HECTOR SIDNEY McDONALD
26 December 1893 – 4 October 1917
Regimental number 33416
Hector McDonald was the fourth child and fourth son of John McDonald, labourer, and Sarah Ann, née Taylor. Both parents were born in New South Wales, John in 1862 and Sarah in 1868. They married in 1889 in Goulburn, NSW, a country town just under 200 kms south-west of Sydney and later in the same year, sailed for New Zealand.
The family’s movements in New Zealand are hard to trace. We know from Hector’s army personnel file that he was born in Ashurst on Boxing Day 1893. He already had three brothers, and subsequently gained five more and three sisters (one of whom died in infancy).
School records augment the limited information to be found in electoral rolls, providing some insight into where the family lived when they came to Wellington. Hector’s mother, Sarah Ann McDonald, is recorded as a voter on the City of Wellington roll in 1896, living in Ghuznee St, but there is no corresponding record for John. Sarah reappears on the roll in 1914, living at 22 Ghuznee St. During the intervening years there is no other record for Sarah and although there are some voters named John McDonald, none has an occupation that suggests he could be Hector’s father until 1914, when one John McDonald was enrolled, a seaman on the Union Steam Ship Co collier, ss Kittawa. If he was John’s father, that could explain why Sarah, although married, seems to be living alone. School records exist for some of the children (although not for Hector) and in each of these cases, John is the person identified as the parent and over a period of three years, we find them living in Ghuznee St, Island Bay, and Todman St in Brooklyn and attending several schools: Te Aro, Newtown Convent, Island Bay, and Brooklyn.
Some time after he had left school Hector found work as a labourer, employed by the Featherston County Council, and that was his occupation when he enlisted in September 1916. His medical examination noticed his size – 5 feet 3¼ inches in height and weighing 130 pounds or less than 60 kilograms – and it described him as ‘Of small stature but strong and wiry and always used to hard work’. He was posted to the Wellington Infantry Regiment with the rank of Private.
It seems that he had been living and working in Featherston for some time. The tenor of a letter he sent when he was in France suggests that he had been staying with a local butcher, John Crawford and his wife Alice, and that he developed a warm and close relationship with them and their family.
While Hector was undergoing his initial training, first at the army camp in Featherston and then at Trentham, he was twice disciplined for being absent without leave. On the first occasion he had been expected to report by midnight on 20 October and didn’t return until 8am the following day. This might have been viewed as almost an accident, but the second occasion could not be written off so lightly: it lasted from 21 December 1916 until 5 January 1917 and led to his being confined to barracks for 10 days and forfeiting 16 days’ pay.
Perhaps it was a relief to all parties that he embarked for England on 19 January 1917 as part of the 21st Reinforcements. He sailed on the troopship Ulimaroa, with training continuing on most days, partly to prepare the soldiers for what they would face when they finally reached the front but partly also to counter the inevitable boredom of a long sea voyage.
When the troops disembarked in Plymouth, they moved quickly to New Zealand’s training camp at Sling on the Salisbury Plain. Another two months of training followed, designed to build the skills and fitness that new arrivals to the front would need. On 26 May 1917, Hector and his cohort left for France, initially taking part in further training at the base at Etaples, but finally joining the Second Battalion, Wellington Infantry Regiment, on 18 June 1917.
They arrived as the Regiment was taking stock after its performance at the Battle of Messines. The Official History [1] reported that it was an active time for the Second Battalion, particularly following orders to carry out patrols near the German-occupied village of La Basse Ville. The description in the Official History recounted one of those patrols with gusto:
It was a great fight, and to hear it recounted afterwards was to bring back to memory the stories of the way British sailors in days gone by, boarded enemy ships and swept the decks with pistol and cutlass.
It is easy to imagine the effect of such stories on the impressionable minds of the new arrivals such as Hector. It was also a time of increased aerial activity:
…it was no uncommon thing to see close on a hundred aeroplanes in the sky at the same time. Early morning or in the evening was the time. Many an aerial duel did we watch and many a plane did we see come hurtling to earth. [2]
The Battalion’s work of digging trenches on the prominence known as Hill 63 may have offered a good vantage point to witness the aerial combat but the site also had its downside, being a target for gas shelling, some mustard but mainly lachrymatory[3]. As a result, the men would frequently spend the night seeking shelter in trenches towards the top of the hill, ‘weeping copious tears into our respirators from inflamed and streaming eyes.’
At the end of June, the Battalion began a period of training and recreation which included an invitation to the local villagers to take part in a tournament. Coffee and cakes were offered, and all were thought to enjoy the occasion. It was during this break that Hector wrote to Alice Crawford, mentioning that ‘some of my best mates have gone west’ and that he would ‘have a lot to tell you when we get back.’[4] Refreshed, the Second Battalion on 27 July captured La Basse Ville from the Germans, and then, after a successful counter-attack, did so again on the 31st. On 12 August, Lieut-General Godley inspected the Second Battalion and praised their work at La Basse Ville, adding that ‘we had now won the reputation that there was no better battalion in the British Army in the field’ [5]. It was not a time to relax, however: training continued and digging parties were going up to the trenches every night.
