MARTIN GRIFFIN, MM
1 January 1888 – 12 October 1918
Regimental number 10/1504
Martin Griffin (sometimes spelt Griffen) was born into a family with Irish Catholic roots. His parents were both born in Ireland, his father Michael in Tralee, County Kerry and his mother Annie, neé Gleeson, a farmer’s daughter from Tipperary. The couple married in 1885 after migrating to New Zealand, setting up house in Wellington. Martin was the second of 10 children:
Gerald 1886-1893
Martin 1888-1918
Fergus Mortimer 1890-1893
Mary Anne Bridget 1891-*
Joseph Gerald 1894-1957*
Catherine Margaret Mary 1896-*
Eileen Teresa 1899-*[1]
Michael Bartholomew 1901-1902
Brendan Richard 1903-
Daniel Gleeson 1906-1906
Their father was a labourer and judging by the children’s school records, the family lived in a succession of houses in the Te Aro area, eventually settling at 31 Nairn Street. In line with the changes in residential address Martin attended several schools in the locality, including Mitchelltown, Te Aro, Mt Cook Boys’ School and then Mitchelltown again. After he left school, he became a labourer like his father. He was a big man – his army record says he was six feet tall and weighed 175 pounds (or 1.8 metres and just on 80 kgs) – and was well equipped to work as a bushman in the Whanganui region, which is hat he was doing when he decided to sign up for active service.
Martin, or Mat as he was known, enlisted on 15 December 1914 when he was 27, just on four months after war was declared, and left New Zealand on 14 February 1915 bound for Egypt as part of the 3rd Reinforcements. His service spanned almost the whole of the war period and he took part in most of the major campaigns that involved the Wellington Regiment. With others in his West Coast Company, he had his baptism of fire in the Dardanelles in heavy and severe fighting on 27 April 1915 as the Company fought to support the Australian advance up Walkers Ridge on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Like many of his mates, as the hot weather came on he suffered a bout of gastroenteritis and was on sick leave for eight days at the beginning of June. More seriously, in July he was evacuated, first to Malta and then to England because of a severe bomb injury to his right hand and he did not rejoin the Battalion until January the following year, after it had left Gallipoli and returned to Egypt.
In early April 1916 the Wellington Regiment sailed from Alexandria for Marseilles and from there travelled by train to the north of France. Mat and his mates quickly learnt about the harsh realities of their job at the front. Marching on the rounded stones of the pavé roads was ‘torture’ that was exacerbated by the shortage of thick soled boots, ‘causing a good number of the men to fall out on the march’.[2] Nevertheless, life on the Western Front was thought to be ‘a happy contrast to Gallipoli’[3] with stores and supplies transported by horse and wagon rather than by the men. The pattern of trench life was soon established, with periods marked by exchanges of fire at the front line alternating with training (learning how to make wire entanglements, sniping, signalling, and bombing), night-time raids and patrols, and taking part in never-ending working parties, particularly constructing and repairing trenches.
In April 1917, after the Wellington Regiment had been in France for about a year, preparations began for its role in the assault on the ridge of Messines. The New Zealand Division had been charged with the capture of the village itself, and the Wellington Battalions were deeply involved. The Official History tells the story of their involvement and conveys something of the atmosphere following the detonation of the mines in tunnels under the Messines Ridge at 3.10am on 7 June and the massive artillery bombardment that followed to mark the start of the assault:
Companies moved in small columns over the open, and then picked their way up the hill to Messines, skirting the village and not going through it. To ensure being in position before the barrage began to move forward again, we had to keep close on the heels of the leading brigade, and, indeed, in one instance on the left, such was the anxiety not to miss the barrage, that our men arrived at one objective even before the troops detailed to assault it….Each platoon in the battalion reached its objective and completed its task, a testimony to the leadership of platoon commanders and to the knowledge of all ranks of their tasks. The men of the Wellington West Coast Company rushed Blauwen Molen with great determination and captured three machine guns and twenty-seven prisoners with but very little loss.[4]
Shortly after the Battle of Messines, during a period of further training which included two courses of musketry, Mat would have received the news that his mother had died of acute nephritis on 6 July 1917. It was about this time that he received his first promotion, to the rank of Lance-Corporal.
