KARL BERTEL KRISTIAN PEDERSEN – LISTED AS K PETERSEN ON THE MAKARA MEMORIAL
Regimental No. 11930
6/8 February 1895 – 8 June 1918
Karl Bertel Kristian PEDERSEN was born in Jutland, Denmark on either 6 or 8 February 1895 (both dates are in his military record). He was the son of Clemens Pedersen and Oline Andersine OLSEN, of Horsens, Denmark. Clemens was born about 1850 and lived in Skjöldborg, Denmark, where he made a living as a shoemaker. He left Europe from Hamburg on 10 May 1875 bound for Hawkes Bay, New Zealand on the ship Friedeburg.
Clemens may have taken advantage of the immigration scheme for Scandinavians set up by Premier Julius Vogel in 1870:
“In 1870, Colonial Treasurer Julius Vogel introduced a public works and immigration scheme, under which suitable immigrants would be settled along the projected lines of the road and railway. ……Vogel was keen to recruit settlers from Scandinavia, who were reputed for their skill as foresters and axemen.”
The immigration scheme offered free passage, and some land. Although Karl was not a farmer, forester or axeman, his craft would have been needed by the settlers, many of whom settled in and developed land in the Manawatu, northern Wairarapa, and southern Hawkes Bay regions.
https://envirohistorynz.com/2010/01/16/the-scandinavian-settlers-of-the-manawatu/
Shortly after arriving in New Zealand, Clemens married Oline. Their names are recorded on NZ BDM records as Klemmen Hordom Pedersen and Olive Andersine Olsen. The couple had six daughters between 1876 and 1888 (one dying in infancy in 1887). Clemens, then living in Dannevirke and working as a shoemaker, was granted New Zealand citizenship in 1887. He was listed in Wise’s directory for 1892-93 as Clement H Petersen, bootmaker in Dannevirke. The family surname varied between Petersen and Pedersen in the official records, and this has made them difficult to trace. Other spellings of his first name in various records included, Clemmen, Clemen, Hemmen and Klunnens. Oline also appeared as Olena and Olive.
It appears that most of the Pedersen/Petersen family returned to Denmark sometime between 1892/3 and 1894, as Karl was born in Jutland in 1895, and another son, Otto Christian Pedersen, was probably born in Denmark (Otto does not appear in the NZ Birth indexes).
One of the daughters, Siri Kamelia/Camelia Petersen, born January 1882, appears to have remained in or returned to New Zealand, where she married Walter Edmund COOK in 1911. Walter Cook was born in Makara in 1878 to Annie and Robert Clifford Cook. Walter and Siri, who had three children, farmed at Makara until Walter’s death in 1952, according to the Electoral rolls.
Karl and Otto were settled in New Zealand in 1915, perhaps arriving after the death of one or both of their parents. It is also likely that the marriage of their sister Siri in 1911 provided incentive for them to join her and seek work. Karl seems to have remained in Makara with Siri and Walter and worked as a milkman in Karori, for E. Johansen. Otto went to Awakino in the King Country.
In late 1915 the New Zealand government put out an urgent call for more military service recruits as quotas for the 11th and 12th Reinforcements had not yet been filled. Officials emphasised that these reinforcements were needed to be in place in the war area in the summer months of June and July 1916, so recruits were urgently needed to begin their training at once.
There had been discussion in 1915 about the introduction of conscription, as demand for reinforcements was outpacing the supply of volunteers. A law was passed in 1915 applying to men of military age, restricting them from leaving the country without official permission, but the new conscription system was not to take effect until mid-1916, so the appeal in late 1915 was to patriotism and to existing recruiting organisations to fill the gap. This was the background to Karl’s decision to enlist, completing the medical paperwork in late December at Kilbirnie, and formally enlisting on 11 January 1916 at Trentham. He was aged just 19 years and 11 months.
Karl was short, at 5 feet, 2 & ¼ inches tall, with a fair complexion, fair hair and blue eyes. He was somewhat slightly built, weighing 9 stone, 6 pounds but in good health with no defects. His religion was listed as Anglican.
