For 80 years, the family of Private Thomas John Cornick could not bring themselves to open a parcel he sent home shortly before being killed in action.
The Enfield soldier died aged 25 in an attack on Polderhoek Chateau, in Belgium, on December 3, 1917, and by the time the parcel reached his family, they had been notified of his death.
Grieving for her son, his mother Jemima Cornick could not bring herself to open it.
When she died in 1938, the parcel was passed down to Pte Cornick's sister, Lillian Perry, who also left it unopened. After Mrs Perry died in 1983, the family rediscovered the parcel.
''For a long time we didn't touch it either, simply because the grandparents and my mother hadn't touched it,'' Pte Cornick's niece, Winifred Frew, said.
''I've often wondered: were they not anxious to know if there was a letter in it? Obviously the pain, I would say, made the decision that they wouldn't open it.''
In the late '90s, about 80 years after the package was sent, the family finally made the decision to discover its contents.
There was no letter or note. The parcel only contained an army issue Gillette safety razor in perfect condition, but why he sent it home remains a mystery.
''I hoped that there would've been a note from him,'' Mrs Frew said.
''It was the condition it was in which surprised me. I expected that it would be all rusted up.''
A proud member of the Enfield 11 stone tug o' war team and the Enfield Defence Rifle Club, Pte Cornick was employed by farmer Samuel McGookin when he enlisted in June 1915 with the 7th Reinforcement.
He arrived in Suez in November 1915, joining the New Zealand Division as it rebuilt following the evacuation from Gallipoli.
Arriving in France, he was initiated to trench warfare at Armentieres with the 10th Company of the 1st Otago Battalion.
In the Battle of the Somme he received a wound to the left forearm and required surgery for appendicitis while in hospital at Brockenhurst.
He returned to the 14th Company of the 1st Otago battalion, finding himself on the front line on December 3, 1917, and fell victim to heavy enemy barrage and shelling dropping short from the 14th Company's own artillery.
Pte Cornick was one of about 15 Enfield soldiers who died on active service during World War 1. Their deaths shook the small North Otago community, and families very rarely opened up about the war and those who lost their lives, Mrs Frew said.
''We're woefully short of information about the poor man,'' she said.
''The interest wasn't there until it was too late.
''You always regret these things; you should've asked earlier in life.''
Mrs Frew never met her ''Uncle Jack'', but she treasures the items passed down to her, including postcards he sent home, scrolls, photographs, medals and a gong recognising his service.
Pte Cornick's body was never found, but his name is recorded on the Memorial to the Missing at the Buttes New British Cemetery at Polygon Wood in Belgium and on a plaque with a memorial oak at Enfield.
