A Collective Profile of NZEF Ordnance Personnel, 1914–1920

No disasters, no glory, just competence. The New Zealand Army Ordnance Corps of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force remained largely anonymous for a century, not because it was secret, but because it succeeded so thoroughly that history forgot to notice.

The New Zealand Army Ordnance Corps was one of the smallest but most important components of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force during the First World War. Its personnel supplied and maintained the weapons, ammunition, clothing and equipment upon which the NZEF depended. Their responsibilities extended beyond managing military stores to include workshops, battlefield salvage, clothing and boot repair, baths and laundries, depot administration and, eventually, the demobilisation of the NZEF.[1]

Despite the importance of this work, the NZAOC remained largely anonymous. It was a small organisation embedded within divisional and NZEF headquarters and, in most accounts, overshadowed by the much larger New Zealand Army Service Corps. An examination of the individual military personnel files of 75 men associated with the wartime NZAOC provides an opportunity to look beyond the organisation and consider the men who made it work.[2]

Collectively, their files show that the NZAOC was built largely from soldiers transferred from elsewhere in the NZEF. Forty-four had served at Gallipoli, many possessed valuable technical or commercial skills, and six died before completing their military service.

The origins of the NZEF Ordnance Service

New Zealand did not possess a uniformed Army Ordnance Corps when war was declared in August 1914. The formation of such a corps had been debated since the beginning of the century and limited ordnance training had been undertaken, but no permanent organisation existed. General Order 312 established Ordnance Services as part of the NZEF. Its initial establishment was remarkably small: a Deputy Assistant Director of Ordnance Services, one clerk and a horse.[3]

Honorary Captain William Thomas Beck of the New Zealand Staff Corps was appointed Deputy Assistant Director of Ordnance Services. Sergeant Norman Joseph Levien, a general storekeeper who had enlisted in the Auckland Infantry Regiment, became his clerk. Beck and Levien helped equip the Main Body before leaving New Zealand. After arriving in Egypt in December 1914, they began constructing an ordnance system based upon British procedures adapted to New Zealand requirements.[4]

They established a shared depot with the New Zealand Army Service Corps at Zeitoun. Six additional soldiers were transferred to the depot on 28 December 1914. The organisation did not begin as a formed corps with its own recruiting system; it expanded by selecting suitable soldiers from infantry, mounted rifles, artillery and other NZEF units.[5]

Gallipoli and the expansion of the organisation

Preparations for the Dardanelles campaign required a larger ordnance system. Alexandria became the principal base, while the cargo ship SS Umsinga, loaded with ordnance stores, operated as a forward depot. Beck served as DADOS of the New Zealand and Australian Division and landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. He established an ordnance depot at Anzac under almost continuous danger from Turkish artillery and rifle fire.[6]

Levien managed ordnance activities in Egypt, Alexandria and later Lemnos, while Lieutenant Thomas Joseph King commanded the depot at Zeitoun. King and Levien became the first officers commissioned specifically for New Zealand ordnance duties in April 1915.

Following the evacuation from Gallipoli, the NZEF was reorganised into the New Zealand Division, which moved to the Western Front, and the Mounted Rifles Brigade, which remained in the Middle East. Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Henry Herbert, DSO, assumed control of the divisional ordnance organisation in January 1916. Additional officers, warrant officers and soldiers were transferred into what was becoming the NZAOC. The overseas establishment was formalised in NZEF orders during February 1916; the permanent New Zealand Army Ordnance Department and Corps at home followed in 1917.[7]

Who were the NZAOC men?

The collective analysis that follows is derived from the service details recorded in the 75 individual personnel files. It considers year of birth, civilian employment, original unit, enlistment, age, entry into and departure from the NZAOC, discharge from the NZEF, total service and Gallipoli experience. [8]

Age and year of birth

The men were born between 1866 and 1897. The oldest was William Thomas Beck, born in 1866, who was 48 when he enlisted. The youngest included Edwin Stanley Green and John William Hoffman, both of whom enlisted at 19. The average age on enlistment was approximately 27, and the median was 25.

Age on enlistment	Number
19-24	37
25-29	18
30-34	7
35-39	9
40-48	4

Source: Author’s analysis of individual NZEF personnel files held by Archives New Zealand.

