Remembering the First World War
New Zealand Post marks the centennial of the First World War with a special five-year stamp and coin programme that honours those who served and those who never returned home.
100 years ago as the First World War intensified, it would have affected every single New Zealander - both at home and abroad. In its five-year series, New Zealand Post looks at key events from 1914-1918 that helped shape New Zealand's identity as a confident, stand-alone country, and honours an individual who served New Zealand in each of those years.
In this third and latest instalment 1916 Courage & Commitment, the focus moves to the Western Front. Despite facing an escalating conflict with no end in sight, those who served continued to show incredible courage and commitment to the cause. The issue looks abroad to the Arras Tunnels, the Somme and the Middle East as well as back home with the first Anzac Day, the introduction of conscription and the role of the postal service in the war. Weaved throughout the issue is the story of Cook Islander and tunneller, Solomon Isaacs, who left his life in New Zealand and his family in the Cook Islands behind to serve in the First World War. He was just one of the many Pacific Islanders to volunteer for service, and to experience the realities and difficulties of war first-hand.
New Zealand Post had the honour of meeting Solomon Isaac's grandson, Isaac Solomona, who shared with us the physical and emotional journey of discovering his family connection to the First World War.
His grandfather Solomona Isaaka (also known as Solomon Isaacs) was part of the Pioneer Battalion, and although he struggled with illness throughout his service (as did many of the Pacific Islanders) he showed incredible courage and commitment to survive the war. Tragically after returning to the Cook Islands, Solomon died in Aitutaki at 27 years old, when his only child, Solomona Solomona (Isaac's father), was barely two months old. Hence, his father knew very little about him. All that the four grandchildren had to tell of their grandfather's First World War story was a photograph of him in uniform in their house.
It was only recently, at the beginning of 2015 and through the Anzac centenary, that Isaac's journey to discover his grandfather's First World War experience began through NZ Post's 1916 Courage & Commitment stamp issue and his connection with the New Zealand Tunnelling Company. Isaac's dream is to travel to Arras in 2017 for the centennial commemoration of the Battle of Arras and touch his grandfather's etched name on the tunnel wall. You can view the recent TV1 news story and interview with Isaac Solomona here.
1914 For King & Empire was the first instalment in this special stamp and coin programme, issued in 2014. The realities of war were an unknown at that time. The war was presented as an opportunity for a 'great adventure' for those who served, with the expectation that it would be over by Christmas. We looked at 1914 through the eyes of serviceman and everyman, Melville Mirfin. Like thousands of others, Mirfin left his family behind and answered the call to go to war, but unlike so many soldiers, he not only survived the war, he survived action from one end of the war to the other. His role in the First World War took him from his hometown of Ikamatua on the West Coast to Samoa, Egypt, Turkey, the Western Front, and finally to London before returning home.
In 2015 the second instalment, titled 1915 The Spirit of Anzac, looked at 1915 with a special focus on the enduring Anzac bond we forged with our Australian neighbours as a result of the Gallipoli campaign. The effects the campaign had on New Zealand and Australia were devastating, and are remembered each year on 25 April. Weaved within the story of the Anzac spirit is the service of Evelyn Brooke. Her service spanned the length of the First World War and took her across the globe before returning to New Zealand in 1919. Evelyn was a decorated war nurse, being the only New Zealand nurse to be awarded the Royal Red Cross and Bar.
Though the servicemen and women may no longer be with us, their records live on. New Zealand Post's five-year First World War programme is a unique way to remember, honour and commemorate those who bravely served 100 years ago.
You can find out more here
New Zealand Post's predecessor, the Post and Telegraph (P&T) Department played a crucial role in New Zealand's experience of the First World War. Soldiers overseas were linked to their families by the military postal system, which aimed to deliver a morale-boosting package to each man every month. News of injury - or worse - was broken to loved ones by telegrams delivered by bicycle.
Nearly 3,000 P&T employees signed up for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF), 234 of these men died. Some sorted mail in cramped dug-outs, laid telephone lines to the front, or operated bulky field wireless sets in places like Mesopotamia (Iraq). P&T men served throughout the NZEF - in the infantry, artillery and mounted rifles as well as administrative positions. Auckland lineman, James Crichton, was a private in the Auckland Regiment when he received a Victoria Cross for bravery under fire.
