The Hamblyn family of Tariki, Taranaki, lost four brothers to the war and their father and another brother to Spanish flu.

William was the eldest of the four Hamblyn brothers killed in action in World War One, two of them on the same day at Messines. A fifth brother was sent home wounded and a sixth made it home unscathed. But the dreadful news arriving for their mother Mary did not end when the fighting stopped.

Another of her sons, the youngest, died within a month of the Armistice as the Spanish flu swept New Zealand, and her husband died of the same cause several weeks later.

The first of the Hamblyn brothers to lose his life at war was Henry, aged just 20, who was killed in action on New Zealand’s last day in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on The Somme. He is remembered on the Caterpillar Valley New Zealand Memorial to The Missing.

The next two were William and Thomas, both serving with the 1st Battalion of the Wellington Regiment when its troops took over the final push forward to the New Zealand Division’s ultimate objective on June 7 at Messines. The brothers were killed the next day as New Zealand troops occupying the ridge came under heavy artillery bombardment from the re-grouped Germans. Both have graves at the Wulverghem-Lindenhoek Road Cemetery, not far from Messines.

The fourth brother to lose his life was James, just down the hill from Messines near La Basseville on July 27 1917. He is remembered on the New Zealand Memorial to The Missing at Messines. A fifth son was lying wounded at the New Zealand Hospital in Walton on Thames at this time.

It was then that an appeal was made by the local Tariki Patriotic Society on behalf of the family. The Minister of Defence, Sir James Allen, acted – the wounded son was returned to New Zealand and the other was withdrawn to base duties out of harm’s way.

After the further deaths of her youngest son and her husband, Mary Hamblyn determined to continue with the family’s farm with the support of her four remaining sons and four daughters. “Despite all the affliction the family has undergone during the past three years,” wrote the Taranaki Daily News, “those surviving are still keeping a stout heart in the midst of their adversities and setting an example of fortitude that has won the admiration of all of Tariki.”

(From the 2017 Messines 100 Faces Exhibition.)