CHARLES (CHARLIE) MATTHIAS HERZOG
13 December 1891 – 25 May 1916
Regimental No. 25/188
On 13 December 1891 when Charles Matthias HERZOG (known as Charlie) was born in London his father Joseph was an engineer. Poplar, the area of London where Joseph and his wife Grace Elizabeth (nee LADBROOK) lived at the time, provided homes for workers at the docks that lined the Thames from Limehouse around the Isle of Dogs to Blackwall. The opening of the West India Docks in 1802 had stimulated a rapid growth in housing development, mainly mean terraces of rented cottages. By the late 19th century, poverty and overcrowding throughout the area were rife. Although the population continued to grow until around 1900, little housing was built after 1870. At its peak in the mid-late 19th century Poplar could claim to be the hub of the greatest maritime trading centre in the world.
Joseph Paul Herzog had been born in Salzburg, Austria, and arrived in London at some unknown date, and joined the large workforce on the docks along the Thames and in ancillary businesses and services. When he married Grace Ladbrook on 25 March 1891 at All Saints Church, Poplar, he was 36 years old, and she was only 17. Their first son – Charlie – was born almost exactly 9 months later, and they had him baptised on 20 March 1892 at All Saints, Poplar.
The 1891 Census was conducted about the time Joseph and Grace married, and they were recorded as living at 253 Brunswick Road, in Bromley, south of and across the river from Poplar. They were living with Grace’s mother (aged 40), who had been widowed since 1882, and her younger daughter Ethel (aged 12). Head of her household was her second husband James Arthur THOMPSON (aged 30). Joseph’s occupation was listed as Press Toolmaker and Machine Fitter, so he was a skilled workman.
Joseph and Grace had a second son, Joseph James Charlton, on 22 September 1895, and he was baptised at St Leonard’s Church, Bromley, London on 24 November 1895. Two years later their daughter, Katrina Elizabeth Sherwell (Rena) was born on 29 November 1897. When Rena was three months old, on 16th March 1898, the family left England from Plymouth on the White Star liner ‘Gothic’, bound for Wellington. Joseph’s occupation on the passenger list is “farmer”, and he is recorded as being 40 years old (he would have been 43), and Grace was noted as being 35 (more likely 25). However, later records indicate he was recruited to work as an Engineer for Bell & Co Match Factory in Newtown, Wellington.[1]
Shortly after their arrival in Wellington, Charlie attended The Terrace School in Central Wellington. From 1899 to 1901 he attended Newtown School, conveniently located close to where the family lived in Adelaide Road for nine years. The Bell & Co Match factory occupied the site on the junction of John Street, Riddiford Street and Adelaide Roads which is now occupied by Countdown supermarket.
By the time of the 1911 Electoral Roll, the family had moved to 89 Mitchell Street in Brooklyn, living almost directly opposite the walkway that leads now to the War Memorial on Sugarloaf Hill. Joseph senior became a naturalised New Zealand citizen on 4 March 1913. However once war was declared Joseph was included on the Alien register because of his birth in Austria.
After Charlie left school, he first worked as a message boy in the Free Lance newspaper office, where they found him to be ‘a likeable chap’. During this time he played Association Football for the Brooklyn United team. At some stage both Charlie and his brother Joseph moved to live and work in Carterton in the Wairarapa, where Charlie worked as an ironmonger with W.F.C.A. (Wairarapa Farmers’ Co-operative Association Ltd., a stock and station firm) and Joseph as a blacksmith with O.R. Fairbrother.
Charlie was called up and enlisted at Trentham on 12 October 1915. (His younger brother Joseph had enlisted on 27 April 1915 and at this time was in Suez.) Although he was living in Carterton, Charlie gave his last address as Mitchell Street, Brooklyn, the home of his parents. His declared age was 24; he had fair complexion and hair and blue eyes. His religious profession was Church of England. His medical examination showed he was 5 feet 7½ inches tall and weighed 10 stones; he had a chest measurement of 34 inches minimum and 37 inches maximum; his eyesight was 6/6, hearing and colour vision normal; his limbs and chest well formed; movement of joints full and perfect; his heart and lungs well-formed and his teeth were sufficient. He had no illnesses and was free from hernia, varicocele, varicose veins, haemorrhoids, inveterate or contagious skin disease and had a distinct mark of vaccination. He was considered to be in good bodily and mental health and had no defects that would be sufficient to cause rejection.
Charlie stated he had been in the No.9 Company of Territorials in Wellington for 5 years and was given the regimental number 25/188 in B Company 3rd Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. After receiving his equipment at Trentham, Charlie went into camp on the Maymorn Estate at Mangaroa on 16 October. While there he was inoculated for typhoid on 9 November 1915. He was admitted to hospital at Maymorn with eye disease on the same day and discharged 3 days later.
