Branches Book

BRANCHES

Conor Grice

I REMAIN: GLIMPSES OF THE LIFE OF MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER REGINALD STEVENS

A Boy from a Small Farm in a Small Town in a Small Country (1878-1915, Ashburton to Egypt)

Reginald Stevens’ tale begins in 1878, when his mother, Mary Jemima Stevens, was born in New Zealand to recent immigrants from Devonshire in England. Reggie was born eighteen years later in the small farming town of Ashburton in the middle of the South Island. Reggie was illegitimate and this brought great shame on the family, so he was raised by his grandparents as

one of their own children. In 1902, when he was four, his mother Mary was murdered mysteriously by way of poison, and the culprit was never found. Despite his tragic beginning, Reggie was a good student at school, but as was common, left when he was thirteen to work as a farm hand. On 15 August 1914, Reggie lied about his age and enlisted in the Great War, desperate to support the Empire. Reggie was only eighteen but his military records state he was “approximately 20 years”. He was five foot eight inches tall, had fair hair, blue eyes and was ten and a half stone. Reggie, like many teenagers from his small town, could not wait to do his duty on

foreign shores. Reggie left for Egypt on a troop ship with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force on 16 October 1914. He was one of 8,500 men and 3815

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