The defence force is looking for the descendants of two recently identified WWI soldiers – killed while serving in Belgium nearly 100 years ago.
New research from independent, volunteer researchers, with further information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and NZDF, identified the final resting places of 31-year-old Sergeant Thomas Smith and 27-year-old Corporal Thomas Nigel McFarland.
The two men were both members of the New Zealand Machine Gun Corps and were killed on October 12, 1917, at the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium.
New Zealand and its allies had launched an attack on Bellevue Spur. At least 843 New Zealanders were killed in action that day – the highest number to die in battle on a single day.
“In the aftermath of the fighting, many New Zealand families mourned multiple losses with at least five sets of brothers recorded amongst the 1176 names engraved on the Memorial to the Missing at Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium,” the defence force said, in a statement.
To identify the men, whose graves were unmarked, researchers used evidence from Archives NZ detailing the positions of the machine gun companies and the rank and corps information recorded in archived material held by the war graves commission.
Defence force historian John Crawford said the evidence that supported the identification of the graves was “clear and compelling”.
Sergeant Smith was the “only candidate whose rank and corps matches the particulars of the individual recorded in the unknown grave at Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium”, Crawford said.
“There are no other missing New Zealand servicemen of this rank and corps.”
His remains were also found close to the position of the fifth New Zealand Machine Gun company, of which he was a member.
Born in 1885 in Portsmouth, England, Smith served for 18 months in the British army and eight years in the navy before the war.
He was a merchant seaman when he enlisted in New Zealand on November 29, 1915. He had been living at a boarding house in Lyttelton at the time.
Smith’s attestation papers said he had forearm tattoos, and was described by his assessor as a “very suitable man”.
McFarland was also the only candidate matching the particulars of an unknown grave at the Passchendaele New British Cemetery.
His remains were not found near his unit’s guns, but near the company headquarters.
“His proximity and the nature of the fighting at Passchendaele, combined with the rank and corps insignia recorded as found with the remains in the years immediately following the war, is considered sufficient evidence to confirm the identification of this previously unknown grave,” Crawford said.
Before the war, McFarland was a bank clerk with the Bank of New South Wales in Lawrence, South Otago. He was one of nine siblings and had a brother who served in, and survived, the war.
McFarland enlisted on August 14, 1914, just 10 days after Britain declared war on Germany. News reports from the time said he was wounded in action in both the Gallipoli and the Somme campaigns.
Following his death, a short entry was submitted by a “loving aunt and cousins”, featuring a Thomas Campbell quote: “To live in the hearts of those we love is not to die.”
The committee of the Lawrence Lawn Tennis Club at the time described him as a “very enthusiastic player, and his genial presence will be greatly missed”.
The men’s gravesites would now receive new headstones with their names.
Crawford said the identification would allow the defence force to share the new research with descendants “if they make themselves known to us”.
He hoped the men’s descendants would be able to know before the graves were updated.
Relatives of the two men were encouraged to contact the New Zealand Defence Force.
