8/4493 ~ ROBERT SANDS & 30294 ~ OSWALD SANDS
The Holy Trinity Anglican Community Shop in Wynyard Street, Devonport is a popular destination for op-shoppers. President of the Community Shop Anne-Marie Haywood co-ordinates a voluntary staff to run the business. In July Anne-Marie called me regarding a find her staff had turned up at the shop, predictably the result of an anonymous donation that meant there was zero chance of finding out who the donor had been. Among the myriad of goods donated was a small, lady’s calf-skin, zipped money purse about 10 cms x 7 cms. Believing the purse may have contained money since its contents rattled when found, one of the staff members opened the purse and found two silver medals (no ribbons), two army style badges, and a small brass button apparently from of a military uniform.
A purse, medals and badges
Anne-Marie being very aware of the great sentimental value medals held for families, contacted MRNZ and requested our help to track down someone in the family to return them to. From Anne-Marie’s telephone description of the items found she had a pair of First World War medals and matching hat badges. Fortunately each of the medals was named which meant a great starting point. Without this there would have been little hope of returning anything to a connected family. The button, a New Zealand Artillery chinstrap button, did not seem to be connected to the rest of the contents however I would only know that once I had researched each soldier’s service history. Anne-Marie very kindly forwarded the medals to MRNZ in Nelson to see what could be done.
It was obvious when Anne-Marie gave me the names and service numbers impressed on the edge of each medal, the soldiers were related. Both medals were identical, the British War Medal, 1914/18 but neither had its original ribbon attached. Regrettably these medals had also been separated from whatever other medals had been issued with them. This is not unusual as many people are unaware of the net effect when a medal group is split up. This makes it extremely difficult to ever reunite missing medals with a lone single that turns up. Both of these soldiers would have had the minimum of a British War Medal 1914/18 and the Victory Medal however both may also have qualified for the 1914/15 Star had they been on Active Service in a theatre of war before 31 December 1915. Only their service histories would tell me that.
The two medals were named to:
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30294 PTE. O. SANDS. N.Z.E.F.
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8/4493 PTE. R. SANDS. N.E.Z.F.
The two hat badges were generic WW2 designs of the 2nd NZEF “Onward” badges, one being a genuine blackened brass type, and the other a sandcast replica. Soldiers sometimes had badges made by local artisans particularly during the early days of WW1 when shortages of supply were experienced. Reinforcement drafts in WW2 experienced similar supply issues, sometimes having sandcast substitutes made by local artisans, most commonly in Egypt, to address either non-issue of a badge or as a cheap replacement for those originals lost, swapped or sold original. Loss of army equipment, even a badge or button, was a chargeable offence. Young soldiers were generally proud of their uniform and national identity, and certainly did not want to look like ‘green’ recruits by getting about without identifying badges. Hastily made (usually sub-standard) sand-cast versions filled this gap.
Brothers-in Arms
When Anne-Marie called me she mentioned briefly she had done a little research and that the SANDS men named on the medals were different but from the same family. The Sands brothers had been one of a number of families included in a book called “Broken Branches” by Josh Scadden which was published by Fair Dinkum Books in 2018. Josh, then still a student at John McGlashen College in Dunedin, researched and compiled “Broken Branches”, a project inspired by his Year 11 history assignment on the significance of the Battle of Passchendaele. Josh’s history teacher highlighted the loss of the three Newlove brothers to him which led Josh to compile 219 thumbnail biographies of that unique group of NZ families who lost three or more family members serving with the NZEF during the Great War.
Coincidences seem to be a hallmark of my research when reuniting medals – on two previous reunited medal occasions I had reason to make contact with Josh. The DINES brothers of Fairlie, South Canterbury both went overseas to war, one was Killed in Action and the other, a commissioned Sergeant returned home safely. On two separate unconnected occasions, a medal had turned up for each of the brothers, one a Victory Medal and the other a Memorial Plaque for the brother who was killed. Both of these items were returned to Josh who is a direct descendant of the brothers.
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The tragedy of the Sands family
The bonus for me in learning of Josh Scadden’s book was the thumbnail sketches Josh had written of the brothers which would save me considerable research however each brother’s service histories (as brief as they were) would need to be added to this post for completeness. There was also the matter of a third or fourth brother to research since ‘three or more’ was the premise of Josh’s book. Before I zipped out and purchased a copy of “Broken Branches” I quickly scanned Papers Past for relevant references to the Sands boys before reviewing their files. I located death notices for Robert and his brother Oswald, and then found a third brother also mentioned. The death of 24/1805 Rifleman Arthur Sands was in fact the family’s first. Arthur was the first brother to go overseas AND the first to die! Arthur was 21 when he enlisted in the 2nd Battalion, 3rd NZ Rifle Brigade (Third Reinforcements) and had been Killed in Action on 15 September 1916 during the New Zealander’s first combat in France at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette in the Somme Valley. While looking for further information about the Sands family and who the third and possibly fourth casualty might have been, I found the following:
HAWKE’S BAY TRIBUNE, VOLUME XII, ISSUE 147, 5 JUNE 1922
Local and General.
This was followed by a second article which stopped me in my tracks! In the EVENING POST, VOLUME CIX, ISSUE 129, 4 JUNE 1930 was the following:
BODY IDENTIFIED.
There was clearly more to these circumstances than met the eye but I would have to go through the process of assembling the Sands family tree to find any clues that might point to why this had occurred. But first, a look at where the Sands family had come from.