Fifty-five of the 75 men were under 30. Nevertheless, the presence of four men aged 40 or older demonstrates that technical experience, commercial knowledge and administrative ability could be as important to the ordnance service as youth and physical fitness. Beck was the clearest example: his pre-war service as Northern District Defence Storekeeper made him a logical choice to establish the NZEF’s first overseas ordnance organisation.

Civilian occupations

The NZAOC drew upon a broad range of civilian experience. Clerks formed the largest single occupational group, with 12 recorded as clerks and another four as bank clerks. The files also identify cashiers, commercial agents, a railway clerk and a mercantile clerk. Technical and trade occupations included:

• five armourers and two gunsmiths;
• four motor mechanics, one mechanic and one fitter;
• three engineers and one linotype engineer;
• three carpenters, two coachbuilders and one farrier.

At least 23 men had recognisably technical or trade-related backgrounds. Others had worked as farmers, labourers, soldiers, teachers, printers, seamen, warehousemen and commercial employees. The range reflects the breadth of the NZAOC’s duties. It needed men who could repair weapons, maintain accounts, supervise workshops, operate depots, manage inventories, examine demands and control the movement of equipment. Only seven had specifically been civilian armourers or gunsmiths; most acquired ordnance knowledge during military service.

Original NZEF units

Most did not enlist directly into an ordnance organisation. They were selected and transferred from units throughout the NZEF.

Original unit or formation	Number
Auckland Infantry Regiment	8
New Zealand Field Artillery	8
Permanent Forces	7
Wellington Infantry Regiment	7
New Zealand Rifle Brigade	6
Canterbury Mounted Rifles	6
Wellington Mounted Rifles	6
Divisional Headquarters Staff	5
Otago Infantry Regiment	5
Auckland Mounted Rifles	3
Otago Mounted Rifles	3
Canterbury Infantry Regiment	3
Samoa Relief Force	2
Other units and formations	6

Source: Author’s analysis of individual NZEF personnel files held by Archives New Zealand.

Fifty-one came from infantry or mounted-rifle units. Others had served with the artillery, Permanent Forces, Divisional Headquarters, Army Service Corps, Engineers, Specialist Company or Home Service Branch. The diversity of their origins demonstrates how the wartime NZAOC developed: not through a single stream of recruitment, but by drawing personnel from across the NZEF.

Enlistment in the NZEF

Forty-one men enlisted in 1914 and another 21 in 1915. Therefore, 62 of the 75 men, almost 83 per cent, had joined the NZEF by the end of 1915. Arthur Fred Varcoe recorded the earliest enlistment, on 1 August 1914. Charles Slattery was the latest, enlisting on 5 April 1918.

Enlistment year	Number
1914	41
1915	21
1916	8
1917	3
1918	2

Source: Author’s analysis of individual NZEF personnel files held by Archives New Zealand.

The predominance of early enlistments helps explain the group’s considerable operational experience. Many had already served in Egypt, at Gallipoli or on the Western Front before being selected for ordnance employment.

Joining the NZAOC

The files record entry into the ordnance organisation between August 1914 and January 1920.

Year joined the NZAOC	Number
1914	3
1915	11
1916	37
1917	6
1918	15
1919	2
1920	1

Source: Author’s analysis of individual NZEF personnel files held by Archives New Zealand.

The concentration in 1916 is particularly significant. Thirty-seven men, almost half the group, entered the NZAOC during that year. This coincided with the post-Gallipoli reorganisation and the deployment of the New Zealand Division to France. A further 15 joined in 1918 as the organisation expanded to meet the demands of repair, salvage, administration and eventual demobilisation.

Armourers, repair and salvage

Armourer Sergeant was the most common final NZAOC rank, held by 22 men. Another two became Armourer Staff Sergeants. Armourers had initially been attached to infantry battalions, but experience demonstrated that concentrating them in a divisional workshop was more efficient. The centralised shop repaired small arms, machine guns, bicycles, primus stoves, steel helmets and other equipment, enabling serviceable items to be returned quickly to units.[9]

The divisional ordnance staff also supervised battlefield salvage. Formed in May 1916, the Divisional Salvage Company cared for packs during offensive operations, managed tents and canvas, recovered government and enemy property, sorted salvaged material and dispatched it to base. Kenneth Bruce MacRae, one of the officers in the study, served as a New Zealand Divisional Salvage Officer.[10]