Karl completed his training and left Wellington on Monday, 1 May 1916 in the ship “Ulimaroa”, bound for Suez, Egypt. His initial posting was as a private in the 12th Reinforcements, Wellington Infantry Battalion, B Company.
The voyage to Suez was not without incident. A steward committed suicide on the trip and was buried at sea, and there was an incident at the coaling stop in Colombo (the capital of what was then Ceylon, now Sri Lanka) when some of the troops, apparently expecting to return ashore on the second day of the stop as well as the first day, were denied, and they cut ropes on the coal-barges and pelted coal at the local workers. This was reported in Parliament along with rumours as to the poor quality of the food on the voyage, which were denied.
The troops disembarked at Suez on Friday 9 June 1916. Most of the NZEF had left Egypt in April 1916, bound for the Western Front, but some remained as part of an Anzac Mounted Division, which was helping defend Egypt against the Ottoman Turks. The 12th Reinforcements continued their training in Egypt until 26 July, when they left Alexandria for Southampton, arriving on Monday 7 August and marching to Sling Camp.
Karl had completed his training by late August, and was sent to France on 20 August, to the base camp at Étaples. He joined the 1st Battalion Wellington Infantry Regiment in the field on 1 September. The next day, both the 1st and 2nd Battalions began the journey to the Somme, where they were engaged continuously in the trenches from the 15th September until the 3rd of October 1916, mostly in atrocious weather conditions.
After their spell in the Somme, the Battalion was relocated to the Armentières sector. Karl’s service record shows a bout of illness in late November 1916, but nothing else to indicate what actions he was involved in. He most likely took part in the battle of Messines in June and La Basse Ville in July 1917 (where Harry Monaghan of Makara had been killed) and was granted leave in England from 16 September, returning on 1 October 1917, when he marched into the reinforcement camp at Morbecque, France. His military file notes he was posted to the 7th Wellington West Coast Company. He returned in time to participate in the carnage of Passchendaele on 12 October 1917.
Karl survived Passchendaele and subsequent time in the line at Ypres (when Louis William Sievers was killed on 30 November) and the failed attack at Polderhoek Chateau. By the beginning of 1918 the New Zealand troops needed recovery time from the horrors of the trenches and most left the Ypres area for French Flanders, just across the border, around the villages of Cassel and Caestre. A period of rest and training followed, improving the fitness and morale of the men. This was to be abruptly halted, however, when the Germans launched their spring offensive, on 21 March 1918.
In the first months of 1918, the Germans gained an advantage by transferring more than 30 divisions from the east, after Russia’s withdrawal following the Russian Revolution. They began their offensive on 21 March and made some inroads in the Ancre Valley where the British Fifth Army had to fall back. New Zealand troops were among those rushed to fill the gap, returning to the battlefields of the Somme and were key to halting the German breakthrough and stabilising the Front line.
The period from late March to May 1918 was characterised by a series of attacks to repel the Germans, barrages, and operations at places such as La Signy Farm and Rossignol Wood. There were periods of quiet, where in six days in May, only one soldier from the 1st Battalion was wounded. In late May, both battalions attended the First Brigade Horse show held near Vauchelles.
The New Zealand Division stayed in the Ancre Valley on the Somme until relieved on 6 June. However, Karl was wounded on 5 June, with shrapnel wounds to his chest, arm and leg. He was admitted into the 1st NZ Field Ambulance and transferred to the 29th Casualty Clearing Station, where he died from these wounds on Saturday 8th June. He was buried the next day near Gezaincourt and now lies in the Bagneux British Cemetery, Gezaincourt, Somme, France in Block III. B. 10. Frank Westwood (Brooklyn) was buried in the same cemetery three months later. There are 1,374 servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery, which was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Gezaincourt is a village situated 2 Kms to the south-west of the town of Doullens. Bagneux British Cemetery lies to the south of the village. There is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission signpost in Gezaincourt village opposite the "Chateau" entrance. Bagneux Cemetery is accessed via a rough country track and lies on a slope with w view into the Ancre Valley. It is now a quiet, peaceful rural setting.
Like the other men from Makara killed in the war, Karl left no widow or children. But his sister Siri and brother Otto in New Zealand mourned him. Siri made a declaration that their parents were dead and that Karl left no will and enclosed the consent of Otto to the Defence department releasing money from Karl’s estate to Siri.
