Video Production - New Zealand: Documentary & TV - Nixon Pictures All Blacks & WWI Project

    obert 'Bobby' Black is another young man who proves to be rather difficult in uncovering his past. He was born in the small town of Arrowtown near Queenstown in the South Island of NZ and seems to have moved to Dunedin where we know he attended Otago Boy's High. No doubt Robert played rugby for the school before heading off into the workforce as a Bank Clerk for the Bank of New South Wales.
     After he finished school he played for the Dunedin Pirates club based at Carisbrook Park and in 1911, made the first of his 12 appearances for Otago - the same year the famous Dunedin Railway Station was built. His speed and quick acceleration made him an asset as a first five eighths. Two top performances for the South Island in 1912 and 1914 (he emerged as a speedy first-five from the Pirates Club) won him a place for the All
Blacks' tour of Australia in 1914. After the All Blacks tour he joined the Buller White Star Rugby Club, which was founded in 1898.
     Strong trial form saw him win selection on the 1914 All Black tour of Australia, where he played six games, including the only test being the 22nd test match for the All Blacks and the last test between NZ and Australia before the war broke out which then ended what seemed a very promising rugby career for Robert. The captain for the 1914 tour was Richard Roberts who joined Black in the Great War. Roberts survived however and went on to captain the 1921 Taranaki team that famously kept the touring South African team to a scoreless draw.
     Robert played in six of the matches on tour including the first test and scored three tries. But by the time the side had returned war had broken out and after his early enlistment, he had the chance to reappear in first class rugby briefly in 1915 for what proved to be the last time.
     At the date of Robert joing the army, we know that his parents had seperated because he stated that he didn't know his father's address and only listed his mother as next of kin.
     He enlisted in the Otago Mounted Rifles on the 18 November 1915 and embarked with 10th Reinforcements Otago Mounted Rifles, D Squadron on 4 March 1916 from Wellington aboard the 'Willochra'. Transport HMNZT 47. Destination was Suez, Egypt. Embarkation that day involved 2 ships and totalled 1832 men. The 'Willochra' brought the first wounded soldiers back to NZ from the Gallipoli campaign on 15 July 1915. Also onboard that trip was Cpt Donald Simson who ended up founding the Returned Services Association (NZRSA). After leaving New Zealand, Robert was transferred to the Canterbury Infantry Regiment.
     Robert got in trouble briefly when he was absent without leave (AWOL) between the hours of 1630 and 1900 on the evening of the 9th August 1916. He was deducted two days pay as punishment!
     On the 21st of September, 1916, aged only 23, records list him as 'missing'. He became one of the many casualties of the Battle of the Somme. Robert was involved in the build-up to capturing the French town of Flers, near Longueval. That day the 1st Canterbury Regiment distinguished itself by taking a portion of the trenches at Flers. They had a stand-up fight with bombs, killed 250 of the enemy and sustained 150 casualties.
     Winter was fast approaching, it was freezing cold and the rain had set in turning the trenches and surrounding land into thick mud. Robert was about to witness the British 'secret weapon' in action for the very first time... General Sir Douglas Haig, decided to introduce the tank to the war. However they quickly became bogged down during this offensive and were largely ineffective.
     The Battle of Flers-Courcelette, on 15 September, was the first time that the New Zealanders were sent over the top on the Western Front. It was also the first time New Zealand had deployed an infantry division on operations overseas. The 15–16,000-strong New Zealand Division was made up of three large infantry brigades (12 infantry battalions plus support personnel), and was part of the British XV Corps, which was at the centre of the attack and responsible for the capture of Flers.
    The attack was successful. The New Zealand Division managed to capture part of the Switch Line west of Flers, while the 41st Division advanced 3,500 yards in the centre at Flers. On the left flank, the Canadian 2nd Division captured the village of Courcelette, and the British finally (after two months trying) captured all of High Wood. Although its contribution was hailed as a success by newspapers at home, the New Zealand Division’s role in the Battle of the Somme was a bittersweet “victory”. They had achieved their objectives, but their three-kilometre advance and the capture of eight kilometres of ground had cost the hefty price of 7,048 casualties.
     Robert's battalion, suffered casualty rates of about 90%; they went in with 230 people per company and came out with something like 30! The division spent the next 23 days on the Somme, a very long period of time - one of the longest times of any divisions that were there on the Western Front.
     Getting back to the fact that Robert was listed as 'missing' in action, we uncovered a report of a court of enquiry shortly afterwards. Apparently Robert was 'Acting' Platoon Sergeant the night of the 21st and a mate, Cpl J.W. O'Connor was advancing alongside Robert when they became separated. They were both on the left side of the advancing line of men. After it was noticed that Robert was missing (and another soldier) and O'Connor went back to look for him, finding no trace. He was strongly of the opinion that Robert probably kept on advancing and went too far becoming a prisoner of the Germans! No doubt Robert wasn't in the frame of mind to surrender and went down fighting...
     Longueval, where Robert's name is engraved, is a village approximately 13 kilometres east of Albert and 10 kilometres south of Bapaume. The Memorial itself is situated on a terrace in Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, which lies a short distance west of Longueval, on the south side of the road to Contalmaison. Commemorating those officers and men of the New Zealand Division who fell in the Battles of the Somme, 1916, and whose graves are not known, the Memorial takes the form of a screen wall behind the Great War Stone, with sheltered seats at either end, and consists of eleven panels of Portland stone. On ten of the panels are inscribed, in alphabetical order under their Regiments and ranks, the names of over 1200 soldiers of the New Zealand Division; and on the centre panel is carved the New Zealand fern leaf badge.
     Interestingly, in 2004, the Labour Government of NZ removed an unknown NZ soldier's body from this very area and brought it back to Wellington where he is now entombed in a national monument.
     A staggering 84 percent of the 59,981 New Zealand soldiers who were casualties of warfare in World War One occurred on the Western Front. More than 12,483 remain buried in the soil on the battlefields, with 4227 having no known grave, including All Black number 211 - Robert 'Bobby' Black.

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All Black statistics courtesy of the NZ Rugby Museum: