April 25, 2025 • 9 mins
Kevin Milne has been doing some research into his family history recently – notably the deaths of three of his uncles.
All three were soldiers in the First World War, and Kevin was surprised how much research already exists into the lives of New Zealand’s fallen soldiers.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks, that'd.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Be seventeen minutes past nine. Jack, wait till your kids
start playing sport and have other activities and need to
be in separate places, says Brendan. That may be so, Brendan,
in the future, we may need two cars, but we've
already saved money as well as plenty of other things
over the last two years and just having one. So
look in five or six years time, you could be
one hundred percent right. And maybe that's my point. Maybe
(00:35):
there are kind of times in our life we're actually
moving to a one car household is convenient, Diana, says Jack.
Can you catch an uber or a taxi with a
baby and small child and no car seat? That's probably
the problem with young families in one car. Yep, Diana,
we can't do that. So that's where we have to coordinate.
If Mather or I need to take the baby somewhere,
then we know that they've got to take the car
(00:57):
and that the other person will have to be on
a bike and prefer or taking an uber or catching
the bus something like that. And Warwick's is Jack, you're
risk it all riding a bike risking health. Yeah, it's funny. Why,
I mean, I've been I've been riding my bike basically
all my life. I love riding my bike, honestly, I
just love it, especially when you live centrally. I swear
(01:17):
and rush out it's faster. But I also get that
it's not for everyone. So when Marvel was pregnant, for example,
I didn't love the idea of her riding her bike,
especially with kibi drivers. And you know the same as
now that we have a little baby, we're not putting
that little baby on the bike in Central Auckland. Although
look there are other people who do that, and you
do you ninety ninety two if you want to send
us a message this morning Jacket News dot co dot
(01:39):
m Z. Kevin Milne is with us now Galvi and Kevin.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Good A Jack.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Well, I think we've just gone from two cars to
three actually because our daughter Tom yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, she's.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Just for her own car. So and then we've got it.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
I don't think we could get by just yet, just
as as a couple with without having two cars, no London,
my wife goes to work and and I'm at home.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
You wouldn't want to be an homal day without a car.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
No, that's fair enough. Could you And when you're traveling
around at home, do you are you like, are you
going far from home during the day?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
No? Not really No, So could.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
You theoretically could you like, could you bust to those places?
Could you ride a bike?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah, as I could bus? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I mean, look, it's not it's not for everyone. I'm
not I'm not saying everyone has to do this. I
just reckon we sometimes maybe fall into a trap, you know,
where you just kind of think that you sort of
have that you have to have a two car household,
and actually if you step back sometimes and look at
it kind of critically and even do the sums, like,
you know, we were spending like at least fifteen hundred
(02:48):
bucks on car insurance plus petrol plus parking for a
second car, plus of course the cost of the car
in the first place, And if you just think, well, actually,
does that make sense?
Speaker 3 (02:59):
You know? Yes, Anyway, it's not, like I.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Said, not not for everyone necessarily, And maybe there'll be
years in the future given where you go from either
four of from three to one.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Now I'd like to work towards us having won Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, I was worth considering it at the very least,
given you've been surprised by how much research has been
done on New Zealanders killing are killed in the First
World or in the Two World Wars.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Yeah, I've been finding out more about the death of
three of my uncles, all of them were brothers in
the First World War. What surprised me is how much
of that work's already been done by researchers with no
connection to these men. All I had to do was
google the names of my uncles, for example, Lawrence Donna Hue,
(03:43):
New Zealand soldier World War One, and up came Page's mation.
I'd never known about his time in the war. There
are the obvious sources, such as the Auckland War Memorial
Museum site, the New Zealand War Graves Project, and the
Waouru Military Museum site. But Google also pointed me in
(04:03):
the direction of a facebox site called the Ads of
the New Zealand Division nineteen fourteen to eighteen. It appears
to have been compiled by a couple of kiwis, Jason
Sinclair and Josh Scudden. A key participated though, is a
Belgian Frank Mayhew he's devoted much of his life getting
(04:23):
information back to New Zealanders about their family members who
died on Belgian soil or nearby. So on the lads
of the New Zealand Division site, I found out much
more about my uncles who fought and died in Passiondale
and Eprah or nearby battles to those areas. And there
(04:45):
are maps showing where the soldiers met their death, whether
they were on the front line or not. Maps of
the ambulance camps where they were treated treated behind the lines,
and photos of where they're buried, even their height and
health as they were being trained, and camps back in
New Zealand, and the strips fatures of the ships that
(05:07):
took them to war. So a bouquet this morning to
these wonderful researchers who find out so much about the
lives of our fallen soldiers. And I encourage listeners to
give it a crack. It just starts with keying the
full name of the vision you want to know about
and their war. Just key that into Google in your way.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah, it's amazing some of the some of the and
it's often led by kind of amateur historians as well,
and people who aren't you know, they're doing it as
a passion project rather than any financial gain or anything
like that. But it is remarkable some of the efforts
that people have gone to just to find out more
about the service and stories of you know, of New
Zealanders and other soldiers who fought in those in those
(05:54):
world wars. It really is incredible the kind of wealth
of information that we have accessible to us courtesy of
the Internet as well. Right in the past, you might
have had to go to a library or you might
have had to do that stuff yourself with you know,
physical copies of documents, but now so much of that
has been uploaded online.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
And of course the one thing they don't know really
who are the living relatives of the people that were
their research. Yeah, so you've got to kind of make
the first step and go onto their site and say, Hi,
what can you can I'm looking into the history of
Lawrence Donhue for example, of Mike as.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
What can you tell me? Or can you tell me
any more? They'll send you a missed backs right away.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, yeah, special, isn't it. So how do you find
when you know, when you come across those records for
your relatives do you feel like, do you feel a
kind of you know, I don't know what it is.
They're like a kind of connection this you have some
sort of emotional response when you're finding out those little
bits of information, you do.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Absolutely, these three guys in the one family, I knew
their sisters. They were like all grandmothers to me. Yeah,
they were. They were very close. A lot of them
didn't marry. I suppose there was a shortage of men
around at the time, but to think that, and they
were wonderfully close to me when I was a kid.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Yeah, and so yeah, it is. It is very special.
And I still would like to go over there and
see their graves. Almost feel like to them.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
You should, Kevin do it.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Yeah, yeah, go on, make it.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Happen this time next year. You know that put some
plans in place. I think, I think, I say, it'd
be a special thing to do. I did one, you
know one time. I remember, I'm a fan of them
going down a rabbit hole here, but I'm I'm I.
I had some interest in the New Zealand author John Mulgan.
You know, he wrote Men and I when I was
in I went to Egypt years ago by myself kind
(07:52):
of on a wee holiday, and you know, it was
sort of like under martial law at the time, so
it was kind of an interesting time to be in Egypt.
But I remember I went and tracked down his grave
in Cairo, kind of in this in this you know,
kiro chaotic, dirty, kind of crazy city. And then you
know it's one of those cities, in one of those
places like many in North Africa and Europe that you
(08:14):
know you can you can go, you know, travel to
a place that has this incredible collection of graves and
of commonwealth graves as they were in Egypt. And so
I traveled out to the suburbs and had to look
at his grave, and I remember it just you know,
it's not someone I'm related to, not someone I have
any real personal connection to, except for the fact that
I'd read his books. I found it really moving to
(08:35):
go and find his grave there was it was a
special experience. So yeah, you to do it. He even
make it happen. Yes, yeah, very good. All right, have
a great weekend. We will catch you again soon. Kevin
Milne with us this morning.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Jack.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
A car is freedom, It's freedom to move, So cut
the b s, says Radu yeah, well Rada. Again, I'm
not saying you have to lose your car. A bike
is also freedom to move. Jack, what about rural ubers.
This is my point, as I said, having a one
car household isn't going to see everyone a lot easier
catching ubers when you live in a city. Again, not
for everyone, Jack says, Gilly. Living in a city is
(09:10):
so much easier when you've just got the one car
as opposed to we lived in Wellington for ten years.
We had the buses and trains that we could catch.
