On this day in 1916, Bro John French of Lodge Tawhiri No. 166 was killed in action on the Somme.
He was 24 years old.
John was born in Somerset, England, the son of Henry and Rhoda French. Before the war he worked as a labourer. By the time he enlisted in New Zealand, his brother was living at Okaeria, near Waerenga in the Waikato, and was recorded as his next of kin.
Freemasons New Zealand's record of members who served during the First World War lists John French, 23/2185, as a member of Lodge Tawhiri No. 166, Frankton. He was one of four Tawhiri Brethren recorded there as having died during the war.
John left Wellington on 1 April 1916 with the 5th Reinforcements to the 1st Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. By the time of his death he was serving as a Private with the 2nd Battalion, Otago Infantry Regiment.
On 1 October 1916, the Otago and Canterbury battalions of the New Zealand Division were again in action on the Somme, attacking strong German positions near Eaucourt l'Abbaye. The New Zealanders had already been fighting on the Somme for more than two weeks, and the final days of their campaign continued to exact a heavy toll.
It was during the fighting that day that Bro John French was killed in action.
His body was not recovered for an identified burial. He is commemorated on the Caterpillar Valley (New Zealand) Memorial at Longueval, France, among the New Zealand soldiers who died on the Somme and have no known grave.
Back in New Zealand, his death became one of the many brief entries appearing in casualty lists. In January 1917, the New Zealand Herald published John's name among the Roll of Honour, recording his brother at Okaeria, Waerenga, as his next of kin.
For Lodge Tawhiri, the losses of the war were closer than names printed in a newspaper.
The Lodge's history records that in September 1919 an emergency meeting was held to welcome returned soldiers home. During that evening, the Master announced that three trees were to be planted in Kowhai Memorial Park as a lasting memorial to Brethren who had fallen during the war. The surviving history does not identify the men represented by those individual trees.
More than a century later, John French's name remains part of the story of Lodge Tawhiri.
On 1 October, we remember our Brother.
Bro John French
23/2185
2nd Battalion, Otago Infantry Regiment, NZEF
Killed in action, 1 October 1916
Aged 24
Lest we forget.