Towards the end of the month, the weather broke, just as the Second Battalion was relieved in the line. During the following month, September, it became clear that they were now destined to move to the Ypres Salient. The long march began on 25 September, a notably hot day: 25 miles on that first day, eight more on the second and a further 12 on the third. The next two days were spent resting after the march and preparing for the coming operations planned for 4 October 1917. The Second Battalion was the first group from the Wellington Regiment to move up to the line which it did on 30 September. Shortly after midnight on 3 October, the troops began to assemble in position, ready for zero hour set for 6am the next morning. Overnight the weather broke again, with light rain falling and a cold wind blowing from the east. Heavy German artillery fire opened up at about 5.20am although casualties were few and the Allied attack began with an artillery barrage as planned at 6am. Moving under the cover of this barrage, the Second Battalion moved forward, although visibility was limited and maintaining direction difficult. Even so, and despite heavy casualties, the Wellington-West Coast and Taranaki Companies had reached their objective by 9am and began digging in. Later that day, after heavy rain had set in again and turned the battle field into a quagmire, the Battalion was ordered to push forward three posts to conform with the next planned attack and it did so while subject to intense machine and rifle fire.[6]
It is not clear whether it was during that push or earlier during the attack, but during that day, Hector McDonald was one of the casualties of the battle for Gravenstafel, one phase of the major Battle of Passchendaele. He was 24 years old. Along with other soldiers with unknown graves, he is commemorated at the Tyne Cot Memorial, near the town of Ypres in Belgium.
In the letter he wrote to Alice Crawford (or Mrs Crawford as he called her) on 9 July 1917, Hector said that she would get ‘everything I have’, a statement that the Public Trustee treated as his will[7]. On the anniversary of Hector’s death, the Evening Post carried a notice in his memory, inserted by the Crawford family. It read:
In loving memory of Hector (Little Billy) McDonald, killed somewhere in France, October 4th, 1917; aged 23 years.
Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
Inserted by Mr and Mrs J B Crawford and Family, of Featherston; also Little Alice and Jack Dennis.
Researched and written by Max Kerr
[1] The Wellington Regiment (NZEF) 1914–1919, W H Cunningham, C A L Treadwell and J S Hanna, Ferguson and Osborne, 1928, p176–177.
[2] Ibid, p181.
[3] relating to, causing, or containing tears
[4] Archives New Zealand AAOM 6029/361 Rec 24491, McDonald, Hector Sydney
[5] Ibid, p206.
[6] Ibid, p223.
[7] Archives New Zealand AAOM 6029/361 Rec 24491, McDonald, Hector Sydney.
26 December 1893 – 4 October 1917
Regimental number 33416
Hector McDonald was the fourth child and fourth son of John McDonald, labourer, and Sarah Ann, née Taylor. Both parents were born in New South Wales, John in 1862 and Sarah in 1868. They married in 1889 in Goulburn, NSW, a country town just under 200 kms south-west of Sydney and later in the same year, sailed for New Zealand.
The family’s movements in New Zealand are hard to trace. We know from Hector’s army personnel file that he was born in Ashurst on Boxing Day 1893. He already had three brothers, and subsequently gained five more and three sisters (one of whom died in infancy).
School records augment the limited information to be found in electoral rolls, providing some insight into where the family lived when they came to Wellington. Hector’s mother, Sarah Ann McDonald, is recorded as a voter on the City of Wellington roll in 1896, living in Ghuznee St, but there is no corresponding record for John. Sarah reappears on the roll in 1914, living at 22 Ghuznee St. During the intervening years there is no other record for Sarah and although there are some voters named John McDonald, none has an occupation that suggests he could be Hector’s father until 1914, when one John McDonald was enrolled, a seaman on the Union Steam Ship Co collier, ss Kittawa. If he was John’s father, that could explain why Sarah, although married, seems to be living alone. School records exist for some of the children (although not for Hector) and in each of these cases, John is the person identified as the parent and over a period of three years, we find them living in Ghuznee St, Island Bay, and Todman St in Brooklyn and attending several schools: Te Aro, Newtown Convent, Island Bay, and Brooklyn.
Some time after he had left school Hector found work as a labourer, employed by the Featherston County Council, and that was his occupation when he enlisted in September 1916. His medical examination noticed his size – 5 feet 3¼ inches in height and weighing 130 pounds or less than 60 kilograms – and it described him as ‘Of small stature but strong and wiry and always used to hard work’. He was posted to the Wellington Infantry Regiment with the rank of Private.
It seems that he had been living and working in Featherston for some time. The tenor of a letter he sent when he was in France suggests that he had been staying with a local butcher, John Crawford and his wife Alice, and that he developed a warm and close relationship with them and their family.
While Hector was undergoing his initial training, first at the army camp in Featherston and then at Trentham, he was twice disciplined for being absent without leave. On the first occasion he had been expected to report by midnight on 20 October and didn’t return until 8am the following day. This might have been viewed as almost an accident, but the second occasion could not be written off so lightly: it lasted from 21 December 1916 until 5 January 1917 and led to his being confined to barracks for 10 days and forfeiting 16 days’ pay.
