The toll on families and communities
Almost 60% of the 100,000 New Zealanders who went to war became casualties. More than 18,000 died of wounds or disease – 12,483 of them in France and Belgium. From a population of little more than a million people in 1914, this meant that about one in four New Zealand men between the ages of 20 and 45 was either killed or wounded. The impact of war, though, reached far beyond the individuals involved; most New Zealand families, communities, workplaces, schools and clubs were affected in a very direct way.
Wellington College
