Sue: Two years, three campaigns

My grandpa, Ronald Hayward Matthews, was a private (Serial No 12/597) in the 15th Regiment of the Auckland Infantry Battalion (Main Body, New Zealand Expeditionary Force).

He signed up on the 17th August 1914 and left New Zealand from Auckland aboard the HMNZT 12 (SS Waimana) on the 16 Oct 1914.  He disembarked at Port Suez on the 13 December 1914.

He and his brothers fought at Gallipoli for the whole duration and at the end they were evacuated around 20 December 1915 to Lemnos and then taken to Egypt where they celebrated Christmas.  

He then fought at Somme but was wounded just before 20 September 1916.  He was treated in Dublin.

He married my grandmother (Marionetta Euphemia Dinwoodie), who he met in Scotland, on the 18 February 1919, and eventually travelled back to work on the family farm just north of Kaitaia.

~ Sue Leask

Jenny: a governess in Georgia, a headmaster, and two soldiers

My Great Aunt Ethel (maternal side of my family) was born in Strabane, Northern Ireland, before moving to Galway at the age of 7. 

She spoke Russian, and was working as a midwife and governess in Russia during the Russian revolution in Georgia. She returned to Russia before her aristocratic employers were murdered.

Her fiance was killed in WW1 and as there was a man shortage, she never married. She later worked in India, South Africa and Belgium and lived to 101 years. 

Her brother, Henry Cox, was the eldest of 12 children, 8 of whom survived to adulthood.  Henry gained a triple first at Trinity College Dublin and supported his widowed mother and siblings through grammar school, becoming headmaster of Arundle School. Later, in WW2, he was a lecturer for the RAF. 

Ethel's other brother, Arthur, died in WW1.

Edwin Cossey (paternal side) was in a Scottish Army regiment in WW1. He met his future wife while training in Scotland. He married Janet after the war and moved to India to work for the American Cynamid Company.

Edwin died at work in his office, with the secretary wondering why he had stopped dictating.

~ Jenny Cossey