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Portrait of William Edward Melton, New Zealand Machine Gun Corps
The negative of this photograph is inscribed 'Melton, W.E.' The man depicted is wearing collar badges of the New Zealand Machine Gun Corps, and the Machine Gun Proficiency Badge is on his left sleeve. He can be identified as Private William Edward Melton, who qualified as a 'first-class machine-gunner' in August 1918 after training at Featherston Camp with the 45th Reinforcements Specialist Company ( M.G. Section).
Machine guns were one of the most devastating infantry weapons of the war, as each gun could fire about 700 rounds per minute, more than could fifty expert riflemen in the same time. The New Zealand Machine Gun Corps had been founded in 1916, in line with the British Army's decision to emulate the Germans' methods and organise self-contained mobile machine-gun units to provide concentrated firepower when and where it was needed.
William was born in 1897 to John Edward and Mary Charlotte Melton of Waimate, Canterbury, the second of five children. In 1917, when he was conscripted for military service in the 12th ballot, William was twenty years old, living at Glenhope near Nelson and working as a cleaner for New Zealand Railways. He went to to training camp as part of the Nelson quota for the 41st Reinforcements, which left on 30 April 1918. The departure attracted a larger crowd than usual to the wharf, as the quota included the first draft of married men. As the local newspaper put it '...it was apparent that a further milestone on the road of sacrifice was being passed'.
With the war so nearly over, it is unlikely that William served overseas. His name appears in news reports in the early 1920s indicating that he worked as a fireman on the Union Steam Ship Company's ship Mararoa. It seems that he also had a liking for drink and a hot temper, as he appeared in court and was fined for various drunken escapades. In October 1923 he was imprisoned for a month following a fracas with a fellow seaman.
Edward did eventually serve overseas with the Army, as a Sapper in Second NZEF's 7th Field Company. Unfortunately, he died of sickness in Egypt on 15 November 1941, and is buried in the Heliopolis War Cemetery.