The training continued and by September it had become clear that the next big engagement would be at the Ypres Salient. On 4 October, during the fight for Gravenstafel, the Wellington-West Coast Company suffered heavy casualties, but they had managed to capture a case of German map orders which was seen as a useful prize. On the 7th, the 1st Battalion marched to the Brandhoek area and camped in tents in pouring rain near the railway station at Poperinghe. Over the next few days the camp became a sea of liquid mud, but the Battalion remained there in relief until 15 October. Although involved in many of the major battles on the Western front, the Wellington Regiment’s 1st and 2nd Battalions were not called on for the assault on 12 October on Belle Vue spur, the ridge leading up to the village of Passchendaele, when 845 New Zealand soldiers were killed. Three days later, both Battalions were back in the front line, actively patrolling to find out what damage had been done to the enemy wire and to reconnoitre possible crossings of the Ravebeke, once a stream but now a shell-hole swamp, until the Canadians relieved the New Zealanders on 23 October.
In November 1917, Mat was promoted to the rank of Temporary Corporal and he gained the rank substantively a few weeks later.
And so, fighting continued as the Allied forces slowly made their way to the east, with the German army in retreat. The shift from trench-based to more open warfare meant that the progress eastward could be faster, but the way ahead was still not straightforward. The 1st Battalion saw fierce fighting on many occasions. One of those would have been especially memorable for Mat because at the end of April 1918, probably when he would have been in the vicinity of Sailly-au-Bois, he engaged in what his army file called ‘acts of gallantry in the field’ that led to the award of the Military Medal.[5] In May of that year, Mat was promoted again and became Sergeant Griffin.
On the morning of 9 October 1918, after a week in reserve, the 1st Wellington Battalion was told to be ready to move at half an hour’s notice. The Battalion began marching at midday on the 10th, bivouacked overnight, and continued marching on the following morning. Part of the plan for that day was for 1st Wellington to capture the village of Viesly, push through the town of Briastre and secure the bridgeheads on the river Selle. The orders changed when it emerged that 1st Otago had already taken Viesly, so that 1st Wellington could now pass through Briastre, cross the river, and secure the railway line on the east side of the river. Under cover of darkness, they moved forward, reaching the river by about 1am on the morning of the 11th. They found that the bridges were down, but some distance upriver the Royal Engineers had erected a replacement bridge. The Battalion’s Hawkes Bay and Ruahine Companies crossed the river to the east side but when dawn broke, they were seen by the Germans who opened fire with machine guns and inflicted heavy casualties.
Meanwhile Mat’s group, the Wellington West Coast Company, was still on the other bank of the river covering the western edge of Briastre. During two days of fighting the town of Briastre was subject to heavy shelling. This resistance was unexpected and provoked a strong barrage from the Allies in response. Despite this, the Germans recovered some of the ground they had lost. The Allied forces increased their pressure and by 8.30 on the evening of the 12th, the Battalion had consolidated its position and secured the river crossing at Briastre. The Official History commented that fighting had seen ‘numerous noteworthy acts of gallantry…many …unrecorded’,[6] but they came at a cost. The Battalion’s casualties on 12 October 1918 were 28 killed, 76 wounded and 11 missing, while the record shows that at least 38 German soldiers were found dead on the railway alone and 21 taken prisoner.
Martin Griffin was one of those killed during the fighting on 12 October, one year to the day after the New Zealand Division’s disastrous and unsuccessful attempt to capture the village of Passchendaele. It was also just one month before the war ended, though of course Mat and his fellow soldiers couldn't have known his, even though victory was for the Allies was becoming more and more likely by the day.
His army personnel file records that he had an isolated grave 100 yards on the east side of the Viesly–Briastre Road, 4½ miles north west of Le Cateau. Subsequently, with other soldiers who were killed in the area during October 1918, he was moved and re-buried in the nearby Romeries Communal Cemetery Extension, with 22 other men from the Wellington Regiment killed on the 11th and 12th of October. Altogether, 106 NZ men were buried in this cemetery in October and November 1918, including Arthur Trotter (Makara Memorial).