The scale of salvage could be substantial. During April 1918 the company recovered, among other items, an aircraft, four motorcycles, 285 enemy rifles, machine-gun equipment, steel helmets and gas respirators. Salvage reduced waste, returned valuable equipment to use and created credits against the Division’s expenditure.[11]

From December 1916 the Divisional Baths and Laundry also came under the DADOS. The intention was to provide every soldier with a bath and change of clothing approximately every ten days. Dirty uniforms were washed, inspected, repaired where necessary and returned to stock. These duties demonstrate the degree to which ordnance support affected the health, efficiency and fighting ability of the Division.[12]

Ranks and leadership

The final ranks included 22 Armourer Sergeants, 13 Sergeants, five Conductors, four Sub-Conductors, four Staff Sergeants, four Corporals, four Lieutenants, four Second Lieutenants, two Armourer Staff Sergeants, two Captains, two Majors and two Lieutenant-Colonels. Fifteen men held commissioned rank. Conductors and Sub-Conductors occupied especially important appointments, requiring technical knowledge, administrative competence and authority over valuable stores, workshops and personnel.

Several of the men were central to the organisation’s development. Beck established the original Ordnance Service. Levien managed depots in Egypt, Lemnos and Britain and developed a standardised stores-accounting system. Herbert commanded the divisional organisation during its expansion on the Western Front. Charles Ingram Gossage later became DADOS of the New Zealand Division, Herbert Edward Pilkington became the senior NZEF ordnance officer in 1918, and William Henchcliffe Simmons supervised the final stages of demobilisation.[13]

Levien’s work in Britain was particularly influential. He established the Sling Ordnance Depot and sub-depots at NZEF camps and hospitals, created an ordnance depot in London, improved purchasing and introduced a uniform system of stores accounting. That system was retained by the post-war NZAOC and reduced losses to comparatively negligible levels.[14]

Length of NZAOC service

The average period of NZAOC service was approximately two years and two months; the median was about one year and nine months. Service ranged from 15 days to five years. Temporary Sergeant Thomas Christopher Golins had the shortest recorded period, joining on 5 January 1920 and leaving on 20 January. Major Norman Joseph Levien recorded the longest period, serving exactly five years from 1 November 1914 until 1 November 1919.

Year left the NZAOC	Number
1915	4
1916	3
1917	12
1918	3
1919	36
1920	17

Source: Author’s analysis of individual NZEF personnel files held by Archives New Zealand.

More than 70 per cent remained associated with the NZAOC until 1919 or 1920. These late departures were not simply administrative delays. The Armistice ended the fighting, but it did not end the Corps’ work.

Occupation and demobilisation

Following the Armistice, the New Zealand Division advanced into Germany and undertook occupation duties at Cologne. The NZAOC closed or handed over stores in France and Belgium before establishing the arrangements needed to support the Division in Germany. Although the Division was disbanded in March 1919, ordnance personnel remained to return equipment to British depots and dispose of stores that could not be returned.[15]

At the same time, the organisation in Britain changed from equipping the NZEF to dismantling it. Weapons, clothing, vehicles and equipment had to be accounted for, repaired, returned, transferred, sold or destroyed. The NZAOC also arranged the shipment of captured artillery, weapons and other war trophies to New Zealand. Under Temporary Captain William Henchcliffe Simmons, the final remnants of the NZEF NZAOC were demobilised in October 1920.[16]

Discharge and total NZEF service

Forty men were discharged during 1919 and another 18 during 1920. For 61 men, the date they left the NZAOC was also their discharge date from the NZEF. The remaining 14 continued serving elsewhere or had transferred before final discharge. Their later employment included transfers to the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, attachment to the British Army Ordnance Department and service in other NZEF appointments.

The average total period of NZEF service was approximately three years and eleven months, while the median was just over four years and two months. William Henchcliffe Simmons recorded the longest service within this group, six years and 66 days, ending on 13 October 1920. Arthur Fred Varcoe had the shortest total service: 275 days ending with his death at Gallipoli.