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Thomas Sands [SNR] & Family …
An agricultural labouring family, the Sands family in new Zealand had originated from a farming family of South Somercotes in Lincolnshire, England. In 1882 Thomas Sands [Snr] (1825-1916), 57, together with his wife Hannah (nee CROW, 1833-1891), 50, decided to leave his farm labouring job behind to take advantage of the New Zealand Company’s offer of reduced fares and options to own land for tradesman and farmers who emigrated with their families to New Zealand. The Sands and their children – Charlotte (21), Thomas Jnr (19), George Edward (17), Hannah (14), William (11), Maria (10), Frederick (8), and a Laundry-maid Elizabeth (29) to assist the family on the ship, left London’s Gravesend dock on 15 December 1882 aboard Shaw, Savill & Albion’s iron clipper ship Crusader (1865-1898) for one of the furthest corners of the Empire, the antipodes that was New Zealand.
The 1054 ton iron clipper “Crusader” under the command of Master Mariner, Captain Llewellyn Davies, arrived at Lyttleton on 22 March 1883 after an uneventful voyage of 98 days. Built in 1865 for the Shaw, Savill & Albion Company Ltd, Crusader was used to provide the service between London, Glasgow, and all New Zealand Ports. Crusader made a total of 28 voyages to New Zealand (1871-1897) including thirteen to Lyttelton, the voyage duration averaging 91 days. The Sands family disembarked from the Crusader at Auckland and in due course made their way to the Hawkes Bay where they decided to settle.
Thomas Sands [JNR] (1864-1948)
By 1885 the Sands’ family was settled in Hastings where Thomas Snr. worked as a Fellmonger (a dealer in hides or skins, particularly sheepskins) and where their children attended school until of working age of around 16 years old. Work for the boys was predominantly Labouring, apart from George Edward who wanted to be an Engineer. He later became a Traction Engine proprietor whilst his son George was the Engine Driver.
The eldest boy of the Sands’ family, Thomas Sands (Jnr), turned twenty the year after the family arrived and not being one to let the grass grow under his feet, married English girl Emma TURNER at the Wesleyan (Methodist) Church in Hastings on 12 Dec 1884. Emma (21) who was from Fovant in the county of Wiltshire, England, gave birth to nine children in the Hastings district between 1885 and 1902, seven of whom survived to adulthood. First born was Ivy [Sands] BRADY in July 1885, then her sister Ida Maud [Sands] WOOSTER / CLARKE (1886), Robert Sands (1889), Hughes Sands (1890), Thomas Sands (Jul-Dec 1892, did not survive), Lillian [Sands] Thomas (1893), Arthur Sands (1895), Roy Sands (1896–1899, age 3yrs), Oswald Sands (1899), and last was Violet Pearl [Sands] SCHOFIELD (1902). The children grew up and were schooled in the Hastings area, the males following the usual path of most male family members of the day, into labouring work before leaving the district to make their own way.
Clouds of war
In order to stem the rising tide of Germany and her Allies expansionist aggression in Europe, at the King’s request the New Zealand Government committed troops to the Empire’s Army, whereupon thousands of men of all ages and physical conditions clamoured to enlist, many seeing it only as the adventure of a lifetime. The younger and fittest of these between the ages of 18 and 40 were the first to be accepted, and among these two of the four Sands boys made the grade – Arthur and Hughes. Brothers Robert and Oswald would also join the war a little later.
Arthur & Hughes Sands
Following their primary schooling the Sands boys, with the exception of Oswald, all left Hastings and took jobs in different locations in the North Island. Both Robert (Bob) and Hughes (Hughie) became Bushmen, Bob travelling to Gisborne and working for Mr P. McLachlan, while Hughie went to Kai Iwi, about 20 kilometres north-west of Wanganui, to work for S. F. Moore at Bushey Park. Nearby was Arthur (Artie) who had a job as a Farm Hand for R. & E. Tingey (Tingey & Co) of Wanganui while the youngest of the bunch Oswald, known as Ozzie, remained in Hastings. Ozzie was a Baker employed at McGuire’s Star Bakery.
Artie and Hughie Sands were born five years apart, Hughie on 10 May 1890 and Artie on 30 May 1895. Both were schooled locally during which time Artie being the elder had the experience of two years as a Senior School Cadet. School cadet training had been implemented as a result of an identified need after the Boer War (1899-1902) to compulsorily train the nation’s youth in basic military skills from the ages of 12 years until 21, to feed into the ranks of the Territorial Force. When Artie transferred it was as a Private (TF) into A Company of the 7th (Wellington West Coast) Regiment where he spent two years in part-time service before his enlistment into the NZEF for war service overseas.
When national registration was initiated in October 1915 to provide for on-going drafts of reinforcement personnel for the NZEF, both Artie and Hughie were among the first to register at Wanganui. When they fronted for their medical examinations, Arthur was described as: 20 years of age, 5’ 7” (170 cms) tall with hazel eyes, brown hair and medium build. Hughes was 25 years old, 5’ 11’ (180 cms) tall with blue eyes, fair hair and a medium build. Both men were d by separate military approved doctors as A1–Fit.
Training camps
Artie and Hughie received their call-up notices to enlist for Infantry training at Trentham Camp almost immediately. They would be joining the 3rd Reinforcements of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade, as Riflemen (RFLM). The brothers enlisted together in October 1915 which resulted in them having sequential service numbers – 24/1805 RFLM Arthur Sands and 24/1806 RFLM Hughes Sands. Collectively, they would be part of the NZEF’s 9th Reinforcements which would be joining other reinforcement components being sent to replace casualties.
