ARTHUR ELDERTON

Arthur Elderton was born in Christchurch on 30 January 1894. His father Henry was a head shepherd on a farm in the Amberley area of North Canterbury, and a descendant of the English author Charles Dickens. Prior to the war, Arthur worked for a Papanui carrier, L Lees, and boarded with the Prebble family in Frank Street, Papanui. He volunteered for service in May 1915, and was posted to 'C' Company, 1st Battalion of the Canterbury Infantry Regiment. He arrived in Suez in November 1915 as the Gallipoli campaign was winding up.

He kept a diary in which he recorded his experiences and observations. He also wrote a series of letters to his family, mainly his married brother Frederick. These letters and the diary are now kept as part of a collection in the Documentary History Centre of Canterbury Museum (ARC 1999.6). Below are some edited extracts from his diary and letters to provide an ordinary soldier's view of life on active service.

On 30 May 1915, he wrote to his brother about the training camp at Trentham, north of Wellington. "It is a devil of a big camp. There is tents and huts all over the show and they are still building". He was unimpressed with the conditions there. "It is always raining and the mud and slush is something dreadful, and the frosts something cruel." Two weeks later, he wrote "We had to leave Trentham last evening and proceed here (Waikanae) on account of the fever and the filthy state of the camp . . . We had every little to eat for three days, and now there is nothing but stew, we are all sick of the sight of it." On 6 September he commented that "We are in the fair dinkum training now, and it is fairly solid graft."

In October 1915, he left for overseas service. "We had a great farewell in Wellington, and it made one feel a bit downhearted as we said goodbye to all our friends." Like other New Zealanders, he was not impressed with Egypt. On 28 November 1915, he wrote to Frederick, "It (Cairo) is a hell of a place, and if I was to tell you half of what I have seen you would call me a liar. You always want a descent (sic) stick with you and kick the dirty devils out of your way like dogs. The veiled and French tarts are very nice but of course you have to be careful how you approach them. If only a chap had the money to buy some lovely things." On 17 December, he commented that "You meet some hard cases out here, especially in the Australians, but it does not do to play the fool here, for the clink is ten times worse than our gaol, and they would not think twice about shooting a chap."

He was required to be on duty over the holiday period. In a letter dated 2 January 1916, he described the experience of being on guard duty. "Our platoon is on picquet duty in Cairo for the holidays, and it is the roughest job ever I was on, for you meet some rough customers out here. The best part of it is going through all the girls' bedrooms after ten o'clock, and pulling out the soldiers, so you can guess the sights we see."

Training increased in itensity. "We are in a big camp near the Canal and not far from the defensive trenches, and are undergoing some pretty severe training. We are all joined up with the Main Body now, and formed into a big brigade. I have met a terrible lot of old mates, only of course there is a lot of them we will never see again. I feel a bit lonely at times, for I have got no relations whatever out here, but I have got real good mates, so that is something to be thankful for."

In May he sailed with the rest of his Division for France. After landing at Marseilles, he entrained for their final destination, Armentieres. In his diary entry of 15 April 1916, he wrote "The journey last (sic) fifty hours, giving us three days and two nights on the train. It was forever interesting and one never got tired of watching the many things of interst as we passed through the countless villages and large towns." The next day he commented, "One special feature is the beautiful women, for they are a fine stamp, and thoroughly strong and healthy, and the majority very pretty. It is quite a pleasure to mix with them after the dirty black gippos we have just left."

In May he had his first taste of active service "On guard over bridge crossing River Liss (Lys) between France and Belgium. My first experience of high explosive." On 16 May, he wrote "Went into fire for the first time. On fatigues on tram lines. Rather exciting but came through safe." On Sunday 21 May, he briefly described a common day in the front line trench. "Stood to at 2.30am. On fatigue all day, but things fairly quiet. Heavy shelling in reserves. Stand to from 7.30 to 8.30. Everything going good and not loosing (sic) any sleep." The next day he noted "Fairly quiet day but reserves and headquarters shelled and a few wounded. Received a bit of a fright when a shell landed six feet from my bivoac (sic)."

His last diary entry (29 May 1916) read "Shell burst in billet, killing one, wounding several. Town (Armentieres) slightly bombarded." His final letter to Frederick on 30 June 1916 observed that "The weather is very broken and it makes things very miserable in the trench, when you are wet through, for you never undress, and you don't have a change of clothes. Things are pretty lively here at times, but we are awfully lucky, so let us hope that it will be the same right through."

It was not to be. On 9 July 1916, Arthur Elderton was admitted to the No 8 Casualty Clearing Station with shrapnel wounds and died the next day. His mother received the following letter from the nursing sister who attended him.

"Dear Mrs Elderton

Your son 6/3008 Pte Elderton of 1st Canterbury New Zealand Regiment was admitted to this Hosp on the 9th suffering from shrapnel wounds of the abdomen. He was operated on at once and the damage to the bowel repaired as far as possible. After coming around from the anaesthetic he became restless at times & had an anxious look. He did not have a good night & yesterday morning looked much worse. He lingered on until 2pm. He was such a fine lad - it was hard to see him just slip from us. I am deeply sorry to be the bearer of such tragic news & to have so very little to tell except the bare fact. I hope you may hear from someone in his regiment."

Believe me

Yours truly

J Todd

Sister."

Back to The Men from Papanui