BARBER, Ernest Henry
Born 5 December 1897; died 8 November 1918; buried 19 November 1918; age 21
Regimental number 75426
Two days after turning 20, Invercargill teacher Ernest BARBER enlisted as a volunteer to serve in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Expressing a preference for ambulance work, he was posted to the NZ Medical Corps at Awapuni, near Palmerston North. He was still there when he contracted influenza and died.
It could have been very different, however: he was meant to have sailed from New Zealand to the Middle East on a hospital ship 5 months earlier, but for some reason he did not do so. Then, after he fell victim to the deadly influenza virus, his body was mislaid when it was meant to have been sent home to Invercargill. When eventually found, it was interred at Karori Cemetery in Wellington.
Ernest’s parents were born in England. His father, Joseph John Thomas Drew Barber (usually called John, perhaps to avoid confusion with his father who had the same name) was born in Gloucestershire in 1861. At the time of his marriage in Derby, John was described in the parish register as a railway porter. Ernest’s mother, Edith May SHAW, was also born in 1861 in the same county.
John and Edith married in Derby in 1883 when they were 21 and their first child, also named Edith, was born in New Zealand, in Winton, Southland in the following year. Ernest was their second child but was not born until 13 years after his sister, in December 1897. He was followed by two younger sisters, Elizabeth (who died at 2) and Nora. By then the parents were well-settled in Southland, farming at Waikiwi on the outskirts of Invercargill.
Ernest must have done well at school because after primary school he moved to Southland Boys High School where he was enrolled from 1912 to 1915. At the end of his final year, he sat the Public Service Entrance Examination and passed ‘with credit’, meaning that he scored better than 60%. He was ranked number 138 of the total of over 1500 successful candidates. This success qualified him for entry to the public service and he began working as a teacher employed by the Southland Education Board. More study and more examinations followed, and he was listed as successful in the examinations for teachers’ certificates in March 1917 and again in March 1918.
By then, however, his mind was elsewhere, having already volunteered to serve in the NZEF back in December. His chance came when the 40th Reinforcements were being brought together. On 1 April 1918, the Mayor of Invercargill, John Stead, addressed the city’s quota for the next Reinforcements, Ernest among them. Under the jaunty headline, Off To Camp, the Southland Times on 2 April 1918 commented on the number of young men included in the contingent and that the Mayor had used the right word when he referred to them as ‘boys’. The Mayor went on to express his concerns about the conduct of the war. He ended his speech by observing:
England did not seem to have the outstanding military leaders of bygone days, but ‘every man carries a field marshal’s baton in his haversack’, and if all those before him did not come home with decorations it was not because they were not worth it.
Ernest was sent to the New Zealand Medical Corps base at Awapuni to begin his training for ambulance work. A reference on his file shows that he was to be transferred to the hospital ship Maheno on its 5th Charter, which began on 7 July 1918. On that day, the ship sailed from Otago for Australia and then the Middle East, but Ernest was not on board and does not appear in the crew list. It is not clear why he did not join the Maheno before it sailed or why he remained at Awapuni from his arrival in April until he caught influenza early in November. His medical case sheet records that he was admitted to the hospital on 2 November, suffering from fever, headache, and pains in the back and limbs. His temperature was over 101 and his pulse rate 102. The diagnosis was influenza. He was treated with regular sponging and aspirin. His condition briefly improved on the following day, but then it worsened until he died 6 days after being admitted.
A letter held by the Imperial War Museum in London (i) sheds light on what happened next. The letter, written in 1972, is from Alfred Hollows, a member of the NZ Medical Corps at Awapuni during the early stages of the epidemic, recalling his experiences then. He wrote:
One of the first deaths in Awapuni Camp was our bugler (Barber I think his name was) and I was on guard at the Main Gates the night his body was taken away by the local undertakers. We stood to attention as the cortege passed. About 2 years later I was staying in Invercargill and a friend of my landlady mentioned her son had died during the epidemic: she was Mrs Barber. I told her I had been with the guard and had accorded him military honours as he passed through. Imagine my amazement when she told me she did not know where her son lies. The undertaker says the body was conveyed to the ferry for shipment to Invercargill but got lost somewhere.
Whatever the explanation for the coffin being mislaid, the burial took place 11 days after Ernest had died. This was unusual: during the epidemic, most burials occurred within 24 hours of death. Ernest’s body was eventually taken to Karori Cemetery and buried in Plot 26C in the Soldier’s Section.
One year after his death, Ernest was remembered in two poems printed in the Southland Times on 8 November 1919, under the heading ‘For the Empire’s Cause’, inserted by members of his family. There was no mention of influenza. Part of one read:
He needed no recruiting speeches,
He answered his country’s call,
He was one of the boys that was willing
He cried, I’ll come, and gave up all –
His friends, his home, his life.