As a Corporal, Charlie left New Zealand with NZT42 on 5 February 1916 aboard ‘Ulimaroa’ and disembarked at Suez on 12 March 1916. The 3rd Battalion, to which Charlie belonged, joined with the 1st (to which his brother Joseph belonged) and 4th Battalions at Moascar in the Suez Canal area and the brothers underwent training together for about three weeks.
On 7 April 1916 Charlie embarked for France aboard the ‘Alaunia’ (Joseph had left the day before aboard the ‘Arcadian’) and moved to east of Armentieres, near the Belgian border where the Brigade was to see many battles on the Western Front. On 7 May 1916 Charlie was admitted to No.3 Field Ambulance at Estaives with influenza but rejoined his unit on 13 May. Many of the New Zealand men who entered the trenches of the Western Front in early May 1916 had been blooded at Gallipoli, but there were also many new recruits fresh from New Zealand, amongst them Charlie Herzog. The NZ Rifle Brigade went into action for the first time on the night of 22/23 May, but according to the Official History of the Brigade:
“All ranks were fairly familiar with the sector generally, for, in addition to the preliminary visits paid by officers and non-commissioned officers, the battalions had, since the 19th, been supplying working parties for the trenches up to sixty per cent of their total strength. It was, nevertheless, a strange experience, this first taking-over of a sector of the line, with all that it meant in the matter of responsibility, to say nothing of the possibilities before us. Yet, to many, these serious aspects bulked less largely than such immediate difficulties as the passage of the narrow communication trenches, in the darkness, and encumbered by the loads of impedimenta of various kinds, for in those days we took a good issue of blankets into the trenches, and the cooking was done even in the front line itself. The finding of dug-out quarters, the exchange of sentries in the fire-bays, the relief of trench-officers, the checking of stores and equipment, and a hundred other duties and formalities, were to us by no means an easy task; but all was successfully accomplished, and in good time we had returned the "Cheerio!" of the last of the outgoing troops, and had sent off in code the message "Relief complete."
Charlie’s experience on the Western Front was to be short-lived – less than two weeks - as on 25 May 1916, he was killed by a rifle grenade, aged 24 years. He may have been on patrol at the time, or maybe just in the wrong place in the trenches, but he was one of 54 Rifle Brigade ORs (Other Ranks) killed in May.
Charlie was buried in Cite Bon Jean Cemetery Extension, Armentieres by Reverend J R Burgin in grave number I.B.35, alongside four other men from the Rifle Brigade killed on the same day. There were eventually 452 New Zealand soldiers buried in Cite Bon Jean Cemetery, including Frank Ernest BALLARD and John Bruce WEST.
Charlie’s parents moved to Ferry Road, Days Bay in about 1919, and his plaque and scroll were sent to his mother there on 15 December 1921. His British War and Victory medals were sent to his father at this address on 1st August 1922.
Evening Post 7 June 1916:
HERZOG – Killed in action on the 25th May, Corporal Charles Herzog, dearly beloved son of Joseph and Grace Herzog, of Mitchell Street, Brooklyn; aged 24 years.
Free Lance 16 June 1916:
Corporal Chas. M. Herzog, of Wellington, who has been killed in action. He belonged to the Third Battalion New Zealand Rifle Brigade. (Photo)
Charlie and Joseph’s sister Rena married Lieut. Albert Charles Ernest LOADSMAN at St Matthew’s Church, Brooklyn on 17 September 1918. Albert served with distinction in both the 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 Wars. Their son, named Paul Joseph Charles after Rena’s father and brothers, was born at Rena’s parent’s home, 89 Mitchell Street, Brooklyn, in 1919. He served with the Royal Navy in the 1939-1945 War.
Joseph Paul Herzog died on 3 January 1926 aged 68. Grace lived to the age of 89 years and died on 12 June 1963. They are buried together in Karori Cemetery with their daughter, Rena, her husband Albert Loadsman (who died in 1955) and infant granddaughter Moira Josephine (Joy) Loadsman who died 21 June 1921 aged 6 weeks. Both Charles and his brother Joseph are also named on the plaques in the family plot in the second Anglican section at Karori Cemetery.