24/1805 RFLM Arthur Sands – F Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd NZ Rifle Brigade.
With the benefit of two years in a local territorial army unit, a sub-unit of the 7th (Wellington West Coast) Regiment, Artie Sands was the first to be called up with the NZEF’s 9th NZEF Reinforcements for enlistment at Trentham Camp on 19 Oct 1915. He was followed ten days later by his brother Hughes. Artie Sands was described as 20 years of age, 5 feet 7 inches tall, medium complexion, hazel eyes and brown hair. As Infantry reinforcements, the first five weeks of preliminary training was carried out at Trentham Camp before being moved by rail to the Featherston Training Camp in the Wairarapa, which had its own railway siding. After eight weeks intensive Infantry and fitness training at Featherston the men were marched back to Trentham, a 30 mile route-march which included the Rimutaka and Mangaroa ranges. This had become routine for all Reinforcement drafts, a final demonstration of their acquired fitness and readiness to embark. Following a brief period of embarkation leave at home in Hastings, both brothers sailed from Wellington on 8 January 1916 aboard HMNZT 39 Waimarroo.
The Waimarroo reached Suez on 8 February where the troops disembarked and moved by train to the NZEF’s Moascar Camp at Ismailia. Here Rflm. Arthur Sands was re-assigned to A Company of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd NZ Rifle Brigade (2/3NZRB). Within weeks of their arrival in Egypt, Artie was hospitalized with Measles on 25 March, a disease that was rampant among New Zealanders and Australians, thought to have been imported by troops arriving from Australia where measles were of epidemic proportions in Victoria and New South Wales. It was also here that Artie and Hughie were separated, Artie off to France and Hughie to hospital.
On 16 April the NZ Rifle Brigade and other unit’s reinforcements were embarked for France. Two days later they were landed and moved by train to Etaples and the Etaples Depot Camp, a gigantic holding area that accommodated New Zealand, Canadian and Australian troops, equipment and several major medical facilities (Stationary Hospitals) of each nationality, this in a camp built for the British that could hold up to 100,00 troops in hard and tented accommodation. The boundary alone was eight kilometers in circumference. New Zealand’s part of the camp was the home of the NZ Infantry & General Reserve Battalion where the training began in preparation for their move to the front.
First blood …
The opening gambit of the Somme campaign began on 1st July 1916. The Battle of the Somme lasted 141 days beginning with the opening day of the Battle of Albert. This attack was made by five divisions of the French Sixth Army on the east side of the Somme, eleven British divisions of the Fourth Army north of the Somme to Serre, and two divisions of the Third Army opposite Gommecourt, against the German Second Army. Here the German defenders inflicted a huge defeat on the British infantry who took an unprecedented number of casualties. Several truces were negotiated to recover wounded from No-man’s Land. The British Fourth Army took 57,470 casualties, of which 19,240 men were killed. The French Sixth Army had 1,590 casualties, and the German 2nd Army had 10,000–12,000 losses.
The first combat of the war for the New Zealand Division (and Canadian Corps) – the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, 15-22 September – was the third and final phase of a general offensive that lasted 141 days. Mounted by the British Army and the French, the strategic objective of a breakthrough was not achieved but the tactical gains were considerable, the front line being advanced by 2,500–3,500 yards (2,300–3,200 meters) and many casualties inflicted on the German defenders.
The NZ Division acquitted itself well if, understandably, somewhat tentatively however their lack of experience was significantly enhanced and encouraged by men who had been ‘blooded’ at Gallipoli, proving to be invaluable to the nervous “green” recent arrivals.
Following the first day of battle, a report received at the 2nd Battalion HQ stated that Rflm. Artie Sands was among the 2nd Battalion wounded. The report however was incorrect. By the end of the day it had been confirmed that Rflm. Arthur Sands (21) had been Killed in Action on 15 September 1916. His body was temporarily buried north of Delville Wood, 3/4 of a mile south of Flers with the intention of being recovered for reinternment after the war however, due to the extreme damage to the geography by artillery and aerial bombardment, his body was never found.
Rifleman Arthur Sands is remembered on the Caterpillar Valley (New Zealand) Memorial, Longueval, France.
Awards: British War Medal 1914/18, Victory Medal, Memorial Plaque & Memorial Scroll
Service Overseas: 251 days
Total NZEF Service: 332 days
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8/4493 PTE Robert Sands – D Company, Otago Infantry Battalion – 11th Reinforcements
Older than Arthur and Hughes, the third Sands’ brother to enlist was Robert (Bob). Born on 2 November 1882, Robert put his year of birth down as 1888 making him six years younger, possibly fearful he might miss out because he had been rejected for compulsory military training for being over age. His real age was seven weeks short of 33 when he enlisted on 19 December 1915 at Trentham and commenced his training with the 11th Reinforcement draft of the Otago Infantry Regiment. Described as 5 feet 11 inches tall (180 cms) with a fair complexion, blue eyes and sandy coloured hair. He listed his sister Lily [Sands] GODBOLD of Port Awanui, East Coast as his next of kin. Pte. Sands was temporarily promoted to Lance Corporal (L/Cpl.) on the 1st of April, 1916 for the purposes of troop supervision aboard their troopship, HMNZT 49 Maunganui. Arriving at Suez on 4 May, the reinforcements entrained to Moascar Camp at Ismailia before moving on to Port Alexandria. Here Pte. Sands was required to relinquish his rank, once again becoming a Private soldier.