I'm and blend them. Now we're close to town so
I walk bike or my husband bikes where possible. We
still keep two cars though, because there's no public transport
and no ubers, which make it tricky when appointments clash. Yeah,
that's fair enough to Gilly. Thank you for your messages
(09:31):
ninety two ninety two if you want to send us one.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks' b from nine Am, saturday or follow
the podcast On iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks, that'd.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Be seventeen minutes past nine. Jack, wait till your kids
start playing sport and have other activities and need to
be in separate places, says Brendan. That may be so, Brendan,
in the future, we may need two cars, but we've
already saved money as well as plenty of other things
over the last two years and just having one. So
look in five or six years time, you could be
one hundred percent right. And maybe that's my point. Maybe
(00:35):
there are kind of times in our life we're actually
moving to a one car household is convenient, Diana, says Jack.
Can you catch an uber or a taxi with a
baby and small child and no car seat? That's probably
the problem with young families in one car. Yep, Diana,
we can't do that. So that's where we have to coordinate.
If Mather or I need to take the baby somewhere,
then we know that they've got to take the car
(00:57):
and that the other person will have to be on
a bike and prefer or taking an uber or catching
the bus something like that. And Warwick's is Jack, you're
risk it all riding a bike risking health. Yeah, it's funny. Why,
I mean, I've been I've been riding my bike basically
all my life. I love riding my bike, honestly, I
just love it, especially when you live centrally. I swear
(01:17):
and rush out it's faster. But I also get that
it's not for everyone. So when Marvel was pregnant, for example,
I didn't love the idea of her riding her bike,
especially with kibi drivers. And you know the same as
now that we have a little baby, we're not putting
that little baby on the bike in Central Auckland. Although
look there are other people who do that, and you
do you ninety ninety two if you want to send
us a message this morning Jacket News dot co dot
(01:39):
m Z. Kevin Milne is with us now Galvi and Kevin.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Good A Jack.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Well, I think we've just gone from two cars to
three actually because our daughter Tom yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, she's.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Just for her own car. So and then we've got it.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
I don't think we could get by just yet, just
as as a couple with without having two cars, no London,
my wife goes to work and and I'm at home.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
You wouldn't want to be an homal day without a car.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
No, that's fair enough. Could you And when you're traveling
around at home, do you are you like, are you
going far from home during the day?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
No? Not really No, So could.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
You theoretically could you like, could you bust to those places?
Could you ride a bike?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah, as I could bus? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I mean, look, it's not it's not for everyone. I'm
not I'm not saying everyone has to do this. I
just reckon we sometimes maybe fall into a trap, you know,
where you just kind of think that you sort of
have that you have to have a two car household,
and actually if you step back sometimes and look at
it kind of critically and even do the sums, like,
you know, we were spending like at least fifteen hundred
(02:48):
bucks on car insurance plus petrol plus parking for a
second car, plus of course the cost of the car
in the first place, And if you just think, well, actually,
does that make sense?
Speaker 3 (02:59):
You know? Yes, Anyway, it's not, like I.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Said, not not for everyone necessarily, And maybe there'll be
years in the future given where you go from either
four of from three to one.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Now I'd like to work towards us having won Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, I was worth considering it at the very least,
given you've been surprised by how much research has been
done on New Zealanders killing are killed in the First
World or in the Two World Wars.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Yeah, I've been finding out more about the death of
three of my uncles, all of them were brothers in
the First World War. What surprised me is how much
of that work's already been done by researchers with no
connection to these men. All I had to do was
google the names of my uncles, for example, Lawrence Donna Hue,
(03:43):
New Zealand soldier World War One, and up came Page's mation.