Researched and written by Ann Walker
[1] In May 1894, Mr C R E Bell, the Managing Director of R Bell and Co Ltd in London, embarked on the "SS Takapuna" with not only enough plant to set up a match factory in New Zealand, but also a manager (Mr Walter McLay) and sufficient skilled staff to manage the operation. The party arrived in Wellington on July 25,1894, and secured premises in Cornhill Street. Match production was begun almost right away. The immediate success of the venture can be gauged from the fact that a year later, in 1895, Mr Bell built a new and larger factory in Riddiford Street, Newton, which was opened by the Premier, the Rt. Hon. Richard Seddon in July.
http://www.ohinemuri.org.nz/journals/65-journal-37-september-1993/1370-nz-matches-and-matchboxes
13 December 1891 – 25 May 1916
Regimental No. 25/188
On 13 December 1891 when Charles Matthias HERZOG (known as Charlie) was born in London his father Joseph was an engineer. Poplar, the area of London where Joseph and his wife Grace Elizabeth (nee LADBROOK) lived at the time, provided homes for workers at the docks that lined the Thames from Limehouse around the Isle of Dogs to Blackwall. The opening of the West India Docks in 1802 had stimulated a rapid growth in housing development, mainly mean terraces of rented cottages. By the late 19th century, poverty and overcrowding throughout the area were rife. Although the population continued to grow until around 1900, little housing was built after 1870. At its peak in the mid-late 19th century Poplar could claim to be the hub of the greatest maritime trading centre in the world.
Joseph Paul Herzog had been born in Salzburg, Austria, and arrived in London at some unknown date, and joined the large workforce on the docks along the Thames and in ancillary businesses and services. When he married Grace Ladbrook on 25 March 1891 at All Saints Church, Poplar, he was 36 years old, and she was only 17. Their first son – Charlie – was born almost exactly 9 months later, and they had him baptised on 20 March 1892 at All Saints, Poplar.
The 1891 Census was conducted about the time Joseph and Grace married, and they were recorded as living at 253 Brunswick Road, in Bromley, south of and across the river from Poplar. They were living with Grace’s mother (aged 40), who had been widowed since 1882, and her younger daughter Ethel (aged 12). Head of her household was her second husband James Arthur THOMPSON (aged 30). Joseph’s occupation was listed as Press Toolmaker and Machine Fitter, so he was a skilled workman.
Joseph and Grace had a second son, Joseph James Charlton, on 22 September 1895, and he was baptised at St Leonard’s Church, Bromley, London on 24 November 1895. Two years later their daughter, Katrina Elizabeth Sherwell (Rena) was born on 29 November 1897. When Rena was three months old, on 16th March 1898, the family left England from Plymouth on the White Star liner ‘Gothic’, bound for Wellington. Joseph’s occupation on the passenger list is “farmer”, and he is recorded as being 40 years old (he would have been 43), and Grace was noted as being 35 (more likely 25). However, later records indicate he was recruited to work as an Engineer for Bell & Co Match Factory in Newtown, Wellington.[1]
Shortly after their arrival in Wellington, Charlie attended The Terrace School in Central Wellington. From 1899 to 1901 he attended Newtown School, conveniently located close to where the family lived in Adelaide Road for nine years. The Bell & Co Match factory occupied the site on the junction of John Street, Riddiford Street and Adelaide Roads which is now occupied by Countdown supermarket.
By the time of the 1911 Electoral Roll, the family had moved to 89 Mitchell Street in Brooklyn, living almost directly opposite the walkway that leads now to the War Memorial on Sugarloaf Hill. Joseph senior became a naturalised New Zealand citizen on 4 March 1913. However once war was declared Joseph was included on the Alien register because of his birth in Austria.
After Charlie left school, he first worked as a message boy in the Free Lance newspaper office, where they found him to be ‘a likeable chap’. During this time he played Association Football for the Brooklyn United team. At some stage both Charlie and his brother Joseph moved to live and work in Carterton in the Wairarapa, where Charlie worked as an ironmonger with W.F.C.A. (Wairarapa Farmers’ Co-operative Association Ltd., a stock and station firm) and Joseph as a blacksmith with O.R. Fairbrother.
Charlie was called up and enlisted at Trentham on 12 October 1915. (His younger brother Joseph had enlisted on 27 April 1915 and at this time was in Suez.) Although he was living in Carterton, Charlie gave his last address as Mitchell Street, Brooklyn, the home of his parents. His declared age was 24; he had fair complexion and hair and blue eyes. His religious profession was Church of England. His medical examination showed he was 5 feet 7½ inches tall and weighed 10 stones; he had a chest measurement of 34 inches minimum and 37 inches maximum; his eyesight was 6/6, hearing and colour vision normal; his limbs and chest well formed; movement of joints full and perfect; his heart and lungs well-formed and his teeth were sufficient. He had no illnesses and was free from hernia, varicocele, varicose veins, haemorrhoids, inveterate or contagious skin disease and had a distinct mark of vaccination. He was considered to be in good bodily and mental health and had no defects that would be sufficient to cause rejection.
Charlie stated he had been in the No.9 Company of Territorials in Wellington for 5 years and was given the regimental number 25/188 in B Company 3rd Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. After receiving his equipment at Trentham, Charlie went into camp on the Maymorn Estate at Mangaroa on 16 October. While there he was inoculated for typhoid on 9 November 1915. He was admitted to hospital at Maymorn with eye disease on the same day and discharged 3 days later.
