Personnel

The strength of the NZAOD/NZAOC on 30 June 1920 was 3391, consisting of;

• Officers, 14;
• Other ranks, 377

Despite pressure to reduce manning levels, it had not been possible to reduce the NZAOD/NZAOC to a greater extent owing to the large amount of work still required to be carried out in connection with the war. In addition to the ordinary ordnance work in connection with the Territorial Force, the NZAOD/NZAOC was required to;[1]

• maintain extra personnel for the handling, storage and accounting of hospital equipment for the hospitals under the Defence Department,
• maintain extra personnel for the educational and vocational establishments,
• Handle the large quantity of military equipment arriving from overseas.

Until the hospitals were transferred to civil control, and the Vocational Training Branch took over by the Repatriation Department, and the military equipment for the Military Force distributed in accordance with future requirements, NZAOD/NZAOC personnel reductions were unable to be reduced to any great extent without serious risk of incurring inefficiency and loss of stores.[2]

Key Appointments

Directing and Executive Staff

Director of Equipment and Ordnance Stores

• Major T McCristell, NZAOD.[3]

Director of Ordnance Services

• Lieutenant Colonel H. E. Pilkington, CBE, RNZA.[4]

Chief Ordnance Officer, Dominion of New Zealand

• Lieutenant Colonel T McCristell, NZAOD.[5] 30 January – 30 April 1920
• Captain T.J King, NZAOD

Assistant Chief Ordnance Officer

• Lieutenant A.W Baldwin, NZAOD. [6]

Ordnance Accounting Officer

• lieutenant James M. Miller, NZAOD.[7]

Northern Military District Ordnance Officer

• Captain F. E. Ford, NZAOD.
• Lieutenant M.J Lyons. [8]

Canterbury and Nelson Military District Ordnance Officer

• Captain A.R.C White, NZAOD

Otago and Southland Military Districts Ordnance Officer

• Captain O.P McGuigan, NZAOD

Ordnance Officer Trentham Camp

• Lieutenant H.H Whyte, NZAOD.[9] [10]

Ordnance Officer – Featherston Camp

• Lieutenant A.W Baldwin, NZAOD.[11]
• Lieutenant L.A Clement.[12]

Executive Staff Ordnance Officers

• Lieutenant Eugene Key, NZAOD.[13]
• Lieutenant Albert Austin, NZAOD.
• lieutenant Walter N. Bates, NZAOD. [14]

Inspectorial Staff

Inspector of Ordnance Machinery

• Captain B.G.V Parker, NZAOD.[15]

Inspector of Engineers, Electric Light and Defence Vessels Stores

• Captain George John Parrell, NZAOD. [16]
• Captain A.D Neilson.[17]

Proof Officer, Small Arms Ammunition, Auckland

• Captain A, Duvall, NZAOD. [18]

Chief Armourer

• Honorary Lieutenant William E. Luckman, NZAOD

Inspectorial Staff Ordnance Officers

• Honorary Lieutenant Frederick W. Kibblewhite, NZAOD
• Honorary Lieutenant William H Manning, NZAOD.[19]
• Honorary Lieutenant William Ramsey, NZAOD.[20]

NZAOC appropriations year ending 31 March 1920

Organisation Changes

This period would see the NZAOC undergo a change of command and re-designation of appointments to bringing it into line with the current RAOC naming conventions. The Director of Equipment and Ordnance Stores (DEOS) would be renamed and Director of Ordnance Services (DOS) and the position of Chief Ordnance Officer (COO) created.[21] The Division of duties between the DOS and COO was that the DOS would have executive command of the NZAOD/NZAOD with the COO would be the Commanding Officer of the NZAOC and would manage the day the day Administrative functions.[22] [23]

Major T McCristell who had held the position of DEOS since 1916,[24] would become the COO and the position of DOS filled by Lieutenant Colonel H. E. Pilkington, RNZA. Lt Col Pilkington had spent the war filling a variety of Ordnance Positions in the NZEF and Brutish Army including time as the ADOS of 19 Corps and ADOS of the NZEF. McCristell’s tenure as COO would be brief as he would be seconded to the Audi Department, relinquishing the position of COO to Captain T.J King in April 1920.[25] [26]

Produce

The revenue generated by the NZAOC for the year ending 31st May 1920, was £49,013 17s, 4d., while approximately £90,000 was saved by the renovation of part-worn uniforms.

