camp was erected (largely canvas) and routines established, training began for both Infantry and Mounted Rifles firstly to condition and acclimatize the men for working in the desert conditions. Training continued apace whilst a guessing game was played as to the destination of the troops. England was clearly no longer on the cards however it was known the Ottomans (Turks) had entered the fray and so scuttlebutt suggested the NZRB may be bound for such destinations as Cyprus, Constantinople (Istanbul), Greece, Turkey, Austria or Serbia.
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Gallipoli – May, 1915
On April 2nd, Gallipoli was identified as target of an opposed landing for the NZ and two Australian Infantry Brigades. The bulk of the NZMR (including the CMR) and the two Australian Light Horse brigades however were to remain in Egypt as the Gallipoli terrain was not suited to mounted operations. They would continue with training and be used to defend the Suez Canal against the Ottomans. The brigades used their time training, which consisted of long-distance treks through the desert, combined with rifle and machine-gun practice and inter-brigade manoeuvres.
The landings at Gallipoli on 25 April were partially successful but came at a huge cost. The ANZAC casualty count continued to escalate rapidly as repeated attempts were made to gain the initiative and displace the Ottoman’s from their commanding positions on the high ground above Anzac Cove. It quickly became apparent reinforcements would be needed if the ANZAC’s were to maintain their foothold on the Peninsula and to keep the pressure on the entrenched and reinforced Ottomans. The ANZAC mounted brigade back in Egypt was ordered into action as reinforcements but without their horses; they would be fighting in the dismounted role as infantry since the Gallipoli terrain was no place for mounted operations.
Tpr. Kinzett and the CMR left Alexandria with the first of the NZMR units on 9 May 1915. These were landed at Anzac Cove on 12 May and pressed straight into the fight to relieve the British Royal Naval Brigade on Walkers Ridge. Tpr. Kinzett survived this initial onslaught and settled into the routine on the Peninsula for the next couple of months. He was engaged with the Canterbury Battalion in the battle to take Chunuk Bair on 5/6 August where the Canterbury Battalion used only the bayonet during one part of the attack, there orders being to hold their position “to the last man”. The NZ Brigade managed to hold out against the Ottomans until 9 August when they were relieved however the casualty toll across their infantry battalions (including the mounted riflemen attached) had been costly. The NZ and Australian brigades had been so badly mauled, each of the NZ battalions had lost between 40% and 75% of their strength, officers and men killed or wounded. The casualties among the units of the NZMR Brigade meant it ceased to be an effective fighting unit. Redistribution of reinforcements balanced up the units to allow the fight to continue. The NZMR Brigade men were withdrawn from the Peninsula in September to the Rest Camp on the island of Lemnos.
A bout of Jaundice (a symptom of a serious liver disease) in September spared Tpr. Kinzett from any further fighting at Gallipoli. Evacuated to the Hospital Ship (HS) Ulysses for 10 days, his condition deteriorated and was more serious than when first diagnosed. He was transferred to the HS Aquitania on 20 Sep and returned to Alexandria prior to being shipped back to the UK for treatment. On arrival at Southampton, Tpr. Kinzett was then admitted to the Southmead Section of the 2nd Southern General Hospital in Bristol for specialist care.
2nd Battalion, Canterbury Infantry Regiment (2/CIR)
In Jan 1916 Trooper Kinzett was returned to the Mediterranean Expedition Force and rejoined his unit at Zeitoun on 27 Jan to find that the mounted units were in the process of being disbanded and that the former troopers would become infantrymen in France. While awaiting transport to Marseilles, Tpr. Kinzett had a quick two week admission to the NZ General Hospital in Cairo to treat a Carbuncle on his neck. Prior to proceeding to the Western front, Tpr. Kinzett was transferred to the 12th Company, 2nd Canterbury Infantry Battalion (2/CIB) and was now Private Kinzett.
On 20 March, Pte. Kinzett was again in hospital with Measles necessitating two weeks in the Infectious Diseases Hospital. Finally cleared to travel, he embarked at Alexandria for France on the 7th of April however more health issues dogged him. Another period in hospitalisation for an unspecified ailment was required on 11 May at the No.20 (British) General Hospital in Camiers.
Battle of the Somme, Jul-Nov 1916
On the 20,000 yards (18 kms) front between the Somme and the Ancre the enemy had had more than two years of preparation to develop a convoluted system of trenches, concrete defensive posts and bomb-proof shelters connected by communications trenches. Masses of barbed wire entanglements and other obstacles dominated no-mans land in front of the trench lines. A second system of trenches and defensive positions was constructed behind the front system, sited generally on or near the southern crest of the highest ground, at an average distance of 2.5 kms to 4.5 kms behind his first system of trenches.
The Somme campaign opened on July 1st, 1916 with the Battle of Fleurs-Courcelette being the first time New Zealanders were engaged on French soil. The NZ Division which had been entrenched in the vicinity of Armentieres, reached the battlefield to find the enemy’s defences had been penetrated to a depth of about four miles (6.5 kms) on a front of about twenty miles (32 kms). The NZ Division was part of a much larger formation preparing for the third phase of the Somme battle. With 700 men (including twenty officers), 2/CIB was co-located with the 2nd Wellington Battalion (2/WIB) in the Brigade Reserve, bivouacked in the Savoy and Carlton Trenches, midway between Longueval and Bazentin-le-Grand.
