Harry Moffat

Private

Conflict:

WW1

Additional Information:

Son of Mrs. C. S. Moffat, of Orawia, Southland, New Zealand.

References:

CWGC

Archives New Zealand

NZ WAR GRAVES

CONTRIBUTED

Photo of Harry Moffat. (The badge of the Taranaki Regiment is evident on his cap).

Harry's older brother, Oliver, standing behind him in this photo.

A photo of the Moffat family's traction engine, Orawia, Southland, probably taken about 1904. Harry is shown on the left and brother Norman on the right, with farm workers.

Harry's surname is misspelt on the Southland Provincial Memorial for WWI

Orawia War Memorial showing Harry's name

Otautau War Memorial showing Harry's name

Otautau St Andrew's Anglican Church WW1 Honours' Board

Otautau St Andrew's Anglican Church WW1 Honours' Board showing Harry's name, and also his two brothers, Oliver and Norman

Harry is named on his parents' gravestone in Otautau's Old Cemetery

Taumarunui War Memorial showing Harry's name

Harry's memorial cross on Armistice Day 2018, outside the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Harry's Special Memorial at Embarkation Pier Cemetery, Gallipoli

Embarkation Pier Cemetery, Gallipoli. Harry's Special Memorial is located along the right hand side.

The notice placed in the 'Southland Times' by Harry's sister Lulu, to mark the fifth anniversary of his death.

Public Contributions:

Submitted by: Donald Jones

Relationship to casualty: Grand Uncle

Submitted by: Edmund le Grelle

Relationship to casualty: Great Nephew: a great grand son of Harry's sister.