Perhaps it was a relief to all parties that he embarked for England on 19 January 1917 as part of the 21st Reinforcements. He sailed on the troopship Ulimaroa, with training continuing on most days, partly to prepare the soldiers for what they would face when they finally reached the front but partly also to counter the inevitable boredom of a long sea voyage.
When the troops disembarked in Plymouth, they moved quickly to New Zealand’s training camp at Sling on the Salisbury Plain. Another two months of training followed, designed to build the skills and fitness that new arrivals to the front would need. On 26 May 1917, Hector and his cohort left for France, initially taking part in further training at the base at Etaples, but finally joining the Second Battalion, Wellington Infantry Regiment, on 18 June 1917.
They arrived as the Regiment was taking stock after its performance at the Battle of Messines. The Official History [1] reported that it was an active time for the Second Battalion, particularly following orders to carry out patrols near the German-occupied village of La Basse Ville. The description in the Official History recounted one of those patrols with gusto:
It was a great fight, and to hear it recounted afterwards was to bring back to memory the stories of the way British sailors in days gone by, boarded enemy ships and swept the decks with pistol and cutlass.
It is easy to imagine the effect of such stories on the impressionable minds of the new arrivals such as Hector. It was also a time of increased aerial activity:
…it was no uncommon thing to see close on a hundred aeroplanes in the sky at the same time. Early morning or in the evening was the time. Many an aerial duel did we watch and many a plane did we see come hurtling to earth. [2]
The Battalion’s work of digging trenches on the prominence known as Hill 63 may have offered a good vantage point to witness the aerial combat but the site also had its downside, being a target for gas shelling, some mustard but mainly lachrymatory[3]. As a result, the men would frequently spend the night seeking shelter in trenches towards the top of the hill, ‘weeping copious tears into our respirators from inflamed and streaming eyes.’
At the end of June, the Battalion began a period of training and recreation which included an invitation to the local villagers to take part in a tournament. Coffee and cakes were offered, and all were thought to enjoy the occasion. It was during this break that Hector wrote to Alice Crawford, mentioning that ‘some of my best mates have gone west’ and that he would ‘have a lot to tell you when we get back.’[4] Refreshed, the Second Battalion on 27 July captured La Basse Ville from the Germans, and then, after a successful counter-attack, did so again on the 31st. On 12 August, Lieut-General Godley inspected the Second Battalion and praised their work at La Basse Ville, adding that ‘we had now won the reputation that there was no better battalion in the British Army in the field’ [5]. It was not a time to relax, however: training continued and digging parties were going up to the trenches every night.
Towards the end of the month, the weather broke, just as the Second Battalion was relieved in the line. During the following month, September, it became clear that they were now destined to move to the Ypres Salient. The long march began on 25 September, a notably hot day: 25 miles on that first day, eight more on the second and a further 12 on the third. The next two days were spent resting after the march and preparing for the coming operations planned for 4 October 1917. The Second Battalion was the first group from the Wellington Regiment to move up to the line which it did on 30 September. Shortly after midnight on 3 October, the troops began to assemble in position, ready for zero hour set for 6am the next morning. Overnight the weather broke again, with light rain falling and a cold wind blowing from the east. Heavy German artillery fire opened up at about 5.20am although casualties were few and the Allied attack began with an artillery barrage as planned at 6am. Moving under the cover of this barrage, the Second Battalion moved forward, although visibility was limited and maintaining direction difficult. Even so, and despite heavy casualties, the Wellington-West Coast and Taranaki Companies had reached their objective by 9am and began digging in. Later that day, after heavy rain had set in again and turned the battle field into a quagmire, the Battalion was ordered to push forward three posts to conform with the next planned attack and it did so while subject to intense machine and rifle fire.[6]
It is not clear whether it was during that push or earlier during the attack, but during that day, Hector McDonald was one of the casualties of the battle for Gravenstafel, one phase of the major Battle of Passchendaele. He was 24 years old. Along with other soldiers with unknown graves, he is commemorated at the Tyne Cot Memorial, near the town of Ypres in Belgium.
In the letter he wrote to Alice Crawford (or Mrs Crawford as he called her) on 9 July 1917, Hector said that she would get ‘everything I have’, a statement that the Public Trustee treated as his will[7]. On the anniversary of Hector’s death, the Evening Post carried a notice in his memory, inserted by the Crawford family. It read:
In loving memory of Hector (Little Billy) McDonald, killed somewhere in France, October 4th, 1917; aged 23 years.
Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
Inserted by Mr and Mrs J B Crawford and Family, of Featherston; also Little Alice and Jack Dennis.
Researched and written by Max Kerr
[1] The Wellington Regiment (NZEF) 1914–1919, W H Cunningham, C A L Treadwell and J S Hanna, Ferguson and Osborne, 1928, p176–177.
[2] Ibid, p181.
[3] relating to, causing, or containing tears
[4] Archives New Zealand AAOM 6029/361 Rec 24491, McDonald, Hector Sydney
[5] Ibid, p206.
[6] Ibid, p223.
[7] Archives New Zealand AAOM 6029/361 Rec 24491, McDonald, Hector Sydney.