Rhinesmith name brought to life

PAYING RESPECTS: Gisborne Boys' High School history teacher Neri Manuel (right) and his Year 13 history students joined Tairāwhiti Museum director Eloise Wallace at Taruheru Cemetery to honour former school dux and World War 1 fallen soldier Albert Rhinesmith and his parents Martin and Agnes. Picture courtesy of Tairawhiti Museum

History students at Gisborne Boys' High School have honoured one of their illustrious predecessors.

Albert Martin Rhinesmith, who was dux of the school two years running, in 1911 and 1912, was killed in World War 1.

The names of former students who fell fighting for their country are recited each year in a school Anzac Day service.

The long list of unfamiliar names from a world war fought more than a century ago, or from World War 2, may not hold great meaning or sentiment for some students, but that is not the case for the school's senior Year 13 history students.

For some years Tairāwhiti Museum director Eloise Wallace has taken senior GBHS history students on a tour of World War 1 graves at Taruheru Cemetery including the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site where 12 returned World War 1 veterans and 21 returned World War 2 veterans rest.

“I have researched and spoken about half a dozen soldiers and their stories as well as the broader context of their war service.”

She thanked schoolteacher Laurie Harrison for instigating the visits.

Second Lietuenant Albert Rhinesmith was killed at Rossignol Wood in France on July 24, 1918. He was 24.

The history students, accompanied by Mrs Wallace, visited the grave of Albert's parents Martin, who died in 1945, aged 75, and Agnes who died in 1961, aged 87. The grave also honours Albert.

The Rhinesmith grave site is far from the only one at Taruheru to honour a young soldier who pre-deceased his parents and never returned home.

Military records show the Rhinesmith family lived at 263 Aberdeen Road. In remembrance of their son they donated a trophy to the then Gisborne High School in the early 1950s, to be presented to the dux of the school. The Rhinesmith Memorial Trophy continues to be awarded to the top scholar at GBHS.

Albert's parents Martin and Agnes were Americans who left Yonkers, New York, for New Zealand in 1901.

Albert was their only son. He was a science student at Otago University in the early years of World War 1.

He was an outstanding scholar, and was nominated to be a Rhodes scholar which would have taken him to further study at Oxford University. But his American citizenship made him ineligible, so he joined the army.

Albert embarked for Liverpool in England, an officer in the Otago Infantry Regiment as part of the 30th Reinforcements on the Corinthic on October 13, 1917.

They arrived in England on December 8.

After the war, in January 1919, Agnes Rhinesmith received a letter about her son's death from a Private J. Hodges who was still recovering from wounds received in August 1918 during a major Allied advance as the tide of war turned against Germany, leading to the Armistice in November.

He explained how “our late and highly respected officer . . . met his heroic death”.

At 5pm “we jumped the bags with our hero officer taking the lead. We took our objective and cleared the enemy out.

“We went on to assist No.1 Platoon which was held up by machinegun fire on our flank.

“It was then that the fatal bullet struck our officer, and then the boys' blood got stirred up, and it is only a shame how we mopped things up.”

According to the Official History of the Otago Regiment:

“The left platoon met with temporary opposition from a machine-gun position in Shag trench, from which quarter 2nd-Lieut. A M Rhinesmith and his orderly were shot down on entering the trench.”