Trooper Rowland Smith 30th Reinforcements

[Steve_Butler]

Departing New Zealand 13th November 1917, Trooper Rowland Arthur Ringwood Smith was a member of the 30th Reinforcements. Also departing that day on HMNZT 98 Tofua were members of the 29th,31st, 32nd,33rd,34th and the Mounted Field Ambulance.
Mrs Margaret Fraser, Rowland's daughter, arrived yesterday with a true swag of mementos of her father's involvement with the NZMR.
Among photographs never seen before is this exceptional image (below) that I had to post as soon as possible - it is such a powerful image, and thanks to modern scanning machines this tiny image can be viewed in a size to do it justice. Although many of the photos are degraded with time, there are still a number that will excite the researchers and collectors within our ranks.



As always I would appreciate comments on material placed as this will help as I compile a page on this man.
Also included with this collection is a very delapidated ship's magazine of the "Tofua's" trip (November 13th to December 21st) - Titled "The Horse Marines" it is a lighthearted look at the mens' voyage. - at the back (and this will titilate the geneologists out there) is a complete list of every man and each unit onboard.

[Steve_Butler]

If someone would like to type this all out and post it back to me attached to an email it would help tremendously - as this image of the "Crew" page of HMNZT 98 Tofua is just a scan and is relatively big to place on the server (at 266Kbs as verses about 10kb if it were typed out).
However here is the first of three pages from the ships magazine given to the troops on landing at Suez, December 1917.

[greg]

Here is the first part

O.C. Ship. Major Batchelar.
Adjutant: 2nd. Lieut. B. Hooker, Provost S.M. S.S.M. (W.O.) Rowe
J.L.O.
Ships S.M. S.M. Hoare, J.
Returning for duty. Major Smith

29th. M.R.

O.C. 2nd. Lieut Georgetti.
2nd. Lieut. L.M. Paterson.
N. C. O's.
S.M Irvine, R.J.
Q.M.S. Browne, J.A.
Sergt. Andors6n, J.L.
Sergt, Evans, J.A.
Sergt. Lowry, R.J.
Sergt. Thomas, G.H.
Cpl. Anderson, W.J.
Cpl. Bassett, F.E.
Cpl. Blackie, J.S.
Cpl. Henderson, NV.
Cpl. Hesketh, R.F.
Cpl. Lewis, W.
Cpl. Steele, M.
L.Cpl. Sweetman, R.
L.Cpl. Baker, A.W.
L.Cpl. Cheyne, A.F.
L.Cpl Cooke, J.G.
L.Cpl. Matheson. A.
L.Cpl. Stops, G.
L.Cpl. Tucker, F.

Troopers :
Aitcheson, A.M.
Albrechtson, G.
Andrew, J.T.
Annandale, A.F.
Beattie, H.L.
Beere, H. E.
Birmingham, W.H.
Bowe, P.J.
Brewster, A.E.
Bruce, R.G.;
Budge,A.D. ;
ButIer,T.M.
Cameron. G.A.
Cameron, W.W.
Campbell, B.
Cartwright, A.
Clareburt, J.W.
Cochran, D.
Connell, F.T.
Crawford, T.
Curtis. P.E.A.
Douglas, A.H.
Edwards, W.G.
Edwards, H.C.
Edwards. H.H.
Ferran, H.T.
Finlay, T.
Forbes, A.J.
Fretwell, A.C.
Fretwell, H.
Frus, L.M.
Gibbard, C.H.
Goodin, D.J.
Grace, H.
Gray, J.
Harms, J.A.
Hudson, R.L.
Irwin, J.T.
Jamieson, D.
Johnson, C.H.
Kemp, H.S.
Kingston, S.
Laird, A.C.
Laird, M.K.
Landers, L.A.P
Leo, A.
Leslie, W.
Linkhorn, V.W.
Lynch, T.
Lyon, J.
McFarlane. C.
McDonald, R.J.
Mehrtens, V.E.
Miller, O.A.
Milne, J.
Morgan, J.C.
Mulcaster, T.G.
Muir, J.M.
McDougall, R.
McGinness, J.A.
McLaren, J.A.
MacLean. G.
McPeak, J.R.
McRoberts, R.C.
Meeley, R.M.
Neighbour, G.
Notman, A.J.
O'Conner, M.
O'Shaughnessy, B.
Pepperell, H.
Randell, T.W.W.
Randle, W.S.
Rathie. J.D.
Richards, S.E.
Rickman', R;H.
Robertson, A.E.
Roland, J.W.
Rooks, R.S.
Russell, A K.
Scarlett, J.
Scott, T.
Seals, G.R.
Serjjeant, C.
Shard. R. 0.
Sheard. G.W.
Shield, P.B.
Shield, F.H.
Sopp, R.E.
Taylor, P.G.
Teague. B.
Thomson. G.G.
Thorpe, A.F.
Thrupp, T.F.
Townley, A.C.
West, J. W.
Whale, C.
Whyte. T.J.
Wilson,H.L.
Williams, R.E.
Withers, T.W.
Wynyard, L.H.
Young, A.

