Kiwi soldier’s letter about Le Quesnoy liberation discovered by family over 100 years later
“We scaled the inside wall – a matter of 37 feet high – by a single ladder and yours truly was among the first up,” was the sprightly way Jim Craig described being one of the first Kiwi soldiers to scale the famous ladder during the liberation of Le Quesnoy.
His account of November 4, 1918, is detailed in a letter to his mother in the aftermath of the New Zealand soldiers liberating the town.
His grandson, Wayne Corbett, only found out about his grandfather’s exploits when the letter surfaced in 2020.
“Coincidentally, it was shortly after the announcement on Anzac Day 2020 that the NZ Liberation Museum – Te Arawhata was going to be built that this letter emerged.
“The letter was given to my brother Tony by my mum before she died but the significance of it only really hit home for us when we heard about the museum in Le Quesnoy,” says Wayne.
In the letter Jim writes about the “oily walls” – a result of the town’s ramparts being fired on by oil bombs to provide smoke cover and distraction for the advancing Kiwi troops.
Another section details the sheer delight and relief the towns people were feeling after the liberation.
“The civilians went absolutely mad with joy,” writes Jim, “and you should have seen myself, and two others, who were sent on around the ramparts to ‘clean up’ the prisoners, trying to struggle thro (sic) a crowd of old men, women & kids who were one & all trying to slobber one all over and hanging around our necks.”
An emotional visit
Jim’s eight-