Appointed to the rank of Temporary Lance Corporal (T/L/Cpl.) on 2 September, Leonard Kinzett’s rank was made substantive seven days later. He returned to the 12th Company as a Section second in command just prior to the opening attack of the third phase of the Somme battle that began on September 15th. The NZ Division’s objective was to takeover and occupy a line of German trenches spread over a half-mile (3 km) frontage however neither of the Canterbury battalions took part in this initial action as they remained in the Brigade Reserve and tasked with completing the digging of trenches to complete the Infantry brigades new front line (Otago Trench) and to dig communication trenches to it.
Early on the night of 18/19 September, 2/CIB went back into the front line and relieved part of the 1st Auckland Battalion in the Flers Line and Flers Support trench, west of Flers village. The battalion worked through the night deepening the new front line trenches, work that was done under constant artillery shell-fire, and the losses were heavy.
In spite of the artillery barrage, at 2200 hours the enemy launched a determined counter-attack down all the trenches leading to the brigade’s position. The Canterbury men were pushed from the blocks they had established, and a party of the enemy penetrated into Flers Trench, in the rear of the battalion’s left flank. Two platoons of the 12th Company were sent up to support the line but owing to the darkness, and the confused hand-to-hand fighting, they could do very little to help, and soon became mixed up in the general melee. The enemy had now encircled both flanks, and there was grave danger of the battalion being cut off.
Killed in Action
At this juncture a battalion officer (Capt. F. Starnes) arrived with the remaining platoons of the 12th Company which include L/Cpl. Kinzett. Finding men of all companies mixed together, and in many cases without leaders, he organized small parties and set them to clear the enemy out of definite areas. It was during this operation on the 21st of September that L/Cpl. Leonard Kinzett was felled with multiple machine-gun bullet wounds. Evacuated to No.38 Casualty Clearing Station some at Heilly, L/Cpl. Kinzett hung on to life for five days before succumbing to his wounds on 26 September 1916. He was buried at the Heilly Station Cemetery at Mericourt-l’Abbe, Somme, France. **
Source – NZ History – 10th (Nelson) Squadron
Medals: 1914/15 Star, British War Medal 1914/18, Victory Medal, Memorial Plaque & Scroll; Anzac (Gallipoli) Commemorative Medallion 1967.
Service Overseas: 2 years 10 days
Total NZEF Service: 2years 45 days
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Note: ** 59128 Rifleman Charles Thornton KINZETT, a Dairy Hand, was born on 09 July 1893 at Waimea South, Nelson and enlisted with the 1st Battalion NZ Rifle Brigade. George William Kinzett (born NSW) and Jane (nee ELLIS), was a cousin of Leonard Kinzett and his son Charles one of Leonard’s nephews. Charles embarked as an Infantryman with the 29th Reinforcements in October 1917. Charles was Killed in Action on the Somme on 20 May 1918, age 24 and was buried in the Euston Road Cemetery at Collincamps, Somme, France. He and Leonard are remembered on the World War 1 ‘Wall of Remembrance’ at Founders Park, Nelson City which remembers the 3,600+ Nelson born service men and women who served in World War 1. These were the only two Kinzett men from this family to be killed in World War 1.
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Reunited
Kinzett is a well known name in Nelson and Tasman regions from the earliest days of the province. Accordingly, the easiest way for me to locate an interested family was to repost the framed photograph on social media and a variety of websites and invite interested family descendants to contact me. As I had first seen the Trade-Me post for the photograph shared to the “Finding and Identifying NZ Genealogy Memorabilia” website, I re-posted the picture onto that site to see what sort of response it drew, before I spread it wider. The response was almost instantaneous.
A gentleman from Kallangur in Queensland emailed me – Bob Kinzett, late of Nelson and a former Royal New Zealand Artillery gunner, unbeknown to me was the man in Australia I had been bidding against! Bob and I as it turned out had much in common including having both been NZ Army Regular Force Cadets, he the class of 1971 and myself 1970, and both career servicemen. Bob put me in touch with his brother Terry who lives barely two kilometers from me in Nelson and to whom I happily passed the portrait, once more in the custody of Kinzett family hands. The photograph’s final destination will actually be Murchison on the West Coast of the South Island. Dallas Kinzett is Pte. Leonard Kinzett’s grand nephew, Dallas’s grandfather Alfred Charles Kinzett being Leonard’s brother.
All’s well that ends well.
Post Script: 03 April, 2023
While researching Leonard Kinzett’s service history it was noted the Anzac (Gallipoli) Commemorative Medallion produced by the NZ and Australian governments in 1967 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Landings at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, had never been claimed by Leonard’s entitled next of kin. An application has been forwarded to Dallas Kinzett who can still claim the medallion.