To be cont....

[Steve_Butler]

Ever wondered how many troopers went ashore at a time when the troopships reached Colombo?
Taken from the deck of Tofua HMNZT 98.



Written on obverse: "View taken from the "Tofua" in Colombo showing troops going ashore. 20.1.18"

I find this last comment a bit strange (20.1.18) as this does not equate with the fact that the voyage of the 30th reinforcements and their ship Tofua ended in Egypt in December 1917. I see that this date is written sideways to the other information and it could therefore be possible this date was added later - Perhaps Rowland wrote this date on the photo when he received the photograph print back from the developers?

[pukman]

Trooper Smith is wearing a specialist reinforcement cap badge,signifying that he trained either as a machine gunner or a signaller.

Cheers Pukman

[Steve_Butler]

Thanks Iain (Pukman).
I still haven't had time to read his letters - a most prolific letter writer (there has to be over 100 letters, including all their envelops and franked postage.) However this next photo backs up your observation. Our man Rowland was indeed a signaller - this photograph has written on the back "Specialists AMR".
I am sure that not even the family has realised that Rowland is also in this photograph - he is the man kneeling centre of the image looking away from camera. Once again this is another small print but once enlarged I was able to greatly magnify the kit bags, and two of the kits have the troopers names facing outwards - first "R. A. R. Smith" and the next kit to right of photo has the name "B. Trickett" - a search shows that this is 50435 Trooper Bertram Trickett who also survived hostilities.
Both these mens' left arms have visible to camera the crossed signal flags on the lower sleeve.



written in pencil obverse: "Specialists AMR. Somewhere in Palestine. Ready to join up"

other points of interest here is the knowledge that most of the photographs in the collection come from the same camera as there is a distortion of focus left of camera (an individual manufacturing fault) - here we see it quite clearly with the trooper standing on our left is blurred more that the rest of the photo, also the saturation of image is greater at this point.
The next point of interest is the bolt and magazine cover encasing the same mans rifle.
Interesting to see a man (kneeling) arriving prepared with glass lensed googles sitting on his hat.

[Steve_Butler]

Rowland Smith writes on this photo:
"Horse lines of some of our Patrols on the Canal - RS - [with] Bivies we live in."

[greg]

Here is the rest of the names:

30th. M.R.

