Mum’s soldier boy (John) Turtle Reynolds lied about his age to join the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in December 1915.
Just turned 19, but claiming to be 20 (the minimum age for overseas service) Turtle left Dunedin with the 11th Reinforcements.
After the customary training period at Trentham, he embarked for overseas service in April. By June 1916 he was serving with the 10th Company of the 1st Otago Infantry Battalion in northern France.
He wrote a number of letters home to his mother, each filled with simple details and signed with multiple rows of "X"s to express his filial devotion.
Really, Turtle was still just a child.
The New Zealand Division was thrown into the maw of the dreadful Somme campaign in mid-September 1916.
A series of bloody battles had been raging since July 1 and early hopes of a British breakthrough had been long forgotten.
Now the struggle was simply one of attrition, both sides sacrificing tens of thousands of men in the Somme mud for little gain.
However, the battle began relatively well for the New Zealanders.
The Otago Battalion led the advance on the village of Flers on September 15, 1916, making solid gains of ground, although at terrible cost.
Young Turtle Reynolds was one of the Dunedin men killed on that first day.
Long after receiving the official Defence Department notification of his death, Turtle’s mother had the unusual consolation of a letter from a platoon-mate describing the details of his death.
Perhaps not so consoling: his throat had been ripped open by shrapnel and Turtle bled to death with his comrades helpless to save him.
Turtle’s body was lost on the battlefield and has no known grave.
His parents, however, received the customary commemorative medallion and service certificate in 1923.
Both are on display, along with the letters, in Toitu’s Call to Arms Somme campaign display.
- Sean Brosnahan is a curator at Toitu Otago Settlers Museum.