Review of the NZAOC Establishment

It was announced on the 4th of July 1920 that a board of officers was to assemble at General Headquarters for the purpose of inquiring into the establishment of the NZAOC, with a view to its reduction and the practicability of the substitution of a percentage of civilian staff or permanent staff. The board will be composed as follows:[27]

• President
  • Lieutenant-Colonel H. E. Pilkington, CBE. (Director of Ordnance Services);
• Members
  • Lieutenant Colonel C. E. Andrews, OBE
  • Lieutenant Colonel H. E. Avery, G.M.G, DSO

The war revealed the requirement for maintaining an adequate supply of war material to ensure the equipping the Territorial Army on mobilisation. The deficiency of war material in the Dominion in 1914 necessitated the original Expeditionary Force being sent overseas incompletely equipped, while the shortage of military stores in New Zealand during the war became a serious handicap to the training of both the Territorial Force and the drafts for the Expeditionary Force.

The military equipment which was used by the NZEF abroad had been handed back to the Imperial authorities, and a supply of new or serviceable equipment to reequip the New Zealand Army issued in lieu, and gradually shipped to New Zealand as shipping became available. The need for storage accommodation for this equipment was very great, and although temporary arrangements were made to store it in wooden hutments at Trentham and Featherston Camps, these buildings were not suitable for storage of valuable equipment, nor were they conveniently situated for mobilization. Recommendations were made for district mobilization stores to be constructed, in order that this valuable equipment may not deteriorate and that each district may be self-contained.[28]

Fiji Expeditionary Force

Early in 1920 New Zealand dispatched Force of Fifty-Six regular soldiers to Fiji on the NZ Government Steamer Tutanekai. This Small force was sent at the request of the Governor of Fiji to provided support to the limited Police resources at his disposal to manage a strike among Indian indentured labourers and sugar cane farmers. The first peacetime deployment of New Zealand Forces, it was mainly made up of members of the RNZA and served in Fiji between 3 February -28 April 1920 and was known as the Fiji Expeditionary Force. [29]

Included as part of Fiji Expeditionary Force was a small NZAOC Detachment, which included the following personnel;

• Staff Sergeant Joseph Warren.[30]

Annual Christmas Leave

A definite arrangement was made by the Defence Department regarding the annual leave of members of the NZAOC. Annual leave would be taken by the NZAOC as follows;[31]

• The first party would take leave on December 4 and return to duty on December 28.
• The second party would go on leave on December 3O and return to duty on January 22.

 Obituary

On 3 July 1919 Captain A. Duvall, of the NZAOC was found dead in the laboratory room at the Colonial Ammunition Company, the cause being a bullet wound. He was the Proof officer for the Defence Department at Auckland, it being his duty to test ammunition. He was aged fifty and left a widow, but no children. The coroner returned a verdict that death was the result of gunshot wound apparently self-inflicted while in a state of nervous depression.

Lance Corporal Duncan Macgregor of the NZAOC passed away at the comparatively early age of 54 years at Wellington on 25 July 1919. A well-known figure in local military circles, LCpl Macgregor had been a member of the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders, gaining decorations for conspicuous bravery in India and South Africa.[32]

Lance Corporal Duncan MacGregor, NZAOC. National Library of New Zealand

Provisional Dress Regulations

Provisional dress regulations for the New Zealand Permanent Forces were issued in early 1920.  The revised regulations detailed that the Director of Ordnance would wear the following dress distinctions; [33]

• Blue Gorget patches (tabs), and
• blue cap-bands

Discipline

Courts Martial

529 Private Samuel McShane, of the NZAOC was tried by District Court-martial on 23 September 1919 at Trentham Camp on charges of receiving public goods knowing them to have been stolen and was sentenced to 90 days’ imprisonment. His sentence remitted, Pte McShane was immediately demobilised with no demobilisation pay or privileges.[34]

Serious Charges

Serious charges were laid against 605 Conductor Walter Edward Cook, NZAOC (Temporary) of the Featherston Ordnance Detachment at the Magistrate’s Court on 18 June 1921. In outlining the case and explaining the charge; the theft of £2 11s 9d (approx. 2018 NZ$290), the property of the Government, Detective-Sergeant Lewis said that it had been a part of the accused’s duty to audit certain, accounts regarding the sale of blankets. It was alleged that Cook had altered a number of dockets, pocketed a part of the money, and then forwarded the altered dockets. The total sum involved was about £177 (approx. 2018 NZ$17000).[35]  Cook was later found guilty, reverted in rank to Private and demobilised with no demobilisation pay or privileges and sentenced to six months hard labour.[36]

Personnel Movements -July 1919 to June 1920

Transfers

• Captain (Temp) Michael Joseph Lyons, from the regiment of Royal New Zealand Artillery with the rank of Lieutenant, 1 March 1920.