Biography of Harry Moffat Harry Moffat was born on 10 July 1891 at Scotts Gap, near Otautau in Western Southland. His parents were Henry Moffat and Catherine Hardwick, both natives of England. Harr...y was the fourth of eight children from his father’s second marriage. His father Henry had a flour mill at Lincoln in Canterbury and the family shifted there when Harry was aged between one and four, before shifting back to Scotts Gap to continue with flax milling and farming. Harry started at Scotts Gap School, and then attended nearby Orawia School due the family taking up a farm near Eastern Bush. The family also operated a timber mill on their property (on what was later to be named Moffat and Forbes Road). Until 2015, there was a member of the Moffat family farming nearby. It is thought that on leaving school Harry worked on the family farm. There is a photo (c. 1903) of Harry, older brother Norman and some farm workers beside their father’s traction engine. However, maybe because of differences with his father, Harry decided at age seventeen to shift to the North Island to work with his older half-brother Oliver in the timber milling industry. About Christmas 1913, Harry became engaged to a Miss Carpenter. At this time, he was working for the Matai Sawmill Company in Owhango near Taumarunui. Harry also had a section “worth about £35”. But wedding plans had to be put on hold. The start of the Great War was announced in New Zealand on the afternoon of 5 August 1914. In a letter to his mother dated 9 August, Harry wrote the following: “Just a few lines to let you know that I have volunteered for the expeditionary force that they are calling on. I don’t know if I will be picked for there are such a lot joining. They only want 7000 and there are about 4 times that many volunteered already. I got a telegram from district headquarters on Thursday [6 August] asking for volunteers over 20 years of age. I immediately replied that I would join. There are only two territorials over 20 here and we both joined and half a dozen other blokes joined as well. But territorials get the preference.” He finishes the letter by saying that he hopes he is “doing right for my country”. Harry was enlisted as a Private on 25 August 1914 at Awapuni Camp in Palmerston North, joining the 11th (Taranaki) Company in the Wellington Infantry Regiment, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William Malone. Harry’s army number was 10/1173. Up to this time, he had been in the Territorial Force for 4 years, with the rank of Corporal. (Harry’s service record also states that he had originally registered for compulsory military training at the saw milling town of Taurangarere, near Taihape). Two of Harry’s elder brothers also fought in World War I - and survived, although both were wounded. Oliver (#11501) was with the 12th Reinforcements and joined a machine gun section in the 3rd (Auckland) Company of the 2nd Auckland Infantry Battalion. Norman (#39413) enlisted with the 24th Reinforcements and was also with a machine gun section. Harry sailed with the ‘Main Body’ of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force on 16 October 1914, via Hobart, Albany (Western Australia), Colombo and Aden before stopping in Alexandria, Egypt on 3 December. En route, it was decided that the ANZAC force would stop in Egypt for training. Harry mentions the preparations in a letter, as well as commenting on agricultural practices and the stark Egyptian landscape around the NZ camp near Cairo. Eventually, the Dardanelles (Gallipoli) was decided as the location of the first campaign of the war. Harry’s Taranaki Company landed at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915 “at dusk under shrapnel fire but nobody was hit”. His platoon with one other Taranaki platoon then proceeded up to the front line in the vicinity of Courtney’s Post, which as Harry states in a letter, they reached at midnight. “The fun started at daybreak”, and about 11am on 26 April, Harry was wounded: “I got hit in the thigh with a rifle bullet. A rip about four inches long and an inch deep but it is doing fine. I only had half a day in the firing line.” Harry was “back on the boat again by three [o’clock].” Admitted to 15th General Hospital in Alexandria on 30 April 1915, Harry was discharged on 8 May. Apparently, his mother initially received a telegram saying he was dead. However, his wounding was reported in the ‘Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle’ no less than seven times in May and June 1915. In this newspaper, there was also a letter published from a fellow soldier from Western Southland, who said that he received a message from Harry Moffat to say that he would soon be in the fighting line again. This proved to be the case, as Harry rejoined his unit on 30 June. During this time, on 9 June 1915, a photo of Harry appeared in the ‘Otago Witness’. For the next month or so, Harry’s Wellington Battalion manned Quinn’s Post on the front line. Harry’s background of rural work would have enabled him to cope better than some others with the harsh conditions experienced at Gallipoli. It was during the August Offensive that Harry lost his life – almost exactly a year after enlisting. In the assault on the hill Chunuk Bair, the Wellington Battalion was held up on 7 August, and decided to wait at the Apex on Rhododendron Spur until the cover of darkness. During this day when most of the New Zealanders were located there, it is probable that Harry was hit. In the book, ‘The Wellington Regiment NZEF 1914-1919’, it states: at the Apex, on 7 August “sniping and machine-gun fire [from the Turks] had commenced and casualties were constantly occurring among the troops on the hillside.” In Harry’s military file, on 8 August it is recorded that he was wounded in action on 7 August. Harry is commemorated at Embarkation Pier Cemetery, where he is named on Special Memorial C 62. The gravestone states that he is “believed to be buried in this cemetery”. 8 August 1915 is the date shown on this memorial. Information about Harry’s grave is found on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website: https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/605928/moffat,-harry/ The Embarkation Pier Cemetery is mostly made up of burials brought in after the Armistice from the cemeteries known as Chailak Dere Nos 1 and 2, Mulberry Tree, and The Apex, and also from isolated graves. There are now 944 Commonwealth servicemen buried in the cemetery. These comprise 20 marked graves, and 262 special memorials to casualties known or believed to be buried there. The remaining 662 burials are unidentified. This is the cemetery at Gallipoli which contains the most special memorials to New Zealanders (51). Only one other member of the Wellington Battalion who died during the assault on Chunuk Bair has a special memorial in this cemetery. Because Harry was buried in a cemetery, either he was wounded in action and returned to the beach before dying, or his body was later recovered and identified. Even if Harry had not been wounded on 7 August, it is unlikely he wouldn’t have been wounded or killed on 8 August on Chunuk Bair. When Chunuk Bair returned to enemy hands a couple of days later his Wellington Battalion was decimated: only about 80 of the 800 were alive and unwounded! Most New Zealanders who died there have no known grave and are commemorated on NZ Memorial to The Missing. Of this battle, Harry is one of the few who has an individual memorial or gravestone. Harry is one of only six from the Wellington Battalion killed in action on 7 August, rather than 8 August. (The other five are all commemorated on the NZ Memorial to the Missing at Chunuk Bair). Differences exist on Harry’s date of death. 7 August is mentioned by the following sources: Wellington Regimental Roll of Honour (Killed In Action), Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database (Killed In Action), Parents’ gravestone (“Killed at Gallipoli”), and his military service file. His Death Certificate states he was Killed in Action “on or about 7 August”. 8 August is mentioned by the following: Commonwealth War Graves Commission website, and his Special Memorial at Gallipoli. A cable was sent to NZ on 3 September 1915, saying Harry had been wounded on 7 August 1915. This is recorded in ‘The Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle’ on 7 September 1915: “Corporal Harry Moffat, son of Mrs CS Moffat of Orawia, is reported from the second [of August?] as wounded in the fighting at the Dardanelles. The nature of Corporal Moffat’s [wounds] are not at present known. He is a member of the Wellington Infantry Battalion”. (Harry is incorrectly listed as a Corporal, possibly a reference to his time in the Territorials before the war). The Roll of Honour in Wellington’s ‘Evening Post’ of 4 September 1915 also lists Harry as being wounded on 7 August: “Moffat, Harry, 10/861, Cpl. (Mrs C.C. Moffat, Orawia, Southland, mother)”. Again, his rank is incorrect. Also, his army number is wrong; although, this number is on some documents in his army file. On 4 December 1915, a telegram was sent from Egypt, and received at the Orawia Post Office on 21 December 1915, stating that “Alexandria advises that no further information than already furnished”. This would have been of no consolation to the family, especially just before Christmas. Allied Troops were evacuated from Gallipoli in December 1915. Following this, it is noted in Harry’s military file that the finding of the Board of Enquiry on 16 January 1916, was that he was “now believed to be dead”, “On or about 7 August”. “Cause unknown”. This was cabled from Alexandria on 24 January 1916. Nowhere on his army file is it mentioned where he was buried. Harry’s death notice was published in the ‘The Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle’ on 15 February 1916: “Moffat – Killed in action at the Dardanelles, 8th August, 1915, Harry, youngest son of Mrs C.S. Moffat, Orawia, age 23 – For the Empire’s sake.” (Harry was actually 24 years old when he died). Harry’s connection with Southland was further observed in ‘The Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle’ on 7 November 1916, when the vicar of St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Otautau mentioned him during a dedication service. Harry was one of four fallen soldiers “who in this life looked to Saint Andrew’s as their parish church”. Four letters written by Harry to his mother in Orawia have survived. These are in the possession of a grandson of Harry’s brother Norman. A number of photographs of Harry exist also. After the war, Harry’s medals, memorial scroll and plaque were sent to his mother, but the whereabouts of these are today unknown. In Harry’s army file, it includes an application dated 9 October 1916, from his mother for a War Pension. £26 per annum was granted. Harry Moffat is commemorated on not just one war memorial, but five: Southland Provincial War Memorial in Invercargill, (where his surname is misspelled ‘MOFFATT’), and at Taumarunui, Orawia, Otautau, and the honours’ board of the former St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Otautau. He is also named on his parents’ gravestone in Otautau’s Old Cemetery. Five years after Harry’s death at Gallipoli, his sister Lulu had a memorial notice published in the ‘Southland Times’: “In affectionate remembrance of my dear brother, Corporal Harry Moffat (Main Body) who was reported missing at Gallipoli on August 7, 1915. I who loved him sadly miss him, As it dawns another year, In the lonely hours of thinking, Thoughts of him are ever dear. Inserted by his loving sister, Lulu.” For the centenary of the Armistice, a wooden cross with the name of each soldier who died in the First World War was installed for about a month in one of the four main cities of New Zealand. A cross for Harry was one of those erected outside the Auckland War Memorial Museum in November 2018. Compiled in February 2020 by Edmund le Grelle, (great-nephew of Harry Moffat – great grandson of Harry’s half-sister, Elizabeth Moffat). [Record since amended - NZWGT] Read More