I'd never known about his time in the war. There
are the obvious sources, such as the Auckland War Memorial
Museum site, the New Zealand War Graves Project, and the
Waouru Military Museum site. But Google also pointed me in
(04:03):
the direction of a facebox site called the Ads of
the New Zealand Division nineteen fourteen to eighteen. It appears
to have been compiled by a couple of kiwis, Jason
Sinclair and Josh Scudden. A key participated though, is a
Belgian Frank Mayhew he's devoted much of his life getting
(04:23):
information back to New Zealanders about their family members who
died on Belgian soil or nearby. So on the lads
of the New Zealand Division site, I found out much
more about my uncles who fought and died in Passiondale
and Eprah or nearby battles to those areas. And there
(04:45):
are maps showing where the soldiers met their death, whether
they were on the front line or not. Maps of
the ambulance camps where they were treated treated behind the lines,
and photos of where they're buried, even their height and
health as they were being trained, and camps back in
New Zealand, and the strips fatures of the ships that
(05:07):
took them to war. So a bouquet this morning to
these wonderful researchers who find out so much about the
lives of our fallen soldiers. And I encourage listeners to
give it a crack. It just starts with keying the
full name of the vision you want to know about
and their war. Just key that into Google in your way.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah, it's amazing some of the some of the and
it's often led by kind of amateur historians as well,
and people who aren't you know, they're doing it as
a passion project rather than any financial gain or anything
like that. But it is remarkable some of the efforts
that people have gone to just to find out more
about the service and stories of you know, of New
Zealanders and other soldiers who fought in those in those
(05:54):
world wars. It really is incredible the kind of wealth
of information that we have accessible to us courtesy of
the Internet as well. Right in the past, you might
have had to go to a library or you might
have had to do that stuff yourself with you know,
physical copies of documents, but now so much of that
has been uploaded online.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
And of course the one thing they don't know really
who are the living relatives of the people that were
their research. Yeah, so you've got to kind of make
the first step and go onto their site and say, Hi,
what can you can I'm looking into the history of
Lawrence Donhue for example, of Mike as.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
What can you tell me? Or can you tell me
any more? They'll send you a missed backs right away.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, yeah, special, isn't it. So how do you find
when you know, when you come across those records for
your relatives do you feel like, do you feel a
kind of you know, I don't know what it is.
They're like a kind of connection this you have some
sort of emotional response when you're finding out those little
bits of information, you do.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Absolutely, these three guys in the one family, I knew
their sisters. They were like all grandmothers to me. Yeah,
they were. They were very close. A lot of them
didn't marry. I suppose there was a shortage of men
around at the time, but to think that, and they
were wonderfully close to me when I was a kid.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Yeah, and so yeah, it is. It is very special.
And I still would like to go over there and
see their graves. Almost feel like to them.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
You should, Kevin do it.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Yeah, yeah, go on, make it.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Happen this time next year. You know that put some
plans in place. I think, I think, I say, it'd
be a special thing to do. I did one, you
know one time. I remember, I'm a fan of them
going down a rabbit hole here, but I'm I'm I.
I had some interest in the New Zealand author John Mulgan.
You know, he wrote Men and I when I was
in I went to Egypt years ago by myself kind
(07:52):
of on a wee holiday, and you know, it was
sort of like under martial law at the time, so
it was kind of an interesting time to be in Egypt.
But I remember I went and tracked down his grave
in Cairo, kind of in this in this you know,
kiro chaotic, dirty, kind of crazy city. And then you
know it's one of those cities, in one of those
places like many in North Africa and Europe that you
(08:14):
know you can you can go, you know, travel to
a place that has this incredible collection of graves and
of commonwealth graves as they were in Egypt. And so
I traveled out to the suburbs and had to look
at his grave, and I remember it just you know,
it's not someone I'm related to, not someone I have
any real personal connection to, except for the fact that
I'd read his books. I found it really moving to
(08:35):
go and find his grave there was it was a
special experience. So yeah, you to do it. He even
make it happen. Yes, yeah, very good. All right, have
a great weekend. We will catch you again soon. Kevin
Milne with us this morning.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Jack.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
A car is freedom, It's freedom to move, So cut
the b s, says Radu yeah, well Rada. Again, I'm
not saying you have to lose your car. A bike
is also freedom to move. Jack, what about rural ubers.
This is my point, as I said, having a one
car household isn't going to see everyone a lot easier
catching ubers when you live in a city. Again, not
for everyone, Jack says, Gilly. Living in a city is
(09:10):
so much easier when you've just got the one car
as opposed to we lived in Wellington for ten years.
We had the buses and trains that we could catch.
I'm and blend them. Now we're close to town so
I walk bike or my husband bikes where possible. We
still keep two cars though, because there's no public transport
and no ubers, which make it tricky when appointments clash. Yeah,
that's fair enough to Gilly. Thank you for your messages
(09:31):
ninety two ninety two if you want to send us one.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks' b from nine Am, saturday or follow
the podcast On iHeartRadio
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