Robert Duffus McFarland - Papers, 1914 - 1935

1914-1935

Parent

Robert Duffus McFarland is also the subject of Chapter 5 in the text :
2/Auckland, 1918 : being a partial record of the war service in France of the 2/Auckland Regiment during the Great War. Allen, Stephen Shepherd, Sir. Whitcombe & Tombs (1920) Auckland, N.Z.

McFarland (12/3219) was part of the Samoan Advance Party of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, leaving Auckland for Samoa on 12th August 1914 and led the “proposed attack” to capture Samoa from the German forces on 30th August 1914. He was stationed in Samoa for seven months, after its capture, before returning to New Zealand in March 1915. He then embarked from here for Egypt on 13th November 1915, with the 8th Reinforcements. While stationed at Zeitoun Camp he took up machine gun training at the Officers Training School and the Lewis Gun School before being appointed as Machine Gun Officer in the 2nd Auckland Battalion. McFarland served as Lieutenant in the 16th Waikato Company in France, after leaving Egypt, and made it to the front line late in 1916. He was hospitalised to London in April 1918 after being shot in the head at Amiens – it was here that McFarland received a Military Cross for his efforts and this attack led to the later Battle of Amiens (August 1918) which is said to have led to the surrender of Germany and the end of WWI. McFarland re-joined his company that October and was made temporary Major in early December 1918. He later contracted influenza, in London, and was sent home to New Zealand in March 1919.
He married Leslie Hunt in 1920 and was widowed, with one daughter, in 1923. McFarland re-married in 1929 and had two more children with his second wife, Dorothy Wilson, before she too died in 1937. Returning to the legal profession in 1922, McFarland established his own firm, in Hamilton, in 1924. He re-enlisted in January 1942 (WWII service number: 813110) as part of the 2nd Waikato Infantry Regiment and was stationed at Great Barrier Island.
One of three children, McFarland was educated at Auckland Boys Grammar School before studying law at Auckland University College (now the University of Auckland).
Robert Duffus McFarland died in June 1945, aged 53.

28 Mar 2024