Image
Private Leonard Hart (back row, second from right) and mates at Trentham Camp, 1915.
A Railways Department clerk from Southland, Hart enlisted in February 1915 and sailed for Gallipoli in time to arrive for the slaughter at Chunuk Bair in early August. Struck down by enteritis, he was evacuated to Egypt to convalesce before being sent to the Western Front in May 1916.
In October 1917 he took part in the Passchendaele offensive, New Zealand's greatest military disaster. He wrote a remarkable letter to his parents about this experience.
Credit
Image: Roger Hart Collection. Information from Jock Phillips and Nicholas Boyack (eds), The great adventure, New Zealand soldiers describe the First World War, Allen and Unwin, Wellington, 1998
