Robert Blackwood Steele

Public - Joseph - 28 June 2015 - Robert Steele was teaching in Maungatawhiri Valley south of Auckland when he enlisted in September 1914.11 Born in 1890 to Mary and Alexander Steele, he was placed 20th in the 1907 junior civil service examinations.12 After Auckland Grammar School, Steele attended University in 1909 and again in 1911-1912 while also studying at Training College.13 A keen photographer, some of Steele’s pictures from Egypt and Gallipoli were published in the Auckland Weekly News, giving those back home a soldier’s view of the campaign. Steele received injuries at Gallipoli. Steele was discharged overseas in August 1919, and worked in England and Scotland, before returning to New Zealand with his wife. In the early 1940s, the couple were in Kaikohe where Steele worked as an agricultural instructor and served in various capacities during the Second World War. He died in 1976.