As a Corporal, Charlie left New Zealand with NZT42 on 5 February 1916 aboard ‘Ulimaroa’ and disembarked at Suez on 12 March 1916. The 3rd Battalion, to which Charlie belonged, joined with the 1st (to which his brother Joseph belonged) and 4th Battalions at Moascar in the Suez Canal area and the brothers underwent training together for about three weeks.
On 7 April 1916 Charlie embarked for France aboard the ‘Alaunia’ (Joseph had left the day before aboard the ‘Arcadian’) and moved to east of Armentieres, near the Belgian border where the Brigade was to see many battles on the Western Front. On 7 May 1916 Charlie was admitted to No.3 Field Ambulance at Estaives with influenza but rejoined his unit on 13 May. Many of the New Zealand men who entered the trenches of the Western Front in early May 1916 had been blooded at Gallipoli, but there were also many new recruits fresh from New Zealand, amongst them Charlie Herzog. The NZ Rifle Brigade went into action for the first time on the night of 22/23 May, but according to the Official History of the Brigade:
“All ranks were fairly familiar with the sector generally, for, in addition to the preliminary visits paid by officers and non-commissioned officers, the battalions had, since the 19th, been supplying working parties for the trenches up to sixty per cent of their total strength. It was, nevertheless, a strange experience, this first taking-over of a sector of the line, with all that it meant in the matter of responsibility, to say nothing of the possibilities before us. Yet, to many, these serious aspects bulked less largely than such immediate difficulties as the passage of the narrow communication trenches, in the darkness, and encumbered by the loads of impedimenta of various kinds, for in those days we took a good issue of blankets into the trenches, and the cooking was done even in the front line itself. The finding of dug-out quarters, the exchange of sentries in the fire-bays, the relief of trench-officers, the checking of stores and equipment, and a hundred other duties and formalities, were to us by no means an easy task; but all was successfully accomplished, and in good time we had returned the "Cheerio!" of the last of the outgoing troops, and had sent off in code the message "Relief complete."
Charlie’s experience on the Western Front was to be short-lived – less than two weeks - as on 25 May 1916, he was killed by a rifle grenade, aged 24 years. He may have been on patrol at the time, or maybe just in the wrong place in the trenches, but he was one of 54 Rifle Brigade ORs (Other Ranks) killed in May.
Charlie was buried in Cite Bon Jean Cemetery Extension, Armentieres by Reverend J R Burgin in grave number I.B.35, alongside four other men from the Rifle Brigade killed on the same day. There were eventually 452 New Zealand soldiers buried in Cite Bon Jean Cemetery, including Frank Ernest BALLARD and John Bruce WEST.
Charlie’s parents moved to Ferry Road, Days Bay in about 1919, and his plaque and scroll were sent to his mother there on 15 December 1921. His British War and Victory medals were sent to his father at this address on 1st August 1922.
Evening Post 7 June 1916:
HERZOG – Killed in action on the 25th May, Corporal Charles Herzog, dearly beloved son of Joseph and Grace Herzog, of Mitchell Street, Brooklyn; aged 24 years.
Free Lance 16 June 1916:
Corporal Chas. M. Herzog, of Wellington, who has been killed in action. He belonged to the Third Battalion New Zealand Rifle Brigade. (Photo)
Charlie and Joseph’s sister Rena married Lieut. Albert Charles Ernest LOADSMAN at St Matthew’s Church, Brooklyn on 17 September 1918. Albert served with distinction in both the 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 Wars. Their son, named Paul Joseph Charles after Rena’s father and brothers, was born at Rena’s parent’s home, 89 Mitchell Street, Brooklyn, in 1919. He served with the Royal Navy in the 1939-1945 War.
Joseph Paul Herzog died on 3 January 1926 aged 68. Grace lived to the age of 89 years and died on 12 June 1963. They are buried together in Karori Cemetery with their daughter, Rena, her husband Albert Loadsman (who died in 1955) and infant granddaughter Moira Josephine (Joy) Loadsman who died 21 June 1921 aged 6 weeks. Both Charles and his brother Joseph are also named on the plaques in the family plot in the second Anglican section at Karori Cemetery.
Researched and written by Ann Walker
[1] In May 1894, Mr C R E Bell, the Managing Director of R Bell and Co Ltd in London, embarked on the "SS Takapuna" with not only enough plant to set up a match factory in New Zealand, but also a manager (Mr Walter McLay) and sufficient skilled staff to manage the operation. The party arrived in Wellington on July 25,1894, and secured premises in Cornhill Street. Match production was begun almost right away. The immediate success of the venture can be gauged from the fact that a year later, in 1895, Mr Bell built a new and larger factory in Riddiford Street, Newton, which was opened by the Premier, the Rt. Hon. Richard Seddon in July.
http://www.ohinemuri.org.nz/journals/65-journal-37-september-1993/1370-nz-matches-and-matchboxes