10/3430 Sergeant Royce Harold Wilkie, New Zealand Army Pay Corps and 10/3429 Private David Howard Wilkie, Wellington Infantry Regiment

A serviceman’s grave in St John’s Churchyard in Trentham, stands out in contrast to all the others, because the soldier’s headstone also bears the name of a brother killed in action in France. The shared inscription is unusual, as is the fact the two have consecutive regimental numbers and served in the same unit together. Both followed their brother to war, and while only one of them would return, both sadly died as a result of their war service.

Raised in Upper Hutt the brothers were two of four sons born to local baker Ted Wilkie and his wife Emma, of the local Mabey family. The Wilkie’s were a cornerstone of the local business community, and after building and leasing out a number of commercial premises in the township, the parents shifted into Wellington.

After the war broke out, their third son, the 22-year-old Edward Irving (better known as Irv) left his job as a horse driver in Upper Hutt, and enlisted in into the 5th Reinforcements of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in April 1915. He departed Wellington in mid-June and arrived at Gallipoli to join the Auckland Infantry Battalion on 8 August 1915, the day the New Zealanders took Chunuk Bair.

Irv was evacuated from the Peninsula just 11 days later and sent to hospital in Alexandria. That same week, and perhaps spurred by the news of their brother’s evacuation, 25-year-old David and 21-year-old Royce enlisted into the New Zealand Army on 23 August 1915. Both joined the 8th Reinforcements and departed Trentham Camp for the Middle East in mid-November, leaving their older brother Peter to support their parents.

On arrival in Egypt in December 1915 the brothers commenced four months of training in the desert. With the expansion of the New Zealand Division both were posted to 17th Ruahine Company in the newly formed 2nd Wellington Infantry Battalion, and sailed for France in April 1916. A month later they entered the frontline of the Western Front at Armentieres and the unit started taking casualties from enemy artillery almost immediately.

The oldest of the pair, David, had been a storeman before the War, but had no previous military experience. He served for a month as the company cook before returning to his platoon, and with his younger brother participated in raids and reconnaissance activities across no-man’s land. The Division was thankful to be withdrawn from the line in late August in preparation for a major attack.

On 15 September 1916 the two brothers were thrown into the Battle of the Somme, in an attack towards Flers. Attached to the New Zealand Rifle Brigade for the second phase of the attack the 2nd Wellington Battalion was pushed into the line and helped secure the village with the help of tanks. They spent the next day defending the position while subjected to heavy retaliatory artillery fire.

David was wounded during the battle, suffering gun-shot wounds to the head and leg. He was subsequently evacuated to a Red Cross hospital, where he remained for the next month. Younger brother Royce survived the initial attack, the enemy counterattacks and a further Battalion assault on a key German strong point. With previous experience as a Territorial member of the Wellington Regiment, he was promoted to Acting Corporal to replace one of his company’s many casualties.

The heavily depleted New Zealand Division was withdrawn from the Somme at the beginning of October and returned to Armentieres. After recuperating at the New Zealand Base Depot, David returned to his brother back in the line on 2 December, as their unit commenced a brutally cold winter in the front lines. But Royce sprained his ankle just before New Years and was withdrawn back to England for treatment and leave.

In the United Kingdom Royce was able to catch up with his other brother Irv, who had been wounded in the shoulder in July. After recovering, Irv had developed pleurisy and been hospitalized again at Walton on Thames. By total coincidence, it was here that his younger brother Royce how arrived, and the two were able to spend time together. Irv would never fully recover and was returned to New Zealand in November 1917 unfit for further service.

Unfortunately, Royce contracted a virus while in London, which delayed his return to France until May 1917. He rejoined the 2nd Wellington Battalion as a Lance Corporal, glad to see his older brother David again as the unit prepared for their next major attack. On 6 June 1917, after the early morning detonation of a large number of mines, they followed the 1st New Zealand Brigade up on to the ridge to capture the Belgian town of Messines.

Once again David was wounded, when he was shot in the left knee. But thankfully the wound was only slight and he was back with the unit ten days later. Once again Royce made it through unscathed, and both brothers were fortunate to survive a further attack at La Basseville on 31 July. But as they prepared for the next major battle, Royce was again admitted to hospital, this time due to a bad case of scabies.

The unfortunate affliction meant Royce would miss the major assault up the Gravenstafel Spur towards Passchendaele on 4 October 1917. David and the 2nd Wellington Battalion, found themselves on the left of the entire Corps front as they attacked the Blue Line. Ruahine Company began taking heavy casualties due to heavy machine gun fire and enemy defensive artillery. While the unit seized all its objectives David was sadly killed in action.

Royce rejoined the unit three weeks later, as they began a depressing winter of trench warfare in the Polygon Wood sector. He was promoted to Corporal in January 1918, and rushed south to engage in the heavy fighting on the Somme in March, which successfully blunted the advance of the Germans spring offensive.

After three weeks leave in England, Royce rejoined the Battalion in mid-August as it began the 100 days of offensive operations which would bring an end to the War. After fighting at Bapaume, he was struck down by influenza in November 1918. On returning to his unit, Royce was promoted to Sergeant and placed in charge of the Battalion Scouts.

But the War was now over and just three weeks later Royce was posted to the United Kingdom on duty. Due to his pre-war experience as a Clerk he was taken on strength of the New Zealand Army Pay Corps in London, where he would spend the next nine months supporting the heavy administrative work required to demobilize the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

It was during this time that the boy’s 52-year-old father joined the New Zealand Ordnance Corps as a Private. Attested temporarily into the New Zealand Military Forces in February 1919, Ted Wilkie worked in the Maintenance Section at Trentham Military Camp for seven weeks. But, with the force now downsizing he was released at the beginning of April, due to his services no longer being required.

After another period in hospital due to sickness the youngest son Royce left England in September 1919, and spent time in the ship’s hospital with pneumonia before arriving back in Wellington at the end of October. He would spend the next six months recuperating, before being discharged from the Army at the end of April 1920 as no longer physically fit for war service due to illness contracted overseas.

Royce returned to work in Upper Hutt, but never fully recovered from the effects of his time in Europe. He passed away in January 1925, aged just 31. His death was officially attributed to his war service, and he was laid to rest in a family plot in the St John’s Churchyard in Trentham. His family added a tribute to older brother David, who has no known grave, on Royce’s serviceman’s headstone. A fitting tribute to two brothers who enlisted and fought together in some of the most difficult battles of the Western Front. [ Upper Hutt War Stories. October 2020]