Musician or Machine Gunner

The author’s father Philip Alfred Poole was the youngest son of English migrants from Shropshire who settled in Invercargill during the 1890s gold rush and established a successful family joinery business.

A keen sportsman and a talented amateur musician, he was conscripted into the New Zealand army in 1917 and volunteered for specialist training as a machine gunner, where he rose quickly to the rank of sergeant. In camp he established a reputation as a solo violinist and on the voyage to Britain he performed on the troopship and before packed theatres in Jamaica and in explosion-torn Halifax. On the Atlantic crossing his ship succumbed to the first wave of Spanish flu, hitherto undocumented. Later in the same voyage his convoy was attacked by German submarines. He spent his war service at the notorious Sling Camp, where the opportunities to make music and the beauties of the countryside compensated for the rigours of training and camp life.

Drafted to fight in France he was billeted on his final leave with a family who had lost their own son in France barely four days earlier. A desperate visit to see his Shropshire relatives before he too might fall brought the realisation that his true home was in New Zealand. In the days before embarkation the army made the final call on whether he was to serve as a machine gunner or as a musician. The war finished shortly after and then began the long wait for repatriation to New Zealand.

Format: Paperback
Imprint: Small New Zealand Publisher
Publication date: 01/07/2023