My Account
Stories shared by soldiers who fought in World War I are few and far between and are now treasured and passed down within families.
Rodney MP Mark Mitchell is hearing some of these stories as part of a project that highlights the role that locals played in World War I.
Last week, cousins Jean Dickinson and Neil McCathie met with the MP to talk about Jean’s father Donald McCathie and his brother Malcom McCathie.
Both men were farmers, who left Upper Waiwera to fight with mounted rifles brigades.
Jean says her father, who was also a father figure to Neil, rarely spoke about his wartime experiences, and it was not until after his death that the family found out how he had earned the Military Cross.
She and Neil treasure a book of sepia toned photographs taken during the war, as well as a framed citation and medals. The citation reveals the key role that Donald McCathie played in the Battle of Rafa in 1917, leading the Auckland Mounted Regiment in an assault on the German Headquarters near Rafa. It was this charge that won the day.
Donald’s bravery was also recognised with the Belgian Medialle Militaire and the French Croix de Guerre.
Jean says that one memory her father did share was how he came to have a German Iron Cross.
“My father came across a German soldier while in Europe, and was about to shoot him when the soldier said in perfect English ‘please don’t shoot me, take me prisoner instead’,” Jean says. “Dad took him prisoner, and in gratitude the soldier gave him the Iron Cross. Later, dad asked the soldier why he spoke such good English and he said it was because he went to Oxford University.”
She says the only thing her father ever said about his time at Gallipoli was that he would never forget the cries of the horses as they were slaughtered.
“He was a farmer, an animal lover, as many of those soldiers were, and it was very hard for them to see the distress and pain of the horses, some of which went with them from NZ farms.”
Jean and Neil’s family have farmed their land in Upper Waiwera for five generations. They say that numbers attending the Anzac services at the Upper Waiwera cenotaph that bears both their relatives’ names, have grown over the years. The service brings together members of rural families, as well as children from local schools. It is traditional for the farming families to share afternoon tea after the service at a farm in McCathie Rd.
The full story of the McCathies’ war effort will feature in the Genealogy column in an upcoming Hibiscus Matters issue.