Researched and written by Kaye Batchelor
Regimental No. 11930
6/8 February 1895 – 8 June 1918
Karl Bertel Kristian PEDERSEN was born in Jutland, Denmark on either 6 or 8 February 1895 (both dates are in his military record). He was the son of Clemens Pedersen and Oline Andersine OLSEN, of Horsens, Denmark. Clemens was born about 1850 and lived in Skjöldborg, Denmark, where he made a living as a shoemaker. He left Europe from Hamburg on 10 May 1875 bound for Hawkes Bay, New Zealand on the ship Friedeburg.
Clemens may have taken advantage of the immigration scheme for Scandinavians set up by Premier Julius Vogel in 1870:
“In 1870, Colonial Treasurer Julius Vogel introduced a public works and immigration scheme, under which suitable immigrants would be settled along the projected lines of the road and railway. ……Vogel was keen to recruit settlers from Scandinavia, who were reputed for their skill as foresters and axemen.”
The immigration scheme offered free passage, and some land. Although Karl was not a farmer, forester or axeman, his craft would have been needed by the settlers, many of whom settled in and developed land in the Manawatu, northern Wairarapa, and southern Hawkes Bay regions.
https://envirohistorynz.com/2010/01/16/the-scandinavian-settlers-of-the-manawatu/
Shortly after arriving in New Zealand, Clemens married Oline. Their names are recorded on NZ BDM records as Klemmen Hordom Pedersen and Olive Andersine Olsen. The couple had six daughters between 1876 and 1888 (one dying in infancy in 1887). Clemens, then living in Dannevirke and working as a shoemaker, was granted New Zealand citizenship in 1887. He was listed in Wise’s directory for 1892-93 as Clement H Petersen, bootmaker in Dannevirke. The family surname varied between Petersen and Pedersen in the official records, and this has made them difficult to trace. Other spellings of his first name in various records included, Clemmen, Clemen, Hemmen and Klunnens. Oline also appeared as Olena and Olive.
It appears that most of the Pedersen/Petersen family returned to Denmark sometime between 1892/3 and 1894, as Karl was born in Jutland in 1895, and another son, Otto Christian Pedersen, was probably born in Denmark (Otto does not appear in the NZ Birth indexes).
One of the daughters, Siri Kamelia/Camelia Petersen, born January 1882, appears to have remained in or returned to New Zealand, where she married Walter Edmund COOK in 1911. Walter Cook was born in Makara in 1878 to Annie and Robert Clifford Cook. Walter and Siri, who had three children, farmed at Makara until Walter’s death in 1952, according to the Electoral rolls.
Karl and Otto were settled in New Zealand in 1915, perhaps arriving after the death of one or both of their parents. It is also likely that the marriage of their sister Siri in 1911 provided incentive for them to join her and seek work. Karl seems to have remained in Makara with Siri and Walter and worked as a milkman in Karori, for E. Johansen. Otto went to Awakino in the King Country.
In late 1915 the New Zealand government put out an urgent call for more military service recruits as quotas for the 11th and 12th Reinforcements had not yet been filled. Officials emphasised that these reinforcements were needed to be in place in the war area in the summer months of June and July 1916, so recruits were urgently needed to begin their training at once.
There had been discussion in 1915 about the introduction of conscription, as demand for reinforcements was outpacing the supply of volunteers. A law was passed in 1915 applying to men of military age, restricting them from leaving the country without official permission, but the new conscription system was not to take effect until mid-1916, so the appeal in late 1915 was to patriotism and to existing recruiting organisations to fill the gap. This was the background to Karl’s decision to enlist, completing the medical paperwork in late December at Kilbirnie, and formally enlisting on 11 January 1916 at Trentham. He was aged just 19 years and 11 months.
Karl was short, at 5 feet, 2 & ¼ inches tall, with a fair complexion, fair hair and blue eyes. He was somewhat slightly built, weighing 9 stone, 6 pounds but in good health with no defects. His religion was listed as Anglican.
Karl completed his training and left Wellington on Monday, 1 May 1916 in the ship “Ulimaroa”, bound for Suez, Egypt. His initial posting was as a private in the 12th Reinforcements, Wellington Infantry Battalion, B Company.