Enlistments

• 197 Artificer Frederick Vaugha Evans
• 644 Private Thomas William Henry Rowe
• 663 Artificer Fredrick John Sygrove
• 666 Lance Corporal Peter Gow Scrimgeour
• 750 Private Peter McIlroy
• 795 Private George Troope Dawson
• 820 Private James Clements
• 822 Private John James Thomas
• 831 Private Thomas Heaton
• 832 Private Richard Teehan
• 835 Private William Joseph Conroy
• 838 Private William Robert McMinn
• 857 Private Isaac Bernard Shields
• 860 Private Hugh Lawton Owen
• 867 Private John Rescorl
• 885 Private C J J Storie
• 902 Private William Stewart Barr
• 914 Private John Boyce
• 920 Private Gordon James Francis Arenas
• 938 Sergeant John Goutenoire O’Brien
• 939 Private Harold Gordon Hill
• 1036 Private Shepherd Hughes

Releases

• 47 Private Charles Harbage
• 69 Lieutenant Eugene Key
• 86 Lance Corporal Duncan Campbell MacGregor
• 100 Lieutenant William Ramsay
• 103 Private Thomas Riordan
• 105 Private Thomas Rodgers
• 125 Private Robert Walker
• 128 Private Ludvig Martin Williamson
• 136 Private Clifford Seddon
• 160 Staff Sergeant Frederick William Tavendale
• 183 Sergeant Robert Walter Baker Gale
• 200 Private Alfred Healy de Vere
• 221 cadet Harry William Miller
• 228 sergeant Thomas Graham Niven
• 241 Corporal Theodore Norris
• 254 Private James Gorman
• 269 Private George Kermode
• 273 Private Thomas Ellwood Lyle
• 294 Corporal Richard Brady Simpson
• 299 Lance Corporal Peter Tulloch
• 318 Private Frank Joseph Shacklock
• 329 Private Harold Fraser White
• 366 Private William Henry Murdoch
• 368 Private James King
• 393 Private John Naylor
• 407 Private James Crone.[37]
• 418 Private William Henry McCarthy
• 424 Private Phillip Thomas Labatt
• 436 Private John Raymond Johnson
• 441 Private Montagu Spotswood
• 446 Private Cecil Balcombe Langridge
• 453 Private Harold Rigby
• 462 Private William Ernest George
• 478 Private Andrew Robert Murphy
• 480 Private James Herbert Turner
• 515 Private Thomas Edward Mills
• 518 Private James McEntee
• 529 Private Samuel McShane
• 574 Artificer Henry James Day
• 601 Private James Pritchard
• 605 Private Walter Edward Cook
• 617 Private Horace James Richards
• 634 Private John Morrison
• 675 Private Benjamin Smith
• 680 Private Egbert Edwin White
• 690 Private John Miller
• 697 Private William Gibbons
• 718 Private Peter Douglas Adamson
• 477 Corporal Lawritz Christopher Jansen
• 493 Corporal William Parry Mortimore
• 644 Corporal Thomas William Henry Rowe
• 354 Sergeant William Varian Wilson
• 431 Sergeant John McVean Walker
• 795 Sergeant George Troope Dawson
• Lieutenant Walter Norman Bates.
• Lieutenant William Manning.
• Lieutenant William Ramsay.
• Captain George John Parrell.
• Lieutenant Colonel T McCristell.[38]

Deaths

• Lance Corporal Duncan Macgregor.
• Captain A. Duvall.

Copyright © Robert McKie 2019

Notes:

[1] “H-19 Defence Forces of New Zealand, Annual Report of the General Officer Commanding the Forces,” Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives  (1920).

[2] Ibid.

[3] Relinquished position to Director of Ordnance Services on 30 January 1920. “Appointment of Director of Ordnance Services and Chief Ordnance Officer,” New Zealand Gazette No 15, 19 February 1920, 547.

