While most of the NZ Expeditionary Force sailed for the Western Front, the NZMR remained in Egypt as part of an Anzac Mounted Division. The Anzac Division was part of the British effort to defend Egypt and drive the Ottoman Empire out of Sinai, Palestine, and Syria. Highly mobile, and adaptable to both desert and mountainous terrain, the Mounted Rifles were well suited to the rapid advances, reconnaissance, raids, and mounted combat of that campaign — quite unlike the trench warfare of Gallipoli and the Western Front.
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I won’t go into detail about the battles in which the NZME played a part in Sinai, Palestine and beyond. Which is a shame, I admit, as most New Zealanders know something about Gallipoli but won’t have ever heard of these campaigns. What I want to do instead is relate a few stories as they relate to the McCarroll brothers.
Wikipedia and NZ History, as examples, have excellent accounts of the Auckland Mounted Rifles exploits, and the battles they were engaged in: the defence of the Suez Canal and the Battle of Romani — the Ottomans’ first defeat on Egyptian soil. The advance across the Sinai to secure key locations and protect the water pipeline. The Palestine Campaign of 1917, including the Battle of Rafa, the Battles of Gaza and the capture of Beersheba and Jerusalem. The 1918 operations in the Jordan Valley and Amman — only partially successful against strong resistance and under extreme conditions — and the eventual advance on Damascus.
Back then the men of the NZMR were sometimes belittled for having it easy compared with the Western Front. In fact it was very tough — on both men and horses1.
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My personal interest in Tom and Jim’s stories is that in the next war my father fought over, or visited, the same territory as they did, and that he left a detailed, deeply personal account of his experiences. I don’t think you can read it without feeling that you’re getting to know him, and I wish I had the same insight into the McCarrolls — and the Lamonts. Maybe the following will paint something of a picture. At least you’ll come to understand, I hope, why Cliff was so concerned — a lowly, working class, signalman conscript — to earn the respect of his wife-to-be’s family!
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Tom McCarroll
Tom’s older brother Robert described him in swashbuckling terms as “a sugar planter who jumped on a transport vessel and dramatically joined the 1st New Zealand Expeditionary Force as a private, was commissioned on the field, and became a major in the camel corps.” Hence my brief romantic picture of Tom riding with Lawrence of Arabia. But a minute’s reflection shows that that almost certainly never happened — the NZMR worked their way up through the Sinai and Palestine, whereas Faisal and Lawrence’s campaign originated in the Hejaz, in what’s now Saudi Arabia.
Of course the two forces did eventually converge on Damascus, in Syria. And the NZME did use camels occasionally — and some were seconded to the Imperial Camel Corps, which used camels for transport, patrols, and reconnaissance — but generally they stuck to their horses. In any case Tom McCarroll transferred to the 1st New Zealand Machine Gun Squadron when it was formed in Egypt in 15 July 1916.
The squadron’s full establishment was eight officers, 222 other ranks and 321 horses. Gun crews normally comprised five or six men. The No.1 in action fired the gun and when needed carried the tripod. The No.2 carried the gun itself, and in action fed the ammunition belt into the gun. Two men, No.3 and No.4, carried all the extra ammunition. There was also a range finder and sometimes a scout or spare man for the gun. Other men in the section were detailed to look after their horses.
I browsed through the two brothers’ war records. There’s not much about Tom’s service, but a couple of rather bitchy memos do leave the impression that Tom may have been a bit of a stroppy beggar and the Army a little bureaucratic. One to the Minister of Defence, on 17th July 1917, confirms that Jim was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant on 29/8/15, but now, back in New Zealand for six months as medically unfit, he’s applied to be promoted to full lieutenant. This was declined under an N.Z.E.F. Regulation 33(c). Tom had also applied for compensation for loss of an officer’s sword, a Webley revolver, 4 blankets, one pair of prism binoculars and a prismatic compass. The Officer in Charge of War Expenses informs the Featherston Camp Commandant that the first named item is “not a necessary item of equipment”, that three other items will be issued from stores if he returns to service, and “as Lieutenant McCarroll has probably not re-equipped himself with the four blankets, no compensation will be payable on account of this item.”
Tom wasn’t alone in wanting what he felt was due to him from the Army. So did his brother and so did my father. Who could blame them? They’d given it, and us, years of their lives.
Robert’s swashbuckling description of his brother doesn’t seem too far from the truth. There’s a nice story of him having the first German flag ever taken by New Zealanders in the war. This was in Samoa. “I landed from the first boat ashore and was ordered by Colonel Fulton to go and take charge of the Post Office at Apia until he brought the troops up. I took the flag down and offered it to Colonel Fulton when he arrived with the troops, but he allowed me to keep it.” Mind you there are three other flags competing for the honour.
After the war Tom worked as Child Welfare Officer in Southland and Otago, then spent three years from 1928-31 working for a mining company in Malaya. Back in New Zealand he became Secretary for a Building Society in Thames. In the community he was remarkably busy — a JP; a player, referee and administrator in multiple sports; active in the RSA, the National Party and the Masons. Tom and Alice McLoughlin married in 1921 and had a daughter, Joan. Tom died in 1945 and Alice in 1969.