Born 5 December 1897; died 8 November 1918; buried 19 November 1918; age 21
Regimental number 75426
Two days after turning 20, Invercargill teacher Ernest BARBER enlisted as a volunteer to serve in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Expressing a preference for ambulance work, he was posted to the NZ Medical Corps at Awapuni, near Palmerston North. He was still there when he contracted influenza and died.
It could have been very different, however: he was meant to have sailed from New Zealand to the Middle East on a hospital ship 5 months earlier, but for some reason he did not do so. Then, after he fell victim to the deadly influenza virus, his body was mislaid when it was meant to have been sent home to Invercargill. When eventually found, it was interred at Karori Cemetery in Wellington.
Ernest’s parents were born in England. His father, Joseph John Thomas Drew Barber (usually called John, perhaps to avoid confusion with his father who had the same name) was born in Gloucestershire in 1861. At the time of his marriage in Derby, John was described in the parish register as a railway porter. Ernest’s mother, Edith May SHAW, was also born in 1861 in the same county.
John and Edith married in Derby in 1883 when they were 21 and their first child, also named Edith, was born in New Zealand, in Winton, Southland in the following year. Ernest was their second child but was not born until 13 years after his sister, in December 1897. He was followed by two younger sisters, Elizabeth (who died at 2) and Nora. By then the parents were well-settled in Southland, farming at Waikiwi on the outskirts of Invercargill.
Ernest must have done well at school because after primary school he moved to Southland Boys High School where he was enrolled from 1912 to 1915. At the end of his final year, he sat the Public Service Entrance Examination and passed ‘with credit’, meaning that he scored better than 60%. He was ranked number 138 of the total of over 1500 successful candidates. This success qualified him for entry to the public service and he began working as a teacher employed by the Southland Education Board. More study and more examinations followed, and he was listed as successful in the examinations for teachers’ certificates in March 1917 and again in March 1918.
By then, however, his mind was elsewhere, having already volunteered to serve in the NZEF back in December. His chance came when the 40th Reinforcements were being brought together. On 1 April 1918, the Mayor of Invercargill, John Stead, addressed the city’s quota for the next Reinforcements, Ernest among them. Under the jaunty headline, Off To Camp, the Southland Times on 2 April 1918 commented on the number of young men included in the contingent and that the Mayor had used the right word when he referred to them as ‘boys’. The Mayor went on to express his concerns about the conduct of the war. He ended his speech by observing:
England did not seem to have the outstanding military leaders of bygone days, but ‘every man carries a field marshal’s baton in his haversack’, and if all those before him did not come home with decorations it was not because they were not worth it.
Ernest was sent to the New Zealand Medical Corps base at Awapuni to begin his training for ambulance work. A reference on his file shows that he was to be transferred to the hospital ship Maheno on its 5th Charter, which began on 7 July 1918. On that day, the ship sailed from Otago for Australia and then the Middle East, but Ernest was not on board and does not appear in the crew list. It is not clear why he did not join the Maheno before it sailed or why he remained at Awapuni from his arrival in April until he caught influenza early in November. His medical case sheet records that he was admitted to the hospital on 2 November, suffering from fever, headache, and pains in the back and limbs. His temperature was over 101 and his pulse rate 102. The diagnosis was influenza. He was treated with regular sponging and aspirin. His condition briefly improved on the following day, but then it worsened until he died 6 days after being admitted.
A letter held by the Imperial War Museum in London (i) sheds light on what happened next. The letter, written in 1972, is from Alfred Hollows, a member of the NZ Medical Corps at Awapuni during the early stages of the epidemic, recalling his experiences then. He wrote:
One of the first deaths in Awapuni Camp was our bugler (Barber I think his name was) and I was on guard at the Main Gates the night his body was taken away by the local undertakers. We stood to attention as the cortege passed. About 2 years later I was staying in Invercargill and a friend of my landlady mentioned her son had died during the epidemic: she was Mrs Barber. I told her I had been with the guard and had accorded him military honours as he passed through. Imagine my amazement when she told me she did not know where her son lies. The undertaker says the body was conveyed to the ferry for shipment to Invercargill but got lost somewhere.
Whatever the explanation for the coffin being mislaid, the burial took place 11 days after Ernest had died. This was unusual: during the epidemic, most burials occurred within 24 hours of death. Ernest’s body was eventually taken to Karori Cemetery and buried in Plot 26C in the Soldier’s Section.
One year after his death, Ernest was remembered in two poems printed in the Southland Times on 8 November 1919, under the heading ‘For the Empire’s Cause’, inserted by members of his family. There was no mention of influenza. Part of one read:
He needed no recruiting speeches,
He answered his country’s call,
He was one of the boys that was willing
He cried, I’ll come, and gave up all –
His friends, his home, his life.
Researched and written by Max Kerr
Grave Information:
Section: SOLDIERS
Plot: 26 C
(i) Extract from letter from Alfred Hollows courtesy Imperial War Museum (London) Collier letters IWM 63/5/6.