Within seven days of their arrival at Alexandria, Pte. Sands was posted to the 8th Company, 2nd Battalion, Otago Infantry Regiment and re-embarked onto HMT Caledonia for France. The reinforcements disembarked at Marsailles in the south of France and entrained to a relative safe location where they could then be advanced on foot to Armentieres where the NZ Division battalions were engaged on the Front Line. On arrival, Pte. Sands was transferred from 2/OIR to 1/OIR where he remained thereafter. The Regiment along with the rest of the New Zealand Brigade was preparing to embark on their first real test of themselves in actual combat.
The Battle of Flers-Courcelette was the New Zealand Division’s first engagement in France. Beginning on 15 September 1916, Bob Sands would not have known that on that day, the very day he was stabbed through the right hand by an enemy bayonet, his brother Arthur would be killed on that same field of battle a few hundred yards away.
Evacuated to the 38th British Casualty Clearing Station the next day to have his hand repaired, Pte. Bob Sands was delivered to 13 General Hospital at Boulogne two days later. He was then transferred to the Hospital Ship St. Denis on 18 Sep and returned to England to be admitted to the 2nd London General Hospital in Chelsea for further surgery and convalescence. After five days he was cleared to be discharged to the NZ Convalescent Hospital at Hornchurch or “Grey Towers” as it was known. From Hornchurch he was sent to No.3 NZ (Convalescent) Hospital at Codford Camp where he would spend Christmas 1916 between it and Sling Camp, with other members of 2/OIR preparing to return to the field. It was 9 December when he left for France again, checked in at Etaples the following day and found himself transferred to the 1st Battalion OIR before re-joining the regiment in the field. No further issues for Bob Sands until 2 June when he reported sick and admitted to No.2 NZ Stationary Hospital at Hazebrouck in French Flanders, having developed an oedema of his right eyelid (a skin reaction, usually an allergic one that tends to cause marked skin swelling, sometimes with itching). After 10 days of treatment he was attached to the 2nd Australian Red Cross at Morbecque who would convey Bob back to 1/OIR by 11 June. Three days later Private Bob Sands was dead!
Messines – June 1917
The Battle of Messines had commenced on 7th of June with the detonation of 19 mines which had been positioned in tunnels the British, Canadian and New Zealand tunnelling companies had dug under key German front line positions along the Messines-Wytschaete salient. When the mines were detonated on the morning of the 7th, in excess of 10,000 enemy soldiers perished, the blasts also destroying most of the middle breastwork of their front system, paralysing the survivors of the eleven German battalions in the front line, who were swiftly overrun.
The battle raged for six more days as attacks and artillery barrages were traded between the opposing forces, the German Reserves being steadily pushed back or over run as the casualty count on both sides continued to mount. Most of the losses inflicted on the Allied forces by the German defence came from artillery fire. In the days after the main attack, German shellfire on the Allies new front lines was extremely accurate and well-timed, inflicting 90 per cent of the casualties. Finally on the last day of the offensive, June 14th, the Germans pulled back from the shattered village of Messines to re-position for another counter-artillery defence.
Whilst the attack on Messines was hailed as a British victory, the New Zealanders paid a heavy price for the success. By the time the NZ Division was withdrawn on 9 June, it had suffered 3,700 casualties, 700 of them fatal. Sadly, Private Robert Sands (28) was among the 700, killed on the very last day of this seven day bloodbath – his body was never recovered.
Private Robert Sands’ is remembered on the Messines Ridge (New Zealand) Memorial, Belgium.
Awards: British War Medal 1914/18, Victory Medal, Memorial Plaque & Memorial Scroll
Service Overseas: 1 year 14 days
Total NZEF Service: 1 year 128 days
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30294 RFLM Oswald Sands – 10th Company, 2nd Battalion, Otago Infantry Regiment Brigade – 14th Reinforcements (NZ Rifle Brigade).
Oswald Sands was the last of the Sands brother to enlist, arriving at Trentham on 21 August 1916, two days before his “20th” birthday, except it wasn’t his 20th birthday, it was his 17th! He had been born at Pakowhai on 21 August 1899 and attended the Mahora School. At enlistment Ozzie, as he was known, was described as 20 years of age, 5 feet 4 and 1/2 inches tall (163 cms), of fair complexion, blue eyes and fair hair.
Interestingly, Ozzie must have had a penchant for rifle shooting from an early as Mr Percy’s court appearance on 11 July 1913 can attest:
Magistrate’s Court ~ Hastings
No doubt Rflm. Ozzie Sands would have been made aware of his brother Artie’s death in September 1916 before he left Wellington but undeterred, he remained as keen as ever to join his brothers Robert and Hughes overseas. He completed his preparatory training at the Featherston Training Camp followed by the mandatory Rimutaka Hill route-march back to Trentham before going on pre-embarkation leave to say farewell to his family in Hastings. He embarked with the NZEF’s 20th Reinforcements aboard HMNZT 72 Athenic at Wellington and sailed for Plymouth in the south of England on New Years’ Eve (30 December) 1916. But there would be no partying to welcome in 1917 on this voyage. After two and a half years of war at Gallipoli, in Palestine and on the Western Front, the boys knew they were heading to serious business as the casualty lists that reached home attested to. Many of those on board knew in their heart of hearts there was a better than average chance they would not be going home – but which ones?