[4] Assumed position from Director of Equipment and Ordnance Stores on 30 January 1920.Ibid.

[5] Assumed position 30 January 1920, relinquished it to Captain T.J King on 30 April 1920 when seconded to Audit Department. “Appointments, Promotions, Resignations and Transfer of Officers of the New Zealand Staff and Territorial Force,” New Zealand Gazette no 55, 4 June 1920, 1865.

[6] “Whyte, Herbert Henry,” Personal File, Archives New Zealand  (1914): 116.

[7] Ibid., 117.

[8] Appointed 1 March 1920″Appointments, Promotions, Resignations and Transfer of Officers of the New Zealand Staff and Territorial Force,” New Zealand Gazette No 41, April 22 1920, 1257.

[9] “Whyte, Herbert Henry.”

[10] 13 May 1920 “Appointments, Promotions, Resignations and Transfers of Officers of the Nzsc, Nzaod and Territorial Force,” New Zealand Gazette No 46, 12 May 1921.

[11] Relinquished appointment as OO Featherston Camp to become Assistant COO 3 July 1919. Replaced by Lt L.A Clements.

[12] “Whyte, Herbert Henry,”  117.

[13] Relinquished position due to retirement on12 November 1919 “Appointments, Promotions, Resignations and Transfer of Officers of the New Zealand Staff Corps, Royal Regiment of New Zealand Artillery and Territorial Force,” New Zealand Gazette No 145, 11 December 1919.

[14] Relinquished position due to retirement on 20 June 1920. “Appointments, Promotions, Resignations, Transfers and Retirements of Officers from the NZ, NZ Army Ordnance Department and Territorial Force,” new Zealand Gazette No 36, 8 April 1920, 1072.

[15] Relinquished position due to retirement on 30 September 1919. “Appointments, Promotions, Resignations and Transfer of Officers of the New Zealand Staff Corps, Royal Regiment of New Zealand Artillery and Territorial Force.”

[16]  Relinquished position due to retirement on 30 September 1919.”Captain George John Parrell,” New Zealand Gazette No 76, 30 September 1919, 2016.

[17] “Neilson, Albert Ernest,” Personal File, Archives New Zealand  (1902-1921).

[18] “Death of an Officer,” New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17205, 5 July 1919.

[19] Relinquished position due to retirement on 4 April 1920. “Appointments, Promotions, Resignations, Transfers and Retirements of Officers from the NZ, NZ Army Ordnance Department and Territorial Force,”  1071.

[20] Relinquished position due to retirement on 4 April 1920. Ibid.

[21] “Appointment of Director of Ordnance Services and Chief Ordnance Officer.”

[22] Minute from DOS to GO IC Administration Date 5 June 1920″King, Thomas Joseph,” Personal File, Archives New Zealand 1914-1946.

[23] “Ordnance Services,” New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10514,, 16 February 1920.

[24] “Appointments, Promotions, Resignations and Transfer of Officers of the New Zealand Staff and Territorial Force,” New Zealand Gazette No 47, 20 April 1916.

[25] “Appointments, Promotions, Resignations and Transfer of Officers of the New Zealand Staff and Territorial Force.”

[26] “King, Thomas Joseph.”

[27] “H-19 Defence Forces of New Zealand, Annual Report of the General Officer Commanding the Forces.”

[28] Ibid.

[29] I. C. McGibbon and Paul William Goldstone, The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History (Auckland; Melbourne; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, 2000), Bibliographies, Non-fiction, 170-71.

[30] “Warren, Joesph,” Personal File, Archives New Zealand  (1915-1931).

[31] “Local and General – Nzaoc Annual Leave,” Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 126, 21 February 1920.

[32] “All Sorts of People,” Free Lance, Volume XIX, Issue 996, 6 August 1919.

[33] “Provisional Dress Regulations,” Southland Times, Issue 18756, 3 March 1920.

[34] “Court Martial,” New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10397, 30 September 1919.

[35] “Serious Charges,” Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 144, 18 June 1920.

[36] “Cook, Walter Edward,” Personal File, Archives New Zealand  (1918-1920).

[37] “Untitled -Crone,” Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1784, 9 April 1920.

[38] “Appointments, Promotions, Resignations and Transfer of Officers of the New Zealand Staff and Territorial Force,” New Zealand Gazette No 99, 9 December 1920.