Personal Stories  

In Memory tells the story of three “ordinary” New Zealanders who faithfully served their country during World War 1.  

Ella Cooke, a nurse on a boat bound for England when war was declared in 1914, was subsequently posted to an under-resourced army hospital in France. An engineer, Harry Delamere Dansey enlisted in 1915 at the age of 40 with the Second Maori Contingent and served in France. Henry Herbert “Bert” Gill was a soldier who having just become a father was reluctantly conscripted by ballot in 1917 and sent to the mud-filled trenches on the Western Front.

More than 100,000 New Zealanders left home to fight in World War I and many would never return. Among the stories of bravery, triumph and tragedy are those of May Palmer, who nursed on three continents and attended the wounded of two wars; Eruera Kawhia, a farmer who embarked with the 1st Maori Contingent, William Smallfield, one of the many soldiers to succumb to trench fever; And Private Frank Whitaker who was killed at the Battle of Passchendaele, leaving his son Charlie to treasure a bundle of hand-embroidered postcards.