O.C. 2nd. Lieut. W. Ricketts.
2nd. Lieut. D. Deans.
2nd. Lieut. W. Austin.
N.C.O’s.
S.M. Martin, R.R. Junr.
Q.M.S. Lundon, F.
Sergt. Bartlett, A.E.
Sergt. Young, G.B.
Sergt. Beard, P.C.
Sergt. Cramp. F.J.
Cpl. Nash, J.L.
Cpl. Andrews, A.T.
Cpl, Graham, J.A.
Cpl. Dalton. B.F.
Cpl. Johnson, J.R.
Cpl. Kyle, J.V.
Cpl. Jones, J.S.
Cpl. Meads, W.
Cpl. Wiggins, H.
L.Cpl. Campbell, J.D.
L.Cpl. Smith, F.T.
L.Cpl. Fitt, S.F.
Troopers:
Andrews, W.P.
Andrews, W.R.
Arthur, W.C.
Baker, A.A.
Barnett, W.J.
Baxter, S.D.
Borland, W.J.M.
Boyd, A.G. No 1
Boyd, A.G. No 2
Brooks, J.G.
Bull, F.C.
Bull, H.B.
Calders, K.D.M.
Campbell, H.D.
Campbell, J.
Cann, G.
Carpenter,A.D.
Christie. A.G.
Cole, L.J.
Collings, C.
Cooper, W.M.
Currie, A.R.
Cumming, R.
Dalton, P.F.
Fabling, J.
Fletcher, C.
Frame, H.E.
Freeman, G.P.
Fulljames, A.J.
Gleeson, R.
Goodley, J.
Hall, A.J.
Halliday, A.V.
Handcock, A.
Harris, G.A.
Hay, H.G.
Hobbs, H.
Honeyfield, L.
Hooper, R.W.
Houghton,R.C.
Hook, E.
Jamieson, F.R.
Joblin, R.A.
Johnston, A.
Johnston, J.P.
Kerr-Taylor, L.S.
Kirkpatrick, D.A.
Kirkwood, E.J.
Lane, T.H.
Leslie, J.F.
Levis, R.C.
Macauley, J.
Manuel, J.W.
Mincher, W.E.
Mooney, H.
Mossman, P.W.
Murphy, C.D.
McArthur, A.
McCulloch, G.A.
Mc Donald, L.T.A.
McDonald, R.J.
McKenzie, A.G.
McKenzie, R.G.
McManus, F.J.
McRae, G.F.
McWha, R.J.
Nicol, W.J.
Nicholson, L.H.
Oliver, H.
Payne, F.J.
Phillips, G.H.
Pollock, T. E.
Powell, G.
Pringle, W.J.
Quilter, P.G.
Reardon, D.
Ring, G.
Robertson, W.
Russell, J.R.
Schaw, F.G.S.
Sheahan, T.M.
Sinclair, E.L.
Sloan, J.H.
Smith, A.L.
Smith, R.
Smith, R.A.
Stock, E.J.M.
Stuart, C.E.
Summers, A.E.
Synnott, H.B.
Targett, F.
Thompson, T.M.
Trickett, B.
Walsh, E.C.A.
Watt, J.
Walker, A.S.
Wells, H.
Welsh W.G.
Williamson. J.A.
Williams. H.
Wolfe, C.F.
Wright, C.W.
Wright, F.R.

[Steve_Butler]

Greg asks if I could post a blow up section of the Wellington Mounted Rifleman's belt that carries a rather large folding knife.



(This from the potograph of the wounded machine gunner being attended to by three other troopers - above).
Comparring the knife to the bayonet next to it, it would be a large blade - although I am not sure if there is a hoof-picker or not included, maybe on the other side?

[greg]

Hi Steve,

Yest this a rather large "pocket" Knife. Can you also show what is on the belt of the other trooper? The item between the ammo pouches. a rather flat pouch it seems.

Regards

Greg

[Steve_Butler]

will do greg - in the meantime I wanted to post this picture below as I believe this is one of a number of pictures that are not Rowland's own personal shots, but one of those images that many of the men collected and took back home to show the folks.
It is in good condition though, and better than one I saw a few years back - Perhaps someone out there can give me the history on this downed German aircraft. I have a feeling that the horseman is in fact a Light Horseman - I am sure Bill will know ??

[Steve_Butler]

Greg - close up of the medics belt you asked for - I have no idea what this pouch holds - I must admit it looks more like a hip flask of some sort. I am not suggesting for a minute that it is drinking alcohol - but it may well be alcohol or some sort of cleaning agent to apply to injuries, could be a million things!(it does look like a small cap protruding from the pouch top - can't get it any clearer.)

[greg]

Hi Steve,

I think this picture shows 3 different ammo pouches, the first 2 (L - R) are of British/Australian types and the last is of course the NZ pattern. I thought there was something strange about this troopers belt and pouches.

[Bill Woerlee]

Steve

Mate, if you could check the tail for a number, we can pin it down to date, place and pilot. You can see an outline of a number on the torn tail-piece which of course is at an oblique angle and difficult to read. However, with a bit of stretching you might pick up some of the detail.

In the meantime, you can compare the tail assembly to that in the various pix on the blog:

Aircraft Delivered To German Units in Palestine 1916-18

http://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Ho ... ne-191618/

To my very untrained eye, it looks like the tail piece of a Rumpler CI but I am always ready to be corrected.

Cheers

Bill

Australian Light Horse Studies Centre
http://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/

[Steve_Butler]

Unfortunately still not enough definition at the closest magnification - just a blur of pixels...