Arthur James Morshead

Links:

• Cenotaph Record
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission Record
• New Zealand War Graves Project
• Reference Papers Past - Taranaki Herald 31 Aug 1915 Some very interesting letters have been received by their people here from Trooper AJ Morshead and Private HB Morshead of the NZ expeditionary Forces. With the Mounted Men Writing from Sidi Bishi camp Alexandria on July 2nd , Trooper Arthur Morshead, who left with the mounteds in the 3rd reinforcements says: I would have written before, only the censorship has been so strict that one could write practically nothing. I am attached to the divisional headquarters A.S.C at present, driving a wagon. I went over to the Dardanelles with them, but was only there a short time, owing to not being able to land our horses. Yesterday I applied for an exchange with another chap, and expect to be leaving for the front again in a few days. The exchange is nearly sure to be passed, as the fellow is a convalescent wounded man, and would not be able to get to the front again for some time, due to bad nerves. It is still pretty hot over there, and we are still losing a lot of men, though the Turks are losing much more heavily. Some 10 days or so ago, the Turks made night attack on the trenches held by the Australian and NZ division, but they were repulsed, and in the morning they found 3 thousand Turks literally piled up in heaps. It is hard to credit it, but I know that is correct. A Dr on the boat told me he counted 500 in one heap and then gave up as too big a job, and that was just on the small front occupied by our boys and the Australians, although the Tommie's and French don't seem to get them like the colonials. Our officers make us hold fire until they are within 300 yards, and then rapid fire, and we seem to mow them down. Nearly every time they attack a difficult position on our side of the peninsula, they put the NZ & Aust division in front to load the charge. That is why our casualties are so heavy. Even the home regulars wont face the terrific fire like our men do. Our mounted brigade has been out there about five weeks in the trenches as infantry, and up to a few days ago, one third of them had been killed or wounded, and they have had another big scrap since then, so you can see it's no picnic there and they can hardly call us "chocolate soldiers" or "Massey's Tourists" now. By chance I met Horace on Alexandria wharf when he came back wounded. He got a shrapnel bullet in his right arm above the elbow, the bone was broken and an artery cut. There were so many wounded coming back at the time, that he couldn't get medical attention, and it was nearly a week before he got it set and properly fixed up, and then the artery gave trouble, so he had a pretty bad time. I have not been able to get any news of him since. All I know is that he was sent to either England or Malta. I was jolly pleased to see him back even wounded as he was, as there was a terrible lot killed outright the first few days. He was in the firing line for a fortnight. It is very hot here in Egypt now, although not so bad here as it is in our Cairo camp where our mounted regiments horses are. My unit 3rd reinforcements mounted, with t he 4th reinforcements mounted are looking after them and are having a rather bad time. They have six or eight horses each to attend to and exercise. The 5th & 6th reinforcements are due any day. I don't like Egypt much, too much sand, your clothes and blankets are always full of it, also the tucker gets a fair share, and when out on parade in the desert, you swallow a big feed of it. Where they can get water on it, the sand seems to grow anything well. It turns into a soft sort of black loam and they crop it year after year, three or four crops each year without any manuring on it, and it seems just as good after 50 years cropping. The natives have a very crude method of farming. For a plough, they often have a limb of a tree trimmed into shape a bit, drawn by a pair of bullocks, or sometimes by a mule or donkey with a bullock or cow. The mil cows, young heifers and bulls all work here. There seems to be a lot of water within 20 feet of the surface anywhere, and out in the desert you find dozens of wells dotted about with a few acres of cultivation. The water is lifted by a sort of windlass ( bullock or mule power) which works on an endless chain of earthenware buckets that reached to the water. The buckets empty as they go over into a trough that runs water through small channels all over the cultivated area. There are some lovely residences around the towns, big stone buildings often covered by beautiful creeper that seem to be always in flowers, with large gardens nicely laid out, with flowering shrubs and flower beds underneath, a lot of the shrubs covered with creepers flowering, of which there seems to be a large variety of very beautiful ones, with often a nice fountain in the centre. the Sultan and his family have some lovely places, also the High Commissioner for Egypt. You could put in all day looking over the grounds to his palace and want to go back next day