The Griffin family grave in the first Catholic section of Karori Cemetery is where Mat’s younger brothers Gerald, who died in 1893 aged 7, Fergus who died in the same year at the age of 3, and young Michael who died in 1902 aged 12 months were buried together. Their baby brother Daniel, who was born in 1906 and died in the same year, was interred next. Annie, Mat’s mother, who predeceased Mat by one year, was interred in the plot with her sons in 1917, and their father Michael joined them all in 1941.
There is a commemorative plaque for Mat on the ledger of the family grave.[7] The inscription on this plaque refers to ‘Their beloved son Sergt Martin (Mat) Griffin MM killed in action in France 12th Oct 1918. RIP. 3rd Reinforcements Wellington Regiment.’
Mat’s army record was annotated with a note that his will was in favour of his sister Maureen Griffin[8]. No record of this document is held by Archives New Zealand.
One of Mat’s two surviving brothers, Joseph Gerald Griffin, also served overseas during WW1. He enlisted in December 1915, was appointed a gunner, and returned to New Zealand when the war was over, living with his father and two unmarried sisters in the family home in Nairn Street.
Researched and written by Max Kerr
[1] * these children were not registered until 1931.
[2] The Wellington Regiment (NZEF) 1914 – 1919, W H Cunningham, C A L Treadwell and J S Hanna, Ferguson and Osborne Ltd, 1928, p 94.
[3] Ibid, p 97.
[4] Ibid, p 164.
[5] This decoration was instituted in 1916 to award to non-commissioned officers and other ranks of the army for acts of bravery for which the award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal was not considered appropriate: see http://medals.nzdf.mil.nz/category/i/i21.html.
[6] Op cit, pp 307–315.
[7] The ledger is a grave marker stone which covers the grave completely.
[8] There is no record on NZBDM that there was a sister called Maureen, though this may have been a family name for one of the daughters/sisters.
1 January 1888 – 12 October 1918
Regimental number 10/1504
Martin Griffin (sometimes spelt Griffen) was born into a family with Irish Catholic roots. His parents were both born in Ireland, his father Michael in Tralee, County Kerry and his mother Annie, neé Gleeson, a farmer’s daughter from Tipperary. The couple married in 1885 after migrating to New Zealand, setting up house in Wellington. Martin was the second of 10 children:
Gerald 1886-1893
Martin 1888-1918
Fergus Mortimer 1890-1893
Mary Anne Bridget 1891-*
Joseph Gerald 1894-1957*
Catherine Margaret Mary 1896-*
Eileen Teresa 1899-*[1]
Michael Bartholomew 1901-1902
Brendan Richard 1903-
Daniel Gleeson 1906-1906
Their father was a labourer and judging by the children’s school records, the family lived in a succession of houses in the Te Aro area, eventually settling at 31 Nairn Street. In line with the changes in residential address Martin attended several schools in the locality, including Mitchelltown, Te Aro, Mt Cook Boys’ School and then Mitchelltown again. After he left school, he became a labourer like his father. He was a big man – his army record says he was six feet tall and weighed 175 pounds (or 1.8 metres and just on 80 kgs) – and was well equipped to work as a bushman in the Whanganui region, which is hat he was doing when he decided to sign up for active service.
Martin, or Mat as he was known, enlisted on 15 December 1914 when he was 27, just on four months after war was declared, and left New Zealand on 14 February 1915 bound for Egypt as part of the 3rd Reinforcements. His service spanned almost the whole of the war period and he took part in most of the major campaigns that involved the Wellington Regiment. With others in his West Coast Company, he had his baptism of fire in the Dardanelles in heavy and severe fighting on 27 April 1915 as the Company fought to support the Australian advance up Walkers Ridge on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Like many of his mates, as the hot weather came on he suffered a bout of gastroenteritis and was on sick leave for eight days at the beginning of June. More seriously, in July he was evacuated, first to Malta and then to England because of a severe bomb injury to his right hand and he did not rejoin the Battalion until January the following year, after it had left Gallipoli and returned to Egypt.
