New book first to trace history of Featherston's wartime camp

Almost a century ago a camp on the outskirts of Featherston was catering each day for many thousands more people than were living in the town itself, preparing them for war and the horrors of the western front.

The World War I Featherston military camp at Tauherenikau was a huge enterprise but, until now, surprisingly little of its history has ever been properly documented.

But Masterton war historian and archivist Neil Frances has changed that by writing Safe Haven, The Untold Story of New Zealand's Largest Ever Military Camp.

The book will be launched on Sunday in the Anzac Hall, Featherston.

A decision to write Safe Haven was made by Mr Frances when he and fellow historian Gareth Winter realised only one account of the camp had ever been written, back in 1917 when the war was in full swing.

"That was titled Featherston Military Camp and was more like a souvenir of the camp than a proper history so when we discovered nothing had been written since then we decided to do it," Mr Frances said.

Safe Haven - a title taken from the line of a song written by Masterton man Brendan Connor - looks at the "big picture" taking in all aspects of life at the massive training camp that saw 60,000 soldiers through its gates from January 1916 to the war's end in November, 1918.

Mr Frances said he had determined the number of soldiers trained there through his own research, as camp rolls no longer exist.

By calculating the number of soldiers from the 10th to the 43rd reinforcements it is possible to arrive at the overall figure.

"At any one time there were up to 8000 soldiers in training, far more than the population of Featherston.

"The camp had a row of shops, including a jewellers and watchmaker's and a military outfitters so men could get extras tacked on to their uniforms.

"There was also an indoor .22 calibre rifle range - as if they didn't get shooting practice - two or three photographers' shops, snooker halls and a little picture theatre out the back.

"You can imagine what a huge job catering for the men must have been and the amounts of meat, vegetables and bread that were brought in was phenomenal."

Mr Frances said he had discovered the camp was incredibly well organised and authorities had even run a railway spur across paddocks from Featherston railway station to a camp siding.

He said although the camp was indeed a safe haven while the men were in training that changed completely once they were dispatched overseas.

"Most of the 60,000 ended up on the western front and they were mostly infantrymen.

"The Mounted Rifles also trained at Featherston and went to the Middle East but it is the western front connection that links back to the twinning of Featherston with Messines in Belgium.

"The Anzac Hall where my book will be launched was only built because the military camp existed.

"It was a way of giving soldiers something to do in their idle hours, away from what soldiers normally get up to although I am sure there was some of that too."

A guest at the launch will be war historian and author Glyn Harper. Safe Haven will go on sale for around $30 a copy.