BOB WATKINS

Private Robert Edward (Bob) Watkins had a very short period of military service, as he was the first of the Papanui men to be killed in action on 25 April 1915 when the Canterbury Battalion went ashore at Gallipoli. He was born and educated in Belfast, but at the time of his enlistment on 11 August 1914, he was working as a shoe salesman for Souter's Shoe Shop in Timaru. The Timaru Herald on 12 August lists him as one of the first civilian volunteers and he was assigned to the 2nd (South Canterbury) Company of the Canterbury Regiment .

On 9 April 1915, a detailed letter witten by him describing the Turkish attack in the Suez Canal area in February was published in the Timaru Herald. He described the trip from Cairo to Ismailia, and considered the area as "wonderfully fertile and excellently cultivated land, irrigated from the Nile." During the attack "the shrapnel screamed over our heads without hitting anyone and except for a few close ones didn't concern us much … Our platoon had the lead and we advanced about four miles before we sighted the Turks in the distance. Their numbers were too strong for us to attack so we retreated rather disappointed."

His military service was brief. Bob Watkins was posted as missing on 25 April, and on 1 May he was reclassified as killed in action. His body was found in the truce of 24 April when bodies from both sides were identified and buried. In his will, he left a section in Craighead Street, Timaru to his father, £5 to his executor Albert Manly, and the remainder of his estate to his mother, with the exception of his life insurance policy, which was gifted to a Miss Priscilla Hawker. He is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli, as well as on the Belfast War Memorial.

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