Alan Hughes at the NZ Liberation Museum – Te Arawhata in Le Quesnoy, France, where his grandfather Jim McKenzie was involved in the liberation of the town on November 4, 1918.
As a young lad Alan Hughes often asked his grandfather, Far North farmer Jim McKenzie, about his time in World War I.
But the former soldier wouldn’t say much about his time in Europe, although a young Hughes knew it would have been exciting.
Hughes has been able to tell his grandfather’s story after receiving Jim’s diaries, letters and memorabilia in the 1980s after his grandmother, Alice, died.
He started painstakingly transcribing Jim’s diaries in 1987 to form the main content of his book, The Great Adventure.
“The Great Adventure is about keeping the memory of my grandfather alive," Hughes said.
He has produced three editions of Jim’s story. The latest details how the Ōkaihau farmer and musician swapped the Far North for the trenches of the Western Front, and his part in the dramatic and historic liberation of French town Le Quesnoy from German occupiers on November 4, 1918.
Hughes said he, his siblings, and their cousins used to go to Jim’s Ōkaihau farm during school holidays as children.
“We were kids and we’d rifle through drawers in the living room of the farmhouse and find a dagger.”
The children would probe whether the dagger came from the war but Jim wouldn’t answer.
“When I first received his diaries, correspondence and memorabilia, I had little idea of the stories within,” Hughes said, adding that the situation would be the same for any person in their thirties with limited knowledge of World War I.
Jim’s diaries detailed everything from life in the trenches to the glamour of Paris.
“I felt very privileged to be the person who was given that opportunity. Consequently, I grasped it with both hands,” Hughes said.
Jim was born on 17 May, 1876, in Russell in the Bay of Islands. He was the second youngest of James McKenzie and Jessie McDonald’s 13 children.
Hughes said his grandfather had been a musician, dancer, farmer, soldier and much more. He played violin in a local orchestra, along with his brother Bill.
“He loved dancing, he loved conversation. He was typical of those Scots who emigrated: sociable, musical, family oriented,” Hughes said.
Jim was 40 when he enlisted, making him much older than most soldiers.
He had lost sight in one eye during a forestry accident so was initially rejected for service.
“The family folklore goes he memorised the eye chart and the medical papers say, ‘sight of left eye bad’ but in fact he had no sight.”
Hughes said Jim was determined to get to the war because his close friend Jack Bindon had been killed at Gallipoli.
“As a farmer, Jim was exempt from military service, but as a late starter at the age of 40, he was determined to serve King and Country.”
Hughes said this was typical of the nationalistic fervour of the time.
From November 11 and into December Jim wrote about marching with “sore feet” as he and his regiment marched more than 200km into Germany.
The last battle Jim fought was at Le Quesnoy. His company was charged with undertaking a clockwise flanking manoeuvre around the north of the town, storming the locations of Ramponeau and Villereau.
Following the liberation of Le Quesnoy, Jim resumed his diary entries on November 9 with a simple: “Scouting round for vegetables.”
Hughes laughs about how Jim’s diaries were often understated and brief, covering entire battles in one sentence or writing “ditto” for days on end, signalling the periods of monotony soldiers experienced.
Jim returned to New Zealand on June 23, 1919, and resumed life on the farm.
He married his neighbour Alice and together the couple had four children: Florence Joan (Hughes’ mother), Margaret Anne, Gordon Cameron and James Douglas.
Hughes and partner Eileen in 2024 visited locations on the Western Front, including the NZ Liberation Museum – Te Arawhata in Le Quesnoy.
“I wanted to imagine this gentle farmer from North Auckland with a bayonet in his hand, face to face with a German soldier,” Hughes said.
Hughes had found visiting his grandfather’s battlegrounds humbling.
The two most fascinating sites had been where Jim first joined the front line and where lightly armed New Zealanders were “thrown into the gap to save the day” on March 26, 1918, near Mailly-Maillet.
“To be there exactly 100 years to the day, in a place where many Kiwis fell, was thrilling but also extremely sad,” Hughes said.
Hughes’ research gave him a newfound respect for his grandfather and the other soldiers.
Hughes counts himself very lucky that he knew Jim, albeit in his later years.
Hughes was almost 10 when his grandfather died on January 24, 1958.
Today, he describes Jim as “quite the character”.
" ... I remember him as a lovely, funny old man who wore trousers with braces and smelled of honey."
Hughes hoped the book would give Jim’s family a glimpse of his personality and achievements.
When asked what he believed his grandfather’s lasting legacy would be he said: “In a word, leadership.”
Jim came from a family of Scottish leaders. His own grandfather had emigrated to Canada from the Highlands, then to New Zealand almost 40 years later.
“He travelled halfway around the world, and Jim did the same for a cause in which he believed,” Hughes said.