Gallipoli service

Forty-four of the men served at Gallipoli, representing nearly three-fifths of the group. Gallipoli veterans were found throughout the NZAOC, from armourers and storemen to Conductors and senior officers. Their experience was more than a biographical distinction: they understood the consequences of damaged weapons, difficult supply routes, ammunition shortages and supporting troops from improvised coastal depots. When Herbert assumed control in early 1916, this operational knowledge formed a significant part of the foundation upon which the expanded NZAOC was built.

Honours and awards

At least 14 men possessed recorded decorations, awards or mentions. These included two Distinguished Service Orders, two appointments as Officers of the Order of the British Empire, one Military Medal, six Meritorious Service Medals and five Mentions in Despatches. Some men received more than one distinction. Charles Ingram Gossage was appointed OBE and mentioned in despatches; Clarence Adrian Seay received the MSM and was also mentioned in despatches. Levien received both the MBE and OBE for his work in developing the NZEF’s ordnance administration.[17]

Men who died while serving

Six men died before completing their military service. In every case, the recorded date of leaving the NZAOC or being discharged from the NZEF corresponds with the date of death. Their deaths encompassed combat, disease and accidental or self-inflicted wounds.

Service no.	Name	Rank	Date	Circumstances and commemoration
8/499	Arthur Fred Varcoe	Armourer Sergeant	3 May 1915	Killed in action at Gallipoli; commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial.
23/1318	John William Allday	Armourer Sergeant	9 Jan 1917	Died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound; buried in Tidworth Military Cemetery, England.
23/1457	Percy Clarence O’Hara	Sergeant	11 Apr 1917	Died of broncho-pneumonia; buried in Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension, France.
11/1612	Alexander Charles Wisnofski	Sergeant	6 Nov 1918	Contemporary notice recorded accidental wounds; buried in Ramleh War Cemetery, Palestine.
6/3459	Clarence Adrian Seay	Conductor	20 Feb 1919	Died of influenza during the occupation; buried in Cologne Southern Cemetery, Germany.
66613	Charles Slattery	Conductor	25 Feb 1919	Died of influenza during the occupation; buried in Cologne Southern Cemetery, Germany.

Sources: Individual personnel files; Commonwealth War Graves Commission; New Zealand War Graves; contemporary notices and the references cited in the footnotes.

Varcoe was killed while serving with the Otago Infantry Regiment and is commemorated under that unit. Allday is likewise commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission under the New Zealand Rifle Brigade, although his personal file records his subsequent ordnance service.

The deaths of Seay and Slattery are particularly notable. Both survived the fighting but died of influenza in Germany only five days apart. Their deaths demonstrate that active service continued to carry serious risks after the Armistice.

The men behind the organisation

The personnel files reveal the range of experience upon which the wartime NZAOC depended. Its ranks included combat veterans, armourers, engineers, clerks, mechanics, accountants, salvage officers, ammunition specialists and senior staff officers. Infantrymen and mounted riflemen contributed operational knowledge; skilled tradesmen provided technical expertise; and men from commercial and administrative backgrounds brought the organisational ability required to manage an increasingly complex supply system.

These men served across every major part of the New Zealand war effort—from the depots at Zeitoun and Alexandria and the exposed stores at Anzac to the workshops of the Western Front, the training camps in Britain and, after the Armistice, the occupation stores at Cologne. Their varied skills enabled the NZAOC to adapt continually as the scale and demands of the war increased.

Conclusion

The NZEF Ordnance Service began the war with an establishment of an officer, a clerk and a horse. By 1916 it had developed into a modest but effective organisation supporting the New Zealand Division, the Mounted Rifles and the wider NZEF. Its responsibilities eventually extended from weapons, ammunition, clothing and equipment to workshops, salvage, baths, laundries, depot administration and demobilisation.

The personal histories of the 75 men explain how they achieved that expansion. Most were drawn from elsewhere in the NZEF, 44 had served at Gallipoli, and many brought valuable civilian trades or commercial experience. Their average NZEF service approached four years, and more than 70 per cent remained associated with the NZAOC until 1919 or 1920.

Six died before they could complete their service. Others remained in Germany or Britain long after the fighting had ceased, disposing of stores and dismantling the logistical organisation that had sustained the NZEF. The success of the wartime NZAOC did not rest upon its size. It rested upon the experience, adaptability and professionalism of the men who served within it.