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Casualty

Service Number:

10/1173

Name:

Harry Moffat

Rank:

Private

Date of Birth:

10 October 1891

Place of Birth:

Scotts Gap, Southland, New Zealand

Next of Kin:

Mrs C S Moffat (mother), Orawia, Southland

Religion:

Anglican

Date of Enlistment:

15 September 1914

Locality on Enlistment:

Owhango

Place of Enlistment:

Awapuni Camp, New Zealand

Marital Status:

Single

Occupation on Enlistment:

Sawmill Hand

Employer:

Matai Sawmill Company, Owhango

Nationality of Force:

New Zealand

Unit:

NZEF, Wellington Regiment, 11 (Taranaki) Company

Casualty Details

Cause of Death:

Killed in action

Date of Death:

07 August 1915

Day of Death:

Saturday

Conflict:

WW1

Embarkation Details

Embarkation Body:

Main Body

Embarkation Place:

Wellington, New Zealand

Embarkment Date:

16 October 1914

Transport:

HMNZT 7
HMNZT 10

Vessel:

Limerick or Arawa

Destination:

Suez, Egypt

Text in italics supplied by Cenotaph Online, Auckland War Memorial Museum

Cemetery

Cemetery:

Embarkation Pier Cemetery

Cemetery Reference:

Sp. Mem. C. 62.

Cemetery Location:

Turkey

Harry Moffat

Public Contributions:

Submitted by: Donald Jones

Relationship to casualty: Grand Uncle

Submitted by: Edmund le Grelle

Relationship to casualty: Great Nephew: a great grand son of Harry's sister.

Personal Tributes:

Casualty

Casualty Details

Embarkation Details

Cemetery