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Jim McCarroll
Lt.-Col. J.N. McCarroll, CM.G., D.S.O. and Bar
Jame Neil McCarroll was a resourceful man. The citation for his DSO reads:
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He carried out an attack on the enemy’s position with great skill. When heavily counterattacked he showed splendid ability in meeting the enemy’s attack, altering his dispositions several times to meet the changing circumstances, and drove back the enemy with heavy loss. He set a fine example to his men.
Jim was wounded twice, once at Gallipoli, as mentioned, and again in the neck and shoulder at Ayun Kara (North West of Jerusalem) on 14 November 1917. He returned to duty two months later.
Looking for something to give a sense of the man, and the battles, I came across a story in the New Zealand Herald of 29 October 1936.
Under the heading PROUD MEMORY — Today’s Anniversary — Beersheba Occupied, it read:
Today is a day of proud memory for New Zealand, for it marks the nineteenth anniversary of the opening of the attack, in which the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade had a position of high honour, upon Beersheba, where Allenby turned the Turkish left flank and commenced the conquest of Palestine that was to be completed within a year. It was in this operation that the 4th Light Horse Brigade (Australia), armed only with rifles and bayonets, charged trenches on horseback, galloped over successive lines and completed what the ANZAC Mounted Division (Light Horse and New Zealand Mounted Rifles) had begun.
Once before in this campaign, and probably for the first time in the history of “mounted infantry”, trenches had been taken in this way. At Rafa the Auckland Mounted Rifles galloped over some outlying trenches, capturing two German officers and some 20 Turks. Two of the latter attempted to run away and Major J.N. McCarroll cut one down with his sword. This was probably the first occasion on which a sword was used for its original purpose by a New Zealander in that war.
Although Beersheba was in October 1917, the McCarroll incident related to an episode in January of that year, when the Anzac Mounted Division (including the AMR) crossed into Palestine and attacked the Turks at Rafa. Word that Turkish reinforcements, and darkness, were approaching convinced the division commander to order a withdrawal. However —
…the order never reached the [AMR], which had fixed bayonets and charged the remaining 200 to 300 yards (180 to 270 m) to the Turkish trenches. They captured the first trench line, and the defenders started to surrender. Seeing what was happening, the remainder of the division returned to assist and the position was captured. The [AMR’s] casualties for the battle were seven dead and forty-one wounded.
Masons at the Dome of the Rock
There were numerous Masons amongst members of the NZEF, including Jim McCarroll and William Meldrum. Meldrum went to school in Kamo, near Whangarei, and the two men may have known each other. Meldrum started the war commanding the Wellington Mounted Rifles but was later promoted to Brigadier General and took command of the NZMR.
After Jerusalem was surrendered by the Turks on the 11th December 1917, General Allenby issued orders that all the Holy Places were to be guarded — and wherever possible, Muslim sites by Muslim Guards. That included the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine but a place of enormous significance to Jews and Christians as well, and a site Christians were forbidden to enter.
Nevertheless, according to G. Sylvester, a Mason himself, that’s where General Meldrum and Jim McCarroll decided to arrange a meeting of the Masons. Somehow or other Meldrum organised a meeting with “the man in charge of the Shrine”, who was perhaps a Freemason himself. Because otherwise, “why did he allow Christians access into the Shrine and allow them to remain inside for approximately 15 minutes?”
In any event a group of eight masons from eight different Lodges drove to the Jaffa Gate, parked and walked to the Hotel St. David. There they had lunch, which Meldrum paid for. “They walked to the shrine and met the Moslem Cleric in charge and entered the Shrine. A little later the keeper got nervous as others wished to enter. And the presentation of “baksheesh” allowed the meeting to come to a close.”
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Jim returned to farming after demobilisation in 1919, and like his brother was very active in the community. He was a JP, involved in the RSA and electorate politics, chaired the Whangarei Hospital and North Auckland Electric Power Boards, and more.
He wrote to the Minister of Defence in the Second World War and asked to be returned to “the reserve of officers” to serve however he might help. He was still “going strong”, he said, and “mentioned that he was “well known” to Prime Ministers Coates and Savage. But unlike his younger brother Tom, who commanded the Thames Mounted Rifles during the war, Jim was deemed too old at age 67. Jim married Sarah Hueston in 1906. The couple had two girls, Gwendolyn and Audrey. Sarah died in 1943 and Jim followed in 1951.
The price paid by the Auckland Mounted Rifles
At that time it was established, the AMR had twenty-six officers, 523 other ranks and 600 horses. According to Wikipedia, over the four years of war AMR sustained 334 dead from all causes and 555 wounded. Generally, regular reinforcements kept the unit’s strength above 500, but at times it almost ceased to exist. Just three of the 26 original officers were still on active service with the AMR at war’s end.