The voyage to Suez was not without incident. A steward committed suicide on the trip and was buried at sea, and there was an incident at the coaling stop in Colombo (the capital of what was then Ceylon, now Sri Lanka) when some of the troops, apparently expecting to return ashore on the second day of the stop as well as the first day, were denied, and they cut ropes on the coal-barges and pelted coal at the local workers. This was reported in Parliament along with rumours as to the poor quality of the food on the voyage, which were denied.
The troops disembarked at Suez on Friday 9 June 1916. Most of the NZEF had left Egypt in April 1916, bound for the Western Front, but some remained as part of an Anzac Mounted Division, which was helping defend Egypt against the Ottoman Turks. The 12th Reinforcements continued their training in Egypt until 26 July, when they left Alexandria for Southampton, arriving on Monday 7 August and marching to Sling Camp.
Karl had completed his training by late August, and was sent to France on 20 August, to the base camp at Étaples. He joined the 1st Battalion Wellington Infantry Regiment in the field on 1 September. The next day, both the 1st and 2nd Battalions began the journey to the Somme, where they were engaged continuously in the trenches from the 15th September until the 3rd of October 1916, mostly in atrocious weather conditions.
After their spell in the Somme, the Battalion was relocated to the Armentières sector. Karl’s service record shows a bout of illness in late November 1916, but nothing else to indicate what actions he was involved in. He most likely took part in the battle of Messines in June and La Basse Ville in July 1917 (where Harry Monaghan of Makara had been killed) and was granted leave in England from 16 September, returning on 1 October 1917, when he marched into the reinforcement camp at Morbecque, France. His military file notes he was posted to the 7th Wellington West Coast Company. He returned in time to participate in the carnage of Passchendaele on 12 October 1917.
Karl survived Passchendaele and subsequent time in the line at Ypres (when Louis William Sievers was killed on 30 November) and the failed attack at Polderhoek Chateau. By the beginning of 1918 the New Zealand troops needed recovery time from the horrors of the trenches and most left the Ypres area for French Flanders, just across the border, around the villages of Cassel and Caestre. A period of rest and training followed, improving the fitness and morale of the men. This was to be abruptly halted, however, when the Germans launched their spring offensive, on 21 March 1918.
In the first months of 1918, the Germans gained an advantage by transferring more than 30 divisions from the east, after Russia’s withdrawal following the Russian Revolution. They began their offensive on 21 March and made some inroads in the Ancre Valley where the British Fifth Army had to fall back. New Zealand troops were among those rushed to fill the gap, returning to the battlefields of the Somme and were key to halting the German breakthrough and stabilising the Front line.
The period from late March to May 1918 was characterised by a series of attacks to repel the Germans, barrages, and operations at places such as La Signy Farm and Rossignol Wood. There were periods of quiet, where in six days in May, only one soldier from the 1st Battalion was wounded. In late May, both battalions attended the First Brigade Horse show held near Vauchelles.
The New Zealand Division stayed in the Ancre Valley on the Somme until relieved on 6 June. However, Karl was wounded on 5 June, with shrapnel wounds to his chest, arm and leg. He was admitted into the 1st NZ Field Ambulance and transferred to the 29th Casualty Clearing Station, where he died from these wounds on Saturday 8th June. He was buried the next day near Gezaincourt and now lies in the Bagneux British Cemetery, Gezaincourt, Somme, France in Block III. B. 10. Frank Westwood (Brooklyn) was buried in the same cemetery three months later. There are 1,374 servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery, which was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Gezaincourt is a village situated 2 Kms to the south-west of the town of Doullens. Bagneux British Cemetery lies to the south of the village. There is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission signpost in Gezaincourt village opposite the "Chateau" entrance. Bagneux Cemetery is accessed via a rough country track and lies on a slope with w view into the Ancre Valley. It is now a quiet, peaceful rural setting.
Like the other men from Makara killed in the war, Karl left no widow or children. But his sister Siri and brother Otto in New Zealand mourned him. Siri made a declaration that their parents were dead and that Karl left no will and enclosed the consent of Otto to the Defence department releasing money from Karl’s estate to Siri.