After arriving at Plymouth on 3 March 1917, the reinforcements were entrained to Bulford on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. The troops would normally be disembarked here and marched the 6.5 kilometers to the NZ Sling Camp however it was near full and so the new arrivals were off-loaded and taken by road to Codford Camp, some 30 kilometers north-west of Bulford and the home of the NZ Command Depot and 3rd NZ General Hospital. Here they would spend two months in training before being sent into France. Once at Codford Camp, Ozzie and some of his cohorts were placed in the same unit his brothers Artie and Hughie served in, the 2nd Battalion, 3rd NZ Rifle Brigade (2/3NZRB). Following a reorganisation of the Rifle Brigade and an increase in the number of battalions in each Infantry regiments, Ozzie found himself re-allocated to No.9 Platoon of the 10th (North Otago) Company, 2nd Battalion of the Otago Infantry Regiment (2/OIR).
Rflm. Sands left for France on 28 May for the Etaples Base Depot Camp. All was going well with the preparations for the reinforcements to be moved forward to the front line until an accidental injury on 20 September hospitalised him. Diagnosed by NZ’s No.4 Field Ambulance as an “injury of a trivial nature” and noted in the subsequent report that the injury was the result of “Recreational Training”, Cpl. Murfitt, a witness to the accident reported, “Some of 9 Platoon were playing “Fly the Garter” which consists of each man taking a run and leap-frogging over a man’s back. While so doing, Sands slipped after he had leap-frogged his man. It was a case of pure accident.” Private Ramsay, the man Ozzie Sands was leaping said, “He cleared me safely but appeared to slip on landing. The grass was fairly damp and Sands had his boots off. He got up and complained of pain. He could not walk so we carried him into the tent…the affair was quite an accident .. in my opinion.” Ozzie had fallen awkwardly onto his hip and fractured his pelvis. Not being on duty at the time and being adjudged an accident, no disciplinary action was taken. He was carried to the 4th Canadian Casualty Clearing Station and admitted to No.7 Convalescent Hospital.
Treatment for a fractured pelvis was basically ‘immobility.’ Such a fracture needed only time and limited movement to heal. After a week he was again transferred to 10 Convalescent Hospital at Boulogne to complete the healing and rehabilitation. Ozzie was up and mobile within weeks, cleared to return to his unit in the field on 8 November. Twelve days after arriving back at his unit, he sustained gunshot wounds to his right side, namely his right eye, neck and chest. Evacuated to England on the Hospital Ship Princess Elizabeth, Ozzie Sands was admitted to the Endell Military Hospital in London for specialist surgery on 29 November. Ten days later he was transferred to the NZ Convalescent Depot (“Grey Towers”) at Hornchurch where he remained over Christmas 1917.
By January 4th, 1918 his recovery had progressed sufficiently well for him to be transferred to No.3 NZ General Hospital at Codford Camp to continue with rehabilitation. Released from Codford in March, Pte. Sands was returned to Sling Camp and permitted to take two weeks of accumulated leave which no doubt helped his rehabilitation. On 10 May, he arrived back in France at the Etaples Depot Camp and posted to the 1st NZ Entrenching Battalion, a unit that was engaged in building and repairing defence works as required, prior to his return to the front line with his battalion on 8 June. Back in the field, Pte. Sands’ was placed in the 10th Company, 1/OIR. In July his Company was attached to Headquarters, 2nd NZ Infantry Brigade for reconnaissance patrol work, Ozzie being tasked to act as a patrol Observer (a guard or look-out).
“… a great loss ..”
On 24 August 1918, the NZ Brigade was embroiled in the 2nd Battle of Bapaume. But as so often occurs in war, fate steps in when one least expects it. On this occasion it dealt Pte. Ozzie Sands a fatal blow. The Officer Commanding 10 Company wrote to Tom and Emma Sands to explain what happened, which was reported in the paper:
HAWKE’S BAY TRIBUNE, VOLUME IX, ISSUE 19, 6 JANUARY 1919
Personal
Rflm. Ozzie Sands had celebrated his 19th birthday in the Front Line just three days before.
Private Oswald Sands was buried in the Grevillers British Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France.
Awards: British War Medal 1914/18, Victory Medal, Memorial Plaque & Memorial Scroll
Service Overseas: 237 days
Total NZEF Service: 1 year 3 days
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24/1806 RFLM Hughes Sands – D Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd NZ Rifle Brigade.
When Artie and Hughie Sands parted it was because Hughie required medical treatment. He was admitted to No.1 Australian Stationary Hospital on 17 March with an unspecified “social” ailment undoubtedly acquired while in Egypt. It transpired that Hughie and a number of others had absented themselves without authority (AWL) from No.2 Oasis Camp in Ismailia where they were staying in transit. The group had decided to sample the ‘cultural delights’ of the local night life during which they got drunk and predictably into a fight eventually broken up by British Red Caps (Military Police). Charged with ‘being absent from 9.30pm [one night] in Feb 1916 until 0930am the next day, and creating a disturbance while drunk’, Rflm. Sands and his cohorts were each fined 10 shillings (the equivalent of NZ$1.00 in 1916) and to forfeit two days pay. The same fine today equates to $291.25! After almost eight weeks in the VDG Ward, Rflm. Sands was discharged and embarked for France in May 1916. On arrival at Etaples he was temporarily placed in the 10th Company of the 1st Battalion, Otago Infantry Regiment. In Oct 1917 he was transferred back to his original unit, A Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd NZ Rifle Brigade.
