“The Passing Years” by Allan James Shackleton. Edited and published by Colin James Shackleton. First published in New Zealand in 2015. Original draft released in electronic format to The South Canterbury Museum, New Zealand, November 2014. Printed by PublishMe Self Publishing www.publishme.co.nz ISBN 978-0-473-31934-2 © 2013 by Colin J Shackleton, New Plymouth, New Zealand. The text of this work is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs. 3.0 New Zealand License. To view a copy of this license, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/nz/ “ THE PASSING YEARS ” The unfinished memoirs of: ALLAN JAMES SHACKLETON. (1897 – 1984) Table of Contents Introduction............................................................................... 1 PART ONE............................................................................... 6 1 Earliest recollections............................................................... 6 2 Primary education................................................................... 9 3 Timaru excursions................................................................. 16 4 Secondary education at the Waimate District High School. .20 5 Entertainment - moving pictures........................................... 24 6 Theatres................................................................................. 29 7 Recreation..............................................................................30 8 Military training.................................................................... 33 9 Boyhood hobbies...................................................................35 10 Religious training................................................................ 39 11 Timaru Boys’ High School................................................. 42 12 Now the Schoolmaster........................................................ 55 PART TWO.............................................................................57 1 Army camp life......................................................................57 2 Tauherenikau.........................................................................67 3 On the “Ruahine”.................................................................. 71 4 An introduction to war-time England....................................76 5 Final overseas leave.............................................................. 79 6 The “Lost Battalion”............................................................. 84 7 Initiation into war.................................................................. 87 8 Front line fatigue duty........................................................... 89 9 Collapse.................................................................................91 10 55th General Hospital, Wimereux.......................................92 11 Convalescing....................................................................... 94 12 New Year...........................................................................100 13 Front Line again................................................................ 101 14 Frantic German efforts...................................................... 106 15 Sparring for positions........................................................ 113 16 The fifth-of-April stunt......................................................117 17 “Digger” life......................................................................121 18 Lewis Gunner.................................................................... 124 19 A wiring party in no-man’s land....................................... 125 20 Routine French life............................................................127 21 Absences from the Front Line...........................................128 22 The beginning of the end?.................................................136 23 More “harassing the enemy”............................................. 144 24 The attack on the Hindenburg Line...................................146 25 Exhaustion.........................................................................155 26 On the way to Blighty....................................................... 157 27 The Armistice Hour...........................................................160 28 London after the Armistice............................................... 162 29 The march on the Rhine.................................................... 168 30 Entering Cologne...............................................................174 31 What to do with one’s life................................................. 182 32 England again....................................................................186 33 Blackpool.......................................................................... 191 34 Homeward bound.............................................................. 194 35 Home................................................................................. 200 PART THREE.......................................................................206 1 Plans for the future.............................................................. 206 2 College days........................................................................ 215 3 Extra-mural activities for the Intermediate Year.................222 4 The Bike Tour..................................................................... 233 5 Back to my engineering studies.......................................... 254 6 Capping............................................................................... 258 7 West Coast Bike Tour......................................................... 263 8 Final Examination............................................................... 278 9 Practical work......................................................................280 10 Success!.............................................................................285 11 Shipboard entertainments..................................................294 12 The Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company.................302 13 The Australasian Association............................................308 14 Football activities.............................................................. 331 15 General social activities.................................................... 335 16 Looking back.....................................................................341 Epilogue................................................................................ 346 Timeline of events.................................................................357 Page 1 Introduction These are the unfinished memoirs of my father, Allan James Shackleton, a second generation New Zealander, a professional electrical engineer and teacher, who at the age of twenty, left home to fight as Rifleman 55636 in the services of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces during World War One (1914- 1918). In the chapters that follow, many of which were written during his retirement years, Allan presents a detailed and honest account of the first thirty years of his life. Although The Passing Years is predominantly a family record, his nightmarish experiences in the Battle of the Somme during World War One (see Part Two) may be of interest to a wider audience. In Part One, Allan describes his life growing up in the small provincial town of Waimate, South Canterbury, New Zealand, during the early 1900s. “Home life was one of strong religious overtones and a rather implacable attitude to alcohol. Neither of [Allan's] parents was particularly well educated but they worked hard and determined that their children would achieve something of the skills denied to them” 1 Allan, being their eldest child, was unfortunate to have experienced the “full force of his father's enthusiasm” in this respect. In Part Two, Allan provides a detailed account of his involvement as a “poor bloody infantryman” (and later as a Lewis machine gunner) on the battlefields of the Somme during 1 Extract from the eulogy by my cousin, Michael Shackleton, OBE, for Allan's sister, Bernice Shackleton, QSM. (1901 – 1998). Page 2 the First World War and in the subsequent Army of Occupation in Germany. His Company reinforced the last five members of D Company, Fourth Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade, “who were still left” (i.e., still available for duty) after the battle of Passchendaele. I have no doubt that his war experiences provided the initial motivation for his memoirs. He was always anxious to dispel the “glorified” perception that war was a rather exciting “gung- ho” affair where pistol-waving officers followed by disciplined and valiant soldiers charged at the enemy with great bravado – almost oblivious to the inevitable slaughter that lay ahead. By contrast, in his open and somewhat understated style, Allan records the misery, terror and despair; flawed leadership; and the quiet heroism and compassion that he observed. As his text shows, Allan was a compassionate, moral man in the old-fashioned and Christian mould. His Christian faith was obviously a comfort to him which, together with his abstinence from alcohol, helped him to “keep his head” when he and his comrades were in the midst of battle. His careful analytical assessments of the potential dangers that existed in his immediate surroundings in World War One (WWI) were also critical in ensuring his survival. He records that shortly after the fighting around Lasigny Farm, a Court of Enquiry official had been shocked to discover that, of the men (all ranks) in D Company, Fourth Battalion