“We cheered lustily – and then we wept”: The First Gallipoli Wounded Return to Wellington
– By Sarah Johnston (Client Services Coordinator – Radio, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision)
On the 15th of July 1915, the transport ship Willochra brought back to Wellington the first group of men who had been wounded in the Gallipoli campaign. News of men who had been killed or wounded had been in the local newspapers since mid-May, but it was not until the men arrived home that the realities of the war really reached New Zealand.
Thousands of people gathered at the wharf to greet the ship and despite the trauma and injuries the men had suffered, the government had decided a triumphant welcome should be prepared, with a procession through Wellington’s streets and a reception for them in the Town Hall.
A 1981 recording in the Sound Collection of Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision recalls the impact the sight of the wounded, traumatized men had on the citizens who were there.
In it, educator Jack Shallcrass interviews Max Riske, a fellow Wellington teacher and lecturer, who was taken as a young boy by his mother to see the men and attended the Town Hall reception. Sixty years later, he vividly recalls how the experience changed opinions about the war for him and many other Wellingtonians.
Listen here:
