WAR SACRIFICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24226, 19 February 1940, Page 11

WAR SACRIFICES

MOTHER’S SIX SONS A mother who had six sons serving in the Great War, two of whom were killed, and the rest wounded, and who has one son in camp, one grandson on duty at Fort Dorset, and another in the Ngaruawahia camp, spoke at a recruiting rally in the Town Hall, Wellington. She was Mrs H. M. Barnard, of Island Bay. She said her sons had felt that this beautiful land of New Zealand was worth defending. All were volunteers.

Mrs Barnard received a great reception from her audience, whom she told she was a direct descendant of pioneer grandparents who came to New Zealand in the Fifeshire, one of the first ships that went to Nelson. Four generations of her family had been born in New Zealand and she as a child shared with her parents the hardships of pioneering on the West Coast of the South Island.

On the outbreak of war in 1914 her three eldest sons volunteered and by August 12 they were all in camp. Her fourth son went, with the Fourth Reinforcements, her fifth served with the second battalion of the Rifle Brigade, and her sixth with the 28th Reinforcement. All were volunteers. During 1914-18 Mrs Barnard organised a sewing bee in Eltham, where she was then living, to provide comforts for soldiers.

“I can only say that England expects that every man, and every woman, too, will do his and her duty,” said Mrs Barnard. Lieutenant-colonel A: Cowles read a letter which Mrs Barnard received from soldiers overseas in the Great War expressing appreciation of her efforts.