Field Punishment
Hughie was indeed fortunate to survive the next two years of fighting in France and Belgium as his unit engaged with the enemy during their advance into French and Belgian territories, fortunately without major injury. Some on-going difficulties resulting from his pre-war “socialising” became a recurrent problem for him and enforced several more hospital admissions throughout his time in the field. He may not have sustained a significant war injury however the same however could not be said for his wallet which was ‘lightened’ on a number of occasions. Offences mostly related to being Absent Without Leave (AWL) followed him throughout the war – being drunk, late for a parade, late for a duty, overstaying leave, or being lippy to his superiors, all earned Rflm. Sands monetary fines and /or loss of pay and three occasions more severe punishment. Three of his charges that involved both Deprivation of Pay (fine) and Forfeiture of Pay were conjoined with Field Punishment No.2 – twice he received punishments of 14 days of FP2, and one of 28 days FP2.
Field Punishments No.1 and No.2 were a means of disciplining soldiers on Active Service when in the field, FP.1 being the more severe of the two. In Field Punishment No.2, the prisoner was placed in handcuffs and fetters (a chain or manacle (often ropes) used to restrain a prisoner, typically placed around the ankles) but not attached to a fixed object (as in FP No.1). The soldier was still able to march with his unit. FP No.2 was a relatively tolerable punishment. In both forms of field punishment, the soldier was also subjected to hard labour as well as the loss of pay.
Trench Fever
It was not until 16 March 1918 that Hughes Sands was felled by a ‘real’ war related illness, Trench Fever.** This came at a time when he was still having “issues” and so he was evacuated to the Etaples Base Depot Camp and admitted 51 General Hospital (VD). After four weeks of intensive treatment he was discharged and transferred to the 10th Convalescent Depot at Écault (8km south of Boulogne). Thereafter he was sent back to the NZ Infantry and General Reinforcement Depot and employed there until mid-August. Finally pronounced fit to return to his unit in the field, Pte. Sands was dispatched to the No.3 Entrenching Battalion from 9-13 August before returning to his battalion in the field. Entrenching Battalions were a pool of manpower used for work on rear defensive works. They consisted of reinforcements normally kept at the Base, who were formed into battalions and utilised for work at the front. They continued to be a pool to be drawn upon for reinforcements to units at the front, and replenished from the Base.
Arriving at the 1/OIR position on 13 August, Hughie was again admitted to hospital for several months following a relapse of his ‘illness’, finally returning to his unit on 1st December, three weeks after the war officially ended following the signing of the Armistice on 11 November 1918.
Note ** Trench Fever – In 1915, a British medical officer on the Western Front reported on a soldier with relapsing fever, headache, dizziness, lumbago, and shin pain. Within months, additional cases were described, mostly in frontline troops, and the new disease was called Trench Fever. It is a vector-borne disease primarily transmitted by the human body louse.
Rflm. Hughie Sands returned to New Zealand aboard the HMNZT Hororata on 1 February 1919 after 3 years and 10 months overseas. He was officially discharged from the NZEF on 12 April 1919 having completed a total of 3 years and 188 days of NZEF service for which he was awarded the British War Medal, 1914/18 and the Victory Medal.
After the war Hughie Sands left Hastings and drifted down to the Wairarapa labouring at Flat Point and Whakataki for some years before going north to Raetihi to work for a couple of years and then on to the Waikato. Here he linked up with an uncle who had a farm, becoming one of his Farm Hands. Hughes finished up living in Tauranga and in touch with his elder sister Ida Clarke who had re-married and was also living there. Hughes Sands died on 19 May 1959 at the age of 69 and was buried in the Thames Valley Cemetery.
‘Survivor guilt’ ?
It must be said given what we now know of the physical and psychological impact on the body and brain in response to a disaster, including the phenomenon once described as ‘shell shock’ (PTSD), it is quite possible Hughie Sands seemingly aimless existence after returning to Hastings, was not only a reaction to his war experiences but also the result of ‘survivor guilt’. When considering how the loss of his three brothers he had gone to war with may have affected him, add to that the deaths of two infant brothers and the suicide of his mother, his sisters now otherwise occupied, life for Hughes was probably fairly lonely and the future bleak and burdensome. To whatever extent these circumstances affected him, it would not have been easy to shake if at all for the remainder of his days.
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The grief goes on …
The death of three sons from four who went overseas must have been a devastating blow on every occasion for Emma and Thomas Sands. One cannot imagine the effect, particularly on a mother who had not only lost two sons in their infancy, but three more of four she had nurtured to their adult years, only to be struck down in war with no chance of a life or family, circumstances that must have seemed beyond comprehension to Emma and Thomas Sands. They must have questioned long and hard whatever had they done to have so much tragedy visited upon them? If Emma Sands was struggling with the mental anguish of this quandary it is not difficult to understand why. But the grief for the Sands family did not end there, or when the war ended. Daughter Ida Sands’ marriage was struggling to stay afloat and of great concern to her mother Emma. Ida not only had to deal with the loss of her brothers as they occurred but also with the disintegration of her own marriage and fallout exacerbated by her husband’s war service.
Ida Maud SANDS (1886-1971)
Ernest Edward FORSTER (1884-1952) of Napier was 20 years of age when he met 18 year old Ida Sands in Hastings and, as happens with young love, Ida fell pregnant in late 1904. A daughter Lorna Myrene was born in July 1905 however Ernest did not take the expected responsibility by doing the honourable thing. He left baby Lorna and her mother in the lurch and was never seen again. Baby Lorna grew up Lorna Myrene SANDS (1905-1959), later becoming Mrs Alexander TELFAR.