In early April 1916 the Wellington Regiment sailed from Alexandria for Marseilles and from there travelled by train to the north of France. Mat and his mates quickly learnt about the harsh realities of their job at the front. Marching on the rounded stones of the pavé roads was ‘torture’ that was exacerbated by the shortage of thick soled boots, ‘causing a good number of the men to fall out on the march’.[2] Nevertheless, life on the Western Front was thought to be ‘a happy contrast to Gallipoli’[3] with stores and supplies transported by horse and wagon rather than by the men. The pattern of trench life was soon established, with periods marked by exchanges of fire at the front line alternating with training (learning how to make wire entanglements, sniping, signalling, and bombing), night-time raids and patrols, and taking part in never-ending working parties, particularly constructing and repairing trenches.
In April 1917, after the Wellington Regiment had been in France for about a year, preparations began for its role in the assault on the ridge of Messines. The New Zealand Division had been charged with the capture of the village itself, and the Wellington Battalions were deeply involved. The Official History tells the story of their involvement and conveys something of the atmosphere following the detonation of the mines in tunnels under the Messines Ridge at 3.10am on 7 June and the massive artillery bombardment that followed to mark the start of the assault:
Companies moved in small columns over the open, and then picked their way up the hill to Messines, skirting the village and not going through it. To ensure being in position before the barrage began to move forward again, we had to keep close on the heels of the leading brigade, and, indeed, in one instance on the left, such was the anxiety not to miss the barrage, that our men arrived at one objective even before the troops detailed to assault it….Each platoon in the battalion reached its objective and completed its task, a testimony to the leadership of platoon commanders and to the knowledge of all ranks of their tasks. The men of the Wellington West Coast Company rushed Blauwen Molen with great determination and captured three machine guns and twenty-seven prisoners with but very little loss.[4]
Shortly after the Battle of Messines, during a period of further training which included two courses of musketry, Mat would have received the news that his mother had died of acute nephritis on 6 July 1917. It was about this time that he received his first promotion, to the rank of Lance-Corporal.
The training continued and by September it had become clear that the next big engagement would be at the Ypres Salient. On 4 October, during the fight for Gravenstafel, the Wellington-West Coast Company suffered heavy casualties, but they had managed to capture a case of German map orders which was seen as a useful prize. On the 7th, the 1st Battalion marched to the Brandhoek area and camped in tents in pouring rain near the railway station at Poperinghe. Over the next few days the camp became a sea of liquid mud, but the Battalion remained there in relief until 15 October. Although involved in many of the major battles on the Western front, the Wellington Regiment’s 1st and 2nd Battalions were not called on for the assault on 12 October on Belle Vue spur, the ridge leading up to the village of Passchendaele, when 845 New Zealand soldiers were killed. Three days later, both Battalions were back in the front line, actively patrolling to find out what damage had been done to the enemy wire and to reconnoitre possible crossings of the Ravebeke, once a stream but now a shell-hole swamp, until the Canadians relieved the New Zealanders on 23 October.
In November 1917, Mat was promoted to the rank of Temporary Corporal and he gained the rank substantively a few weeks later.
And so, fighting continued as the Allied forces slowly made their way to the east, with the German army in retreat. The shift from trench-based to more open warfare meant that the progress eastward could be faster, but the way ahead was still not straightforward. The 1st Battalion saw fierce fighting on many occasions. One of those would have been especially memorable for Mat because at the end of April 1918, probably when he would have been in the vicinity of Sailly-au-Bois, he engaged in what his army file called ‘acts of gallantry in the field’ that led to the award of the Military Medal.[5] In May of that year, Mat was promoted again and became Sergeant Griffin.
