On Friday, 100 years ago, New Zealand soldier Michael "Morgan'' O'Connor was shot dead by a German sniper on the frontline in the Somme, France.
A rifleman in the third battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade, Morgan arrived in France in June, 1917, and was on almost continuous active service until he was killed 10 months later.
He fought in Messines, Passchendaele and Ypres _ some of the most horrific battles of World War 1.
Courtesy of his great-nephew, Patrick O'Neill, of Kambah, Australia, the University of Otago Hocken Collections, in Dunedin, has original copies of Morgan's handwritten letters from the trenches to his mother in Longridge, near Balfour, in Southland.
Between his first letter, written on July 20, 1917, and his last, written on April 16, 1918, just four days before he died _ excerpts of which are reproduced below _ readers glimpse an affable, bachelor farmer deeply affected by all that happens to him and around him in that distant land. His final letter is premonition-like in its somber and emotional tone.
Morgan was just one of 100,444 New Zealanders who served, 41,317 who were injured and 16,697 who died, during the Great War, which ended in November 1918. But his letters, and those from his mother to her soldier son, give an affecting insight into the experiences and emotions of all those who go to war and those they leave behind.
LETTERS
July 20th
France
Dear Mother,
I received your very welcome letter which you wrote on April 26 and I was very glad to hear from you. This is the first letter of yours that I have got since I left home so the other must have gone astray but I hope I will get it yet. I have had a good few letters from Cattie and she told me she had sent me a tin but it hasn't reached me yet.
I have seen the Southland Times with the seventh ballot in it and I see that Maurice is drawn.
I believe Con has enlisted too and I suppose he will be in camp by now.
I sent a cable over to you for some money as I had lent my money to some of the blokes and I thought I might go short when we were on leave. I know that you would send it straight away as soon as you got my cable , but I didn't get it when I was in London as they hadn't got an answer at the bank, but I didn't need it anyway for I had enough to do me ...
France is a lovely country. Everything looks so fresh and green and the land is the best I have ever seen. The crops are a sight worth seeing and the French are very nice homely people ...
I have never had a day sick since I left home and though it is rough here sometimes I have never felt better in my life.
Write whenever you have time as we are always looking forward anxiously for news from home and we don't get much news any other way.
I can tell you we are all wishing here that the war was over and there is no boat built that would take us home quick enough if it was. They all think now that there is no place like NZ and I think old Dick Seddon was right when he called it God's Own Country, and if the war was over it would do me ...
I suppose the old place is pretty quiet now but I often dream that I am back and get a sad awakening, but some day I hope I will and all the rest of them and we will stir things up then.
I hope Johnnie [Morgan's younger brother] gets out of it and I think he should as there would be no-one at home to do anything.
Do not worry about me out here as I am alright [sic] and we lead far better lives out here than I ever did at home. We go to church as often as we can and I have never been more than five weeks without receiving [communion] since leaving home. There is very little drinking amongst the soldiers out here and I haven't seen a soldier the worse of [sic] drink since we have come to France.
Well, this is all the news for now and I hope that it finds you all in
good health as it leaves me. Give my love to all the rest of them, and may God bless you all. I will close with Very best love from your loving son,
Morgan.
P.S. I suppose you know that we can't say anything about military matters or tell you whether we are in the trenches or not.
-----
Dear Mother,
Just a line or two to let you know that I am all right. I got two letters yesterday from Cattie, but I didn't get any from you yet. I have only got three from you yet, so the rest must have gone missing somewhere, and I never got the parcel that Cattie said she sent.
It is pretty hard about poor Tom Smith. Cattie told me about it in her letters. I knew long ago but I didn't say anything as I wasn't sure if it was true. It was Jack Smith told Roddie one day going in to the trenches. I never met Tom over here at all, but I think Sandy or some of the boys told me they met him ...
I believe Bunny has been drawn in the ballot and his Mother is in a terrible way about it. Well it is no wonder, he is the only one and it is pretty hard, but he has got a good chance of missing much fighting as it would be seven or eight months before he would be here if he was called up . . .
-----
Oct 4th
France
Dear Mother
... We are having a pretty hot time of it here just now and I hope it will be over soon. We could tell you if we were allowed to say what we liked but
there is not much that you can say ...
[Written on a separate sheet of paper]
I forgot to tell you in my letter that I was at church and received on Sunday. I know it will ease your mind to know that if anything should happen to me. For I know we are in for a rough time but I hope we will come out all right and if we don't you will hear about it long before you receive this ...