John Francis WOOSTER (1884-1960) was the fourth of ten children born to an English married couple, Joseph Wooster, a Carrier from Bushey in Hertfordshire, and Margaret (nee Carroll) from Vauxhall in Surrey. The Woosters emigrated to NZ in the early 1880s and settled in Blenheim where their children were born. John Wooster was working as a Hotel Cook in Blenheim’s George Street at the time he met Ida Sands. In March 1907, John (23) and Ida (21) were married in Havelock North and their first child Arthur Hastings WOOSTER born on 21 Nov 1907. Three more children followed in subsequent years – John Joseph Wooster (1909-1977), Lillian Cora “Lily” [Sands] GREAVES (1911-1967) and Robert Henry Charles Wooster (1912-1985).
The Woosters moved from Hastings to Napier’s Clarendon Hotel where John was employed as the Cook and Ida assisted in the hotel while minding her children. By 1914 he had taken up a position as the Pastry Cook at the Marine Parade Hotel whilst Ida continued to work at the Clarendon and care for the children.
When war was declared in 1914, John Wooster enlisted with others of his ilk, showing a good deal of bravado and excitement at the prospect of going overseas and an opportunity to rein in the ‘Hun menace’. I noted that at the time John Wooster was called up to commence his training on 8 Feb 1916, for some unknown reason he was no longer working as a Cook but for R. Hannah & Co., the shoe manufacturer in Cuba St, Wellington.
23275 Riflemen John Wooster – 11th Reinforcements, 4th NZ Rifle Brigade
Having left wife Ida in Hastings, following his training at Trentham and Featherston, Rflm. John Wooster embarked for England in May 1916. Aside from the usual AWL traps that most soldiers fell foul of while at Sling Camp, Rflm. Wooster finally arrived in France in Sep 1916. After almost one year in France, six of which had been at the Front Line, he was evacuated to England in August 1917 with ‘shell shock.’ Initially admitted to No.1 NZ General Hospital Brockenhurst, he was moved to a mental hospital which he promptly broke out of and was charged accordingly, being fined for his antics. After several more breakouts that he could provide no credible reason for, speaking incoherently and with no memory of what he had done, a Medical Board deemed his behaviour that of insanity and that he was no longer fit for war service. Rflm. Wooster was placed on indefinite Leave Without Pay (LWOP) but required to remain in the hospital. He was released to the Discharge Depot at Torquay to be demobbed days prior to the Armistice being declared on 11 November 1918. John Wooster arrived home with three suspended sentences of imprisonment pending which were eventually scrapped due to his assessed mental condition. Treatment for the shell shock continued for a further six months until he was finally discharged from the NZEF on 27 July 1919.**
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John Wooster’s war service and his predilection for alcohol were the catalyst for what was to follow. Whether somewhat disturbed or unhinged by his experiences, alcohol or both, John Wooster’s drinking once he returned led to a continually inebriated state and a dependence on alcohol which fueled petty crime. His arrest for theft in 1920 resulted in a 12 month custodial prison sentence and the breaking point for Ida. After 13 years of marriage, Ida (34) divorced John Wooster in November 1920 on the grounds of perpetual drunkenness and failing to maintain his family.
It was not until Ida was 65 years of age (circa 1951) that she re-married, widower Charles Henry Forbes CLARKE (1873-1957) known as Harry, a retired sheep farmer from Te Araroa and Hicks Bay, an Opotiki butcher, and a barman of the Star Hotel in Tauranga. Charles was a resident in the same street as Ida was living, 15th Avenue however she managed to outlive Charles also. Ida married?/partnered a third gentleman, John Thomas LANG (1886-1967) who died at Manunui within a few years of their meeting, Ida again outliving her companion. Ida’s final residence was at 212, 15th Avenue at the time she passed away at the Tauranga Public Hospital on 7 January 1970, a few weeks short of her 84th birthday. Ida was survived by her three sons by her first husband – Arthur, John and Robert Wooster.
Note: ** John F. Wooster Snr’s brother, 80400 RFLM Albert Henry WOOSTER (1887-1918) from Blenheim, went overseas in 1918 with the 42nd Reinforcements as a member of the NZ Rifle Brigade Reserves. Albert travelled to England on the HMNZT Tahiti, a troop transport ship that had been dubbed the ‘death ship’. An outbreak of Spanish Flu among the 40th Reinforcement voyage was contracted from island workers at destinations on route to England. Ninety percent of the 1217 on board were stricken with the Flu which killed 78 of the soldiers. Albert Wooster, 30, was among those soldiers who contracted the disease in England. He died on 7 November 1918 at the Cannock Chase Military Hospital in Staffordshire. Albert was survived by his wife, Edith Annie WOOSTER of Sutherland Tce, Blenheim.
** J F Wooster Snr. lived the remainder of his life in Gisborne. He re-married, Vera Esther Annie GREAVES (1913-1980) and had four more children, a daughter and three sons. John Francis Wooster died in 1960 at the age of 74.
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Mrs Emma Sands
By 1921 the Sands children had all reached adulthood. Hughes, the sole remaining son left Hastings on his return from the war and drifted down to the Wairarapa and labouring work. His sisters Ivy, Ida and Lily were all married. That left spinster Violet Sands the only sister unmarried (she married in 1928) living with one of her sisters. Tom Sands, then a Wool Classer, had had an offer of employment in the Wellington are and so he and Emma left their home at 505 Riverslea Road in Hastings and went south to find accommodation in Petone. On arrival they lived at the Victoria Hotel, 145 Jackson Street for some months until renting a house at 25 Fitzherbert Street where they remained for about six years. When a slightly more commodious villa became available at No.43 Victoria Street in central Petone, they relocated from Fitzherbert Street. From the road in front of the new house they could see Wellington Harbour and the Petone Wharf at the southern end of their street, a short walk of just 200 meters.