On the morning of 9 October 1918, after a week in reserve, the 1st Wellington Battalion was told to be ready to move at half an hour’s notice. The Battalion began marching at midday on the 10th, bivouacked overnight, and continued marching on the following morning. Part of the plan for that day was for 1st Wellington to capture the village of Viesly, push through the town of Briastre and secure the bridgeheads on the river Selle. The orders changed when it emerged that 1st Otago had already taken Viesly, so that 1st Wellington could now pass through Briastre, cross the river, and secure the railway line on the east side of the river. Under cover of darkness, they moved forward, reaching the river by about 1am on the morning of the 11th. They found that the bridges were down, but some distance upriver the Royal Engineers had erected a replacement bridge. The Battalion’s Hawkes Bay and Ruahine Companies crossed the river to the east side but when dawn broke, they were seen by the Germans who opened fire with machine guns and inflicted heavy casualties.
Meanwhile Mat’s group, the Wellington West Coast Company, was still on the other bank of the river covering the western edge of Briastre. During two days of fighting the town of Briastre was subject to heavy shelling. This resistance was unexpected and provoked a strong barrage from the Allies in response. Despite this, the Germans recovered some of the ground they had lost. The Allied forces increased their pressure and by 8.30 on the evening of the 12th, the Battalion had consolidated its position and secured the river crossing at Briastre. The Official History commented that fighting had seen ‘numerous noteworthy acts of gallantry…many …unrecorded’,[6] but they came at a cost. The Battalion’s casualties on 12 October 1918 were 28 killed, 76 wounded and 11 missing, while the record shows that at least 38 German soldiers were found dead on the railway alone and 21 taken prisoner.
Martin Griffin was one of those killed during the fighting on 12 October, one year to the day after the New Zealand Division’s disastrous and unsuccessful attempt to capture the village of Passchendaele. It was also just one month before the war ended, though of course Mat and his fellow soldiers couldn't have known his, even though victory was for the Allies was becoming more and more likely by the day.
His army personnel file records that he had an isolated grave 100 yards on the east side of the Viesly–Briastre Road, 4½ miles north west of Le Cateau. Subsequently, with other soldiers who were killed in the area during October 1918, he was moved and re-buried in the nearby Romeries Communal Cemetery Extension, with 22 other men from the Wellington Regiment killed on the 11th and 12th of October. Altogether, 106 NZ men were buried in this cemetery in October and November 1918, including Arthur Trotter (Makara Memorial).
The Griffin family grave in the first Catholic section of Karori Cemetery is where Mat’s younger brothers Gerald, who died in 1893 aged 7, Fergus who died in the same year at the age of 3, and young Michael who died in 1902 aged 12 months were buried together. Their baby brother Daniel, who was born in 1906 and died in the same year, was interred next. Annie, Mat’s mother, who predeceased Mat by one year, was interred in the plot with her sons in 1917, and their father Michael joined them all in 1941.
There is a commemorative plaque for Mat on the ledger of the family grave.[7] The inscription on this plaque refers to ‘Their beloved son Sergt Martin (Mat) Griffin MM killed in action in France 12th Oct 1918. RIP. 3rd Reinforcements Wellington Regiment.’
Mat’s army record was annotated with a note that his will was in favour of his sister Maureen Griffin[8]. No record of this document is held by Archives New Zealand.
One of Mat’s two surviving brothers, Joseph Gerald Griffin, also served overseas during WW1. He enlisted in December 1915, was appointed a gunner, and returned to New Zealand when the war was over, living with his father and two unmarried sisters in the family home in Nairn Street.
Researched and written by Max Kerr
[1] * these children were not registered until 1931.
[2] The Wellington Regiment (NZEF) 1914 – 1919, W H Cunningham, C A L Treadwell and J S Hanna, Ferguson and Osborne Ltd, 1928, p 94.
[3] Ibid, p 97.
[4] Ibid, p 164.
[5] This decoration was instituted in 1916 to award to non-commissioned officers and other ranks of the army for acts of bravery for which the award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal was not considered appropriate: see http://medals.nzdf.mil.nz/category/i/i21.html.
[6] Op cit, pp 307–315.
[7] The ledger is a grave marker stone which covers the grave completely.
[8] There is no record on NZBDM that there was a sister called Maureen, though this may have been a family name for one of the daughters/sisters.