A letter from Gallipoli

Additional text 4 June 2025

Too late for this year’s Anzac Day, I know, but I felt this was more than worth the post. 

Today a friend gave me a photographed copy of an issue of the very rare The News, Arthur Morrish’s Avondale local paper, and effectively the first West Auckland paper produced. It dates from 28 August 1915, and on one of the pages was printed a column “Our Boys at the Front.” The following was from a letter written by Sgt. Leslie Rotorua Darrow.

Another interesting letter has come to hand from Roto Darrow dated June 24th. He says:

“Things are very quiet here at present, and here we are not adopting a progressive policy at all for the time being, but merely keeping the Turks up this end busy while the offensive goes on down below. Whe(n) they get them on the run down there, we will have our share again.

“I had a very interesting trip round one of our posts, which is nearest the enemy’s lines. At one place we are within five feet of Turkish trenches and consequently had to keep our mouths shut. If they hear any talking at all, a bomb is the result. At this particular post all the trenches are very close, the distances ranging from five feet to forty yards. When we first took over these trenches you could not put a periscope or rifle up for a second without it being shot at, but now you can keep them up for hours. I think at first they had superiority over us in bomb throwing, but now I think we have them beaten. One kind of our trench mortars in particular is very deadly, and the Turks used to bolt when they heard the bomb coming down, yelling “Allah!”

“We had rather a lively time the other day. The Turks landed a number of 8-inch cannon shells round the Brigade headquarters. While about half a dozen of us were examining a piece of one, another came along and landed about six feet away from us. We couldn’t flop down on the ground quickly enough. Luckily they were very old shells (I heard they were English shells bearing the date 1897) and consequently do not have a high explosive.

“It is getting very hot here now and the flies have become unbearable. I thought they got pretty bad in Avondale at times, but here they almost stop you eating your meals. You can’t lie down during the day time for they pester the life out of you.”

Leslie Rotorua “Roto” Darrow was born in 1893. His next of kin, according to the Cenotaph database at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, was his brother Harry Alexander Darrow,headmaster at the time of Avondale School; Roto Darrow enlisted in 1914 at the school. He embarked 16 October 1914, headed for Suez and Egypt, and then on to Gallipoli. His last unit was the Headquarters of the New Zealand Infantry Brigade.

He was killed in action 10 August 1915, aged 22. The folks back home at Avondale, reading his letter in The News, would have had no idea that he had died two and a half weeks earlier.

 Memorial plaque at St Judes Church, Avondale

(Additional: 4 June 2025)

Quite by chance, his great great niece Jo Darrow has contacted me via Facebook Messenger today, advising that she had found another of his letters home, this one published in the King Country Chronicle, dated 24 July 1915.

"The following letter has been received from Sergeant L R Darrow, brother of Mr F B Darrow, of Te Kuiti. As will be seen by the letter the writer has been in the thick of the fighting since the landing on April 25th, and the letter conveys news of keen interest to New Zealanders generally:

"As predicted in my last before leaving Egypt, we were not long in getting into it after leaving our old camp. By jove, things have changed since then. We commenced our real active service on April 25th, the Auckland and Canterbury Battalions landing in the morning and Headquarters Brigade in the afternoon. Every boatload going ashore was subjected to shell and rifle fire. Luckily, we lost no one in oar boat, but as you can easily imagine, those who landed first suffered severely. The landing of Brigade Headquarters on shore was greeted by about half-a-dozen bursts of shrapnel from our friend the enemy. We then moved up the hill to where our battalions were holding the position, and a few moments after our arrival on top a perfect hail of shrapnel rained all round us for almost fifteen minutes. The only casualty to our little lot was one sergeant badly wounded. It was almost the worst quarter of an hour I ever put in, and I wished myself anwhere than where 1 was. Since then, however, I have got more used to shrapnel and bullets.

"We spent most of that evening and night digging ourselves in, as we expected another attack in the morning. It started at 6 a.m. punctually, but was soon silenced by a few of Queen Elizabeth's 15in shells. We had a couple of exciting days on this ridge, and then we shifted across a big gully to another one. A lot of our troops got a bad "dusting-up" at this ridge, but it was on the first day that the Auckland Battalion lost so heavily. We remained on the last ridge for almost a week, until relieved by another Brigade. During that time we had plenty of excitement as our ridge, like all other places, was frequently shelled by the Turks. During our stay there we lost our Staff-Captain Morton, who, by the way, said you used to teach him at Devonport. We were all very sorry to lose him.

"About May 6th we shifted down the coast to fresh fields to assist in the bigger attack. On arrival we had one day's spell and then we went into the trenches again. On the 8th a very big attack and bayonet charge by us resulted in our gaining a lot of ground, but the loss of many men. The New Zealanders have indeed made a name for themselves, but the casualty lists will shock little New Zealand. I am afraid at our last trench we had a pretty perilous stay. We were there almost a week, and it appears with snipers—who have done deadly work—all around us. The bullets continually whizzed all round us, and to get out of the trenches was looking for trouble. Although we were all continually dodging about, only one of our men was hit. It is a marvel not more were caught. I have had exceptionally good luck so far, and only trust it will stick to me.

"Fred also is quite well and up to the present unscathed. We see plenty of each other in fact, spend a good deal of our time together. We were relieved in our last trenches by another Brigade and we are now back in reserve and having a good time and a rest. We have been here for nearly four days, but I suppose will be back into it again in a day or two now.

"Since our landing we have been favoured by exceptionally good weather, with two exceptions. The night we left our last trenches it rained liked the devil, and we had a very miserable time and slept in the mud and rain; but we were all so tired we didn't mind. We looked pretty sights the next day, but the sun came out and it has been very hot ever since.

"The first Week was very trying as I never had any of my clothes off all the time, night or day, but when things quietened a little Fred and I went down to the beach and had a most enjoyable swim and sun bath and air our dirty clothes. Since then we have been able to have a swim and wash our clothes, and I have procured a change of underclothes, so now am pretty well set up. We have gained praise right down the line from the King and Kitchener downwards, so we have all reason to feel proud of ourselves.

I have lost quite a number of my old friends, and the poor old Auckland Battalion has lost heavily. Don Lane, from Avondale, was killed the first day. Roy Lambert, the great footballer, was a great friend of mine and a splendid chap, was also killed. Walter Grierson, from Epsom, also was killed, and Bob Frater, son of Robert Frater, an old school chum of mine.

"Sergt -Major Mooney has been promoted to Lieutenant and is now Adjutant in place of Captain Price, who was recently wounded. Major (previously Captain) Aldersman who was, you remember, my boss after we lost Captain Hawkins, has lost an arm and Colonel Plugge who quite distinguished himself, has been wounded several times. But you will hear of these casualties long before this letter reaches you. Poor old Lieut. Morgan, of New Lynn, was killed outright. In addition to foregoing came a PC bearing date May 30th, 1915. It was written on a piece of a cardboard box, cut at shape and size of a PC. In it he says there is nothing fresh to report except that he has again shifted camp back to the old place.

"The Turks attack heavily whenever they get reinforcements, but always come out second best. Their casualties to date have been enormous 55,000 being a low estimate. Pretty good for a month's fighting."