----
[Written on the back of a postcard]
Longridge
October 20th
Dear Morgan,
Just a few lines hoping to find you all right as this leaves us all at present, thank God. You must have had a time of it. Now I see by the Papers that their [sic] is
a lot of wounded. I pray day and night to spare you and bring you safe home. May God put an end to the war. Poor Roddie and Issac are wounded and Jack Ginnervan. May God protect you till we meet again, with best love and best wishes, Mother.
-----
France
Oct 29th
Dear Mother ... You will have seen about the battle in the Paper. I came out of it without a scratch and I think I was pretty lucky as you will have seen by the papers that the casualties were very heavy. Roddie was wounded pretty bad and Ginnevan and Billy Orr but I don't know about the rest in the 4th brigade ...
-----
December 22nd
France
Dear Mother ... I got your parcel when we came out of the line a few days ago and Cattie, a Christmas parcel a few days before that. I can tell you I was very pleased of your parcel as I hadn't had a change for six weeks and the underclothing we get here is pretty shoddy. So I was very glad of the change and thank you very much for sending it ...
I am glad that you have had prayers said for me and ... I think they must have been heard to [sic] because we have had an awful time of it and there are not many that came over here with me now ...
The ground is frozen hard and it is very foggy and cold; far colder than ever I seen it before and it freezes all day as well as night.
Well this war seems as far off a finish as ever ...
-----
France
25th December
Dear Mother,
We are just after having Christmas dinner and it was not bad either ...
We don't often get a bill of fare like that so it was a good change ...
The weather here is very cold today and it is snowing heavy showers all day ...
There was some talk about Christmas peace here but it hasn't come to much as the guns are going just the same as ever ...
-----
Longridge
December 28th
Dear Morgan ... I cannot tell you how pleased I was to hear from you so near Crismas [sic].
I thought many times of you at Crismas ... I hope you were not in the trenches ...
I am so sorry to have to tell you of poor Paul's [Morgan's cousin] death. I just got the wire as I was writing to you. He was killed in action. Poor old Mick will feel it terrible ...
I wish it was over and that you were coming home ...
-----
April 16th, 1918
Dear Mother,
Just a line or two to let you know that I am all right. I received your very welcome letter dated Jan 22nd and two from Cattie.
There is not much news that I can give you but I thought I would write just to let you know that I am well.
I am in the line here so you will have to excuse writing as there are no writing desks here and we have to write under difficulties.
Conditions are pretty bad here now as you will have seen by the papers long before you get this, and a man can consider himself pretty lucky to be alive.
All leave is suspended for the present but I hope it will open again soon. Archie Blue and Mody thought life rough when I seen them before they went in to the line but they little knew poor beggars what they will have to go through.
If anything should happen to me don't worry because I have been to confession only three days ago and I have attended church and gone to my duty ever since I come to France.
You said in your letter that you sent one pound note in two letters.
Well I got one of them.
Perhaps the other may turn up yet.
Alick Snodgrass is here now in the same platoon as me. He told me that his Brother Bill was killed here last week. Mody and Archie Blue are here somewhere now. I think they are in 1st Brigade Auckland.
I don't think this war is going to last much longer and I hope we will be all back in NZ before next Christmas. You don't know how much I am longing to see you all, and forever knew how dear you all were to me until I had to leave you. It nearly broke me up that last morning when I was coming away, but if God spares me to go back I think I will be content to settle down and not kepping [sic] you out of bed worrying about me when I didn't come home. I used never intend to stop away but we would get a few drinks in and get in to mischief, and although I seldom got drunk the Company would keep me there ...
Well, the winter is over now and the weather for the past few days has been cold but dry. The winter here is a devil and we were in the trenches all the time under the worst conditions. But I have never felt better or more fit in all my life than I am now, though we do be pretty short of t---- [bottom of page is ripped off] at times.
I haven't got time to write to Cattie or Mag but you can remember me to them and I will write as soon as I can ...
Well there is no more news and the candle is burning low so I will have to close. Remember me to all the rest at home and God be with you all till we meet again.
With very best love from your loving son,
Morgan.
Peter O'Connor, a grandson of Morgan O'Connor's younger brother Johnnie, will be speaking about his great uncle at the Balfour RSA, on Anzac Day.