Notes

[1] Major J.S Bolton, A History of the Royal New Zealand Army Ordnance Corps (Trentham: RNZAOC, 1992), 52-53.

[2] Unless otherwise stated, the quantitative findings in this article are the author’s analysis of the individual military personnel files of the 75 men concerned, held by Archives New Zealand.

[3] “Troopships; Embarkation Orders; Daily Field States; and a large chart of ‘New Zealand Expeditionary Forces – Personnel’ as at 1 June 1915),” Archives New Zealand Item ID R23486740 (Wellington) 1914; Bolton, A History of the Royal New Zealand Army Ordnance Corps, 52-53.

[4] “Levien, Norman Joseph,” Personal File, Archives New Zealand Record R24169998 & R10919227 (Wellington) 1914; “Beck, William Thomas,” Personal File, Archives New Zealand (Wellington) 1914, http://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE24368600.

[5]  Divisional Order 210 of 28 December 1914 transferred six soldiers to the Ordnance Depot.  “Appendices to War Diaries, I – LXII,” Archives New Zealand Item ID R23486739 (Wellington) 1914, http://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE28730233.

[6] Christopher Pugsley, Gallipoli: The New Zealand Story (Auckland [N.Z.] : Sceptre, 1990, 1990), 111; “Brave New Zealanders,” The Hawera and Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, (Hawera), 24 June 1916, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HNS19160624.2.26.

[7] “New Zealand Expeditionary Force – Army Ordnance Corps Daily Order No. 1 “, Archives New Zealand Item No R25958433  (1916); Ian McGibbon, New Zealand’s Western Front Campaign (Bateman, 2016), .

[8] The service-file analysis records year of birth, civilian occupation, original NZEF unit, enlistment date and age, dates of entry into and departure from the NZAOC, NZAOC service, NZEF discharge, total NZEF service and Gallipoli service. Unresolved Gallipoli marks were treated as affirmative where the associated service evidence supported that interpretation.

[9] Arthur Forbes, A history of the Army Ordnance Services (London: The Medici society, ltd., 1929); Philip Hamlyn Williams, Ordnance: Equipping the British Army for the Great War (History Press, 2018).

[10] Headquarters New Zealand and Australian Division, “New Zealand Division – Administration – War Diary, 1 May – 26 May 1916,” Archives New Zealand Item No R23487546  (1916), http://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE36206656.

[11] “Deputy Assistant Director of Ordnance Services (DADOS) – War Diary, 1 April – 30 April 1918,” Archives New Zealand Item No R23487665  (1918).

[12] “An account of the working of the Baths established in the Divisional areas in France,” Archives New Zealand Item No R24428508  (1918); “Gossage, Charles Ingram,” Personal File, Archives New Zealand (Wellington) 1914; Glyn Harper, Johnny Enzed: the New Zealand soldier in the First World War 1914-1918 (Exisle Publishing Limited, 2015), 315-54.

[13] “Pilkington,Herbert Edward “, Personal File, Archives New Zealand (Wellington) 1914; “Pilkington, Herbert Edward,” Personal File, Archives New Zealand 1896 – 1930, http://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE20557145.;”Levien, Norman Joseph.”; “Beck, William Thomas.”;”Simmons, William Henchcliffe “, Personal File, Archives New Zealand (Wellington) 1914.

[14] Equipment and ordnance depot, Farringdon Road, London – Administration reports etc., 18 October 1916 – 8 August 1918 Archives New Zealand Item ID R25102951, (1918).;”H-19 Defence Forces of New Zealand, Annual report of the General Officer Commanding the Forces from 1 July 1922 to 30 June 1923,” Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives  (1923), https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/parliamentary/AJHR1923-I-II.2.2.5.21; “Levien, Norman Joseph.”

[15] “Gossage, Charles Ingram.”; McGibbon, New Zealand’s Western Front Campaign.

[16] “Trophies and historical material – [War] Trophies – New Zealand Expeditionary Force [NZEF] – Shipment of to New Zealand, 21 September 1917 – 24 November 1919,” Archives New Zealand Item No R25103019  (1919); “Simmons, William Henchcliffe “.

[17] Wayne McDonald, Honours and awards to the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Great War 1914-1918, 3rd edition ed. (Richard Stowers, 2013), Directories, Non-fiction, 146. h. relevant individual personnel files, Archives New Zealand.