Another family tragedy
While we cannot possibly know what Emma Sands’ state of mind might have been at this time, it is clear from the 1922 Napier court appearance of husband Tom which had ordered him to pay £2 ($4) per week to maintain Emma and their daughter Violet, that all was not well in the Sands household. It is also fair to assume that any woman, irrespective of her inner strengths (or not), one who had endured the loss of five of her six sons (three killed during the Great War), who had struggled to manage her remaining family’s needs in the face of the Great Depression with a husband who had not been wholly supportive, and to now be living hundreds of miles from the only family she left behind in Hastings, one could be forgiven for not concluding that such a woman might just contemplate ending it all. Emma Sands’ life had been anything but easy. The family circumstances she had to cope with over the previous decade, her undoubted grief over her lost sons (including Hughes) and perhaps her advancing age seemed to have conspired to be the tipping point for Emma.
On Tuesday June 3rd, 1930 Emma’s body, fully clothed and sodden, was found by Police on the Petone beach about 100 yards to the west of the Petone Wharf. The body was thought to have not been in the water long before being pulled up onto the beach and the Police summoned. Emma was 64 years old. Various slightly conflicting local newspaper reports carried the news of Emma’s death in the following days:
Coroner’s Verdict
Sadly, the final tragedy of Emma [Turner] Sands tortured departure from this life has been that her memory and last resting place were destined to be forgotten as she lies in an unmarked grave in the Old Taita Cemetery at Naenae, Lower Hutt.
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Thomas Sands left Petone and returned to Hastings in 1932. In 1935 he re-married, to the widow Kate GRUZELIER (1873-1947) nee Barrow, who had originated from Winchester, the well known cathedral city of Hampshire in England. Kate had married James Edwin Elliot Gruzelier, a Men’s Outfitter, in England and emigrated to NZ with their three young sons in 1905. James opened a drapery in Eden, Mt Roskill before the First World War and after the war, moved his business interest to Rotorua. The Gruzeliers then moved to Taihape in the early 1920s where James and his eldest son ran a mercer’s business from a main street premises, whilst also commercial travelling to sell their wares. It was in Taihape that James Gruzelier died in 1925 at the age of 59. His widow Kate returned to Auckland to live with her sister for a number of years.
How and when exactly Tom Sands and Kate Gruzelier met is not known to this author but they did have something in common, each had lost a spouse. The couple married and lived in Hastings. In later life the couple lived in the back flat of Jim and Robina (Bene) Thompson’s home at 304 St Aubyn Street, Robina being the daughter of Tom Sand’s brother William and his wife Jennie. Kate Sands died on 28 Nov 1947 at the age of 75 and was buried at Purewa Cemetery, Meadowbank in Auckland. The following year 1948, Tom Sands (86) was taking a brief holiday in Auckland and while there, died suddenly at Westmere on 10 February. Thomas Sands and Kate are buried together.
The descendant trail
Comprehending the enormity of the Sands family’s tragedy, I was moved to see these two medals returned to descendants as soon as possible. Regrettably it was not possible (or practical) to trace the previous owner which might have proven the medals had been sent to the op-shop in error.
Having assembled the Sands family tree, by a process of elimination I short-listed those male family members with the least number of marriages including those outside the Sands descendant line. Necessarily I also eliminated those whom I could not contact nor find any obvious family connection to the boys from Ida’s marriage to John Wooster. Although John and Ida had parted, their descendant children represented some of the closest direct descendants of their mother’s brothers. It was Ida’s second son, John Francis Wooster Jnr. who led me to the first traceable option. John Wooster Jnr. was born in Hastings in 1909 and married Gisborne girl, Gwendoline Millicent Sarah GREAVES (1907-1997, 89). Between 1928 and 1941 they had seven children together – Muriel Ivy (Wooster) COKER, Shirley Millicent (Wooster) LEQUESNE, Arthur Gordon Wooster, June Doreen (Wooster) WALKER/GRAHAM-HAYES, Lionel David Wooster, Susan Frances (Wooster) BALLARD, and Beverly Ann Wooster.
Since my modus operandi for returning medals to families is simply to ensure they are reunited with a near descendant, I settled on Lionel and Maureen Wooster’s family as I was able to locate a son, Paul Louis Wooster and wife Jeab in Gisborne with relative ease. My discussion with Paul revealed he had a military service background. That gave me great confidence the medals of his grand uncle’s Arthur and Oswald Wooster would be well cared for and that their memory, together with that of their brothers Robert and Hughes, would be honoured and the medals worn on our national days of Remembrance – Anzac Day and Armistice Day. I dare say a quiet prayer will also be uttered for their mother Emma Sands, a lady who appeared to carry an unenviable personal burden of grief and unhappiness to her grave.
~ LEST WE FORGET ~
The volunteers who run charity op-shops throughout New Zealand are to be highly commended, not only for the time they give in helping to make the lives of others a little brighter but also for the occasions that their sharp eyes rescue once treasured taonga of New Zealand’s war brave from among the donated goods. I thank them all for having the foresight to recognise the significance of medals to families, and for taking the time to contact MRNZ to have them returned to a descendant. We remain forever grateful for your diligence and compassion.
My thanks to Josh Scanlan whose well researched compilation “Broken Branches” produced by fairdinkumbooks.com has provided the basis for the Sands brothers biographies above.
The reunited medal tally is now 439.