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2nd Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade, New Zealand Expeditionary Force
| Want to know more about 2nd Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade, New Zealand Expeditionary Force? There are:2 items tagged 2nd Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade, New Zealand Expeditionary Force available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
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- 18th April 2024
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Did you know? We also have a section on World War Two. and a
Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.
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Rflmn. William Joseph Francis Kennedy 2nd Btn. New Zealand Rifle Brigade Following the Battle of Passchendaele. Joseph Kennedy was treated at No 22 General Hospital at Camieres, then No 6 Convalescent Depot at Etaples, and lastly at No 5 Convalescent Depot at Cayeux in October 1917.
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Rflmn. Louis Xavier LeVaillant New Zealand Rifle Brigade (d.14th December 1918) Rifleman Louis Le Vaillant served on Western Front in 1917 and 1918. He was 42 when he died and is buried in the Akaroa Anglican Cemetery, Banks Penisula District, New Zealand.
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Rflmn. Irwin Baldwin 2nd Battalion NZ Rifle Brigade  Irwin Baldwin was born in Steeton, near Keighley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1884. He served in the police force in Goole in the East Riding of Yorkshire until 1909 when he contracted rheumatic fever and left the force. In 1910 he emigrated to New Zealand and settled in Palmerston North, where a cousin was already living. He worked as a driver for the Swan Dairy Company and then an engineer for the NZ Dairy Union. In 1914 his younger brother Thomas Edward Baldwin joined him in New Zealand.
Both brothers volunteered for the armed services in 1915, but Irwin was refused, probably on account of having had rheumatic fever. His brother, Tom, was accepted and was posted to the NZ Rifle Brigade.
Irwin applied for a second time and was attested on 4th September 1917. He joined 'D' Company, 35th Reinforcements. His regiment embarked on the SS Tofua on 2nd March 1918 and after a short break in Suez arrived in Southampton on 15th May 1918. On 19 June 1918 he was transferred into the reserves for the Rifle Brigade and on 27th of August 1918 was detailed for course instruction at Brocton Camp in Staffordshire. He qualified as a Lance Corporal and joined 'B' Company, 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade on 17th September 1918.
It is probable that Irwin was stationed at Brocton Camp shortly after his arrival in England in May 1918. He was finally posted to the Front on 21st September 1918.
On 4th November 1918 he took part in the attack on the old fortress town of Le Quesnoy in northeastern France. He was severely wounded in the shoulder, right buttock and right leg when a shrapnel shell burst nearby. His right leg was amputated.
He spent some months recovering at the New Zealand hospital at Walton on Thames and eventually embarked for New Zealand on board the SS Arawa on 5th October 1919.
His younger brother, Tom, fought at Flers on the Somme Front, Messines and Passchendaele. He was wounded in both knees on 12th October 1917 during the attack on Passchendaele. He also had his right leg amputated.
Irwin served for a second time with the New Zealand armed forces during WW2, in a clerical capacity and died in Palmerston North in 1962. His brother Tom died in 1966 and is buried in Steeton Cemetery.
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Cpl. Horace Fennel Griffin 2nd Battalon, F Company Rifle Brigade (d.7th Jun 1917) Horace Fennel Griffin was killed in action and buried in a shell hole about 100 yards west of the road running north into Messines past La Basee Court Farm. Horace was a Bank of New Zealand bank clerk. Son of Reverend J.W. Griffin.
Text of the Memorial plaque, Bank of New Zealand Arcade, Wellington, New Zealand: 'In Memoriam: The names inscribed upon this tablet are those of officers of the Bank of New Zealand who laid down their lives in the Great War AD 1914-1919 waged against the nations of central Europe - Germany, Austria, Turkey and Bulgaria - who sought by force of arms to obtain world-wide dominion. In honour of their patriotism and valour. In admiration of their sacrifice. And in grateful perpetuation of their glorious and ennobling memory this monument is reverently dedicated. Their Name Liveth for Evermore.'
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Recomended Reading.Available at discounted prices.
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New Zealand and the Great War: A Photographic Record of New Zealanders at War 1914-1918 Glyn Harper
They shall not grow old...In 1914, despite being forbidden, many a Kiwi soldier's kitbag included a portable camera, known as 'The Soldiers' Kodak'. In a major research project, Glyn Harper and the Queen Elizabeth II Army Memorial Museum have combined official war photographs with more informal images to produce a moving visual history. While primarily drawn from the Museum's collection, many photographs from private sources have been included. From more than 25,000 photographs, just over 800 have been selected - most of which have never been published. Chosen to depict each theatre of the 1914-18 war, including Gallipoli, Sinai-Palestine and the Western Front, poignant images from the home front are also included, along with graphic portraits of wounded soldiers, whose treatment marked the beginnings of modern plastic surgery. Despite the First World War being described as the most important and far-reaching political and military event of the twentieth century, pivotal in forging our
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