Harry Luckman with Ellen Luckman and baby Harry George Luckman

Family Portrait of Harry, Ellen and baby Harry George Luckman

This portrait was probably taken shortly before Rifleman Harry Luckman's embarkation with the 25th Reinforcements on 26 April 1917.  He was a butcher by trade, and the 'griddle' badge on his  sleeve may refer to his appointment as the troopship's butcher.

Harry had been born in England on 3 September 1891. The family story is that when he was 18 he joined the crew of a ship sailing to New Zealand, but 'jumped ship' in Wellington. He went to Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast and found work in the freezing works there. By the time his name was drawn in the first Ballot for military service on 16 November 1916 he was living with Ellen whom he had married in 1915, and their  baby son in Feilding and working for the Feilding Bacon Company. 

He appealed against his call-up, telling the Appeal Board at a hearing in Palmerston North on 15 January 1917 that he had three brothers serving at the front and another two working in munition factories and that his family would suffer undue hardship if sent into camp. Harry asked for four months' deferral so he could pay off his financial liabilities, but the Board dismissed his appeal and he had to leave home for  training camp on 5 February.

46051 Rifleman Luckman, Harry, trained in New Zealand with the 25th Reinforcements and when he arrived at Sling Camp in England on 10 July  he joined the Rifle Brigade's 5th Reserve Battalion. He was sent to France on 14 September and joined  'D' Company of the Brigade's 1st Battalion on 8 October.

The Brigade was encamped near the front line, preparing for the attack on Passchendaele. The Brigade's historian described the weather as 'miserably wet and cold' and the ground was a quagmire, but the attack went ahead on 12 October. The result was New Zealand's worst disaster of the war, with 840 dead and over 3000 wounded by the end of the day.

Harry was one of the battle's casualties. He survived the first day, but at about 8pm on the 13th he went to get some water and was buried by an exploding shell. He was near the Battalion's Headquarters, and his Commanding Officer reported that he had personally seen that Harry was 'quite demented' when he was dug out. Harry was in such a bad state that he had to be 'almost carried' to the Regimental Aid Post and the Medical Officer later reported that he was suffering from severe shell shock.

Harry was taken from No. 2 Casualty Clearing Station to the New Zealand Stationary Hospital on 17 October. The Hospital's Commanding Officer reported that Harry '.. has marked hesitancy of speech and increased reflex action. Complains of pains in legs'  and that he could not remember the explosion. He was evacuated by ambulance train to base hospital, then to hospital in Birmingham on 6 November. On 26 November he entered the New Zealand Hospital at Brockenhurst and to the Convalescent Depot at Torquay on 4 January 1918. He went before a Medical Board on 18 January which classified him as 'unfit' due to 'Neurasthenia' and he boarded the troopship 'Tahiti' for New Zealand on 1 February. 

Another Medical Board at Wellington on 24 April classified him as permanently unfit for war service and Harry was discharged from the NZEF on 11 June as 'no longer physically fit for war service on account of wounds received in action.' 

His family remember that Harry suffered nightmares in the post-war years, and the marriage to Ellen broke down.  Harry Luckman, 'Retired Master Butcher', died on 18 November 1977, aged 84. Ellen had died in 1966 and their son Harry George who served in the Army during the Second World War died in 2001 and is buried near his father in the soldiers' section of Wellington's Makara Cemetery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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