Researched and written by Kaye Batchelor
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Online Cenotaph http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph
Military Record available on Archway, reference PEDERSEN, Karl Bertel Kristian - WW1 11930 - Army (R20800165). http://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=20800165
The Wellington Regiment (NZEF) 1914 – 1919. Authors W.H. Cunningham, C. A. L. Treadwell and J. S. Hanna. Available on line as a pdf document.
The New Zealand Division 1916 - 1919: A Popular History based on Official Records. Author: Col. H. Stewart. Available on line as a pdf document.
Index to Births, Marriages, Deaths – National Archives
'Recruiting and conscription', URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/recruiting-and-conscription, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 17-Nov-2016
NOT A GERMAN, New Zealand Times, Volume XLI, Issue 9418, 3 August 1916
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM19160803.2.58
THE URGENT CALL, New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9234, 31 December 1915
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM19151231.2.41
ROLL OF HONOUR, New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10000, 18 June 1918
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM19180618.2.49
PRIVATE K. B. E.. PEDERSEN (of North Makara). ■...". Died of Wounds.-, Free Lance, Volume XVIII, Issue 939, 11 July 1918
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZFL19180711.2.25.5
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
http://www.cwgc.org
New Zealand Army Expeditionary Force. (1917). Nominal Rolls of New Zealand Expeditionary Force Volume II. Wellington, N.Z.: Govt. Printer.
Harper, Glyn; Jonny ENZED: The New Zealand Soldier in the First World War 1914-1918.
Ancestry.com. New Zealand, Naturalisations, 1843-1981 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
Persons Naturalised or Granted Citizenship in New Zealand, 1843-1981. Microfiche 1-34, 34 rolls. BAB Microfilming, Auckland, New Zealand.
Name:
Clemens Herdom Pedersen
Birth Date:
abt 1853
Age:
34 Yrs
Former Nationality:
Danish
Occupation:
Shoemaker
Residence City:
Dannevirke
Naturalisation Date:
26 Feb 1887
File Number:
1883/726
Certificate Register:
22
Register Page Number:
59
Auckland War Memorial Online Cenotaph http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph
Military Record available on Archway, reference PEDERSEN, Karl Bertel Kristian - WW1 11930 - Army (R20800165). http://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=20800165
The Wellington Regiment (NZEF) 1914 – 1919. Authors W.H. Cunningham, C. A. L. Treadwell and J. S. Hanna. Available on line as a pdf document.
The New Zealand Division 1916 - 1919: A Popular History based on Official Records. Author: Col. H. Stewart. Available on line as a pdf document.
Index to Births, Marriages, Deaths – National Archives
'Recruiting and conscription', URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/recruiting-and-conscription, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 17-Nov-2016
NOT A GERMAN, New Zealand Times, Volume XLI, Issue 9418, 3 August 1916
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM19160803.2.58
THE URGENT CALL, New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9234, 31 December 1915
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM19151231.2.41
ROLL OF HONOUR, New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10000, 18 June 1918
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM19180618.2.49
PRIVATE K. B. E.. PEDERSEN (of North Makara). ■...". Died of Wounds.-, Free Lance, Volume XVIII, Issue 939, 11 July 1918
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZFL19180711.2.25.5
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
http://www.cwgc.org
New Zealand Army Expeditionary Force. (1917). Nominal Rolls of New Zealand Expeditionary Force Volume II. Wellington, N.Z.: Govt. Printer.
Harper, Glyn; Jonny ENZED: The New Zealand Soldier in the First World War 1914-1918.
Ancestry.com. New Zealand, Naturalisations, 1843-1981 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
Persons Naturalised or Granted Citizenship in New Zealand, 1843-1981. Microfiche 1-34, 34 rolls. BAB Microfilming, Auckland, New Zealand.
Name:
Clemens Herdom Pedersen
Birth Date:
abt 1853
Age:
34 Yrs
Former Nationality:
Danish
Occupation:
Shoemaker
Residence City:
Dannevirke
Naturalisation Date:
26 Feb 1887
File Number:
1883/726
Certificate Register:
22
Register Page Number:
59