Guy Cheeseman, son of Museum Director Thomas Frederick Cheeseman, enlisted from the Mokoiwi Station Tuparoa, East Cape, embarking with the 4th Reinforcements Canterbury Mounted Rifles on 17 April 1915. He was reported wounded in September 1916 and spent time at the Endsleigh Palace Hospital London before rejoining his unit in Egypt.

In 1919 Major Cheeseman was invalided back to New Zealand and demobilised. He brought with him an assortment of souvenirs gifted to the Museum in 1920. They hold special interest in being quite precisely documented as to the location where they were collected. Guy Cheeseman died in on 23 May 1928 of cardiac debility due to war-service. Although not listed with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, a Memorial Plaque and scroll was sent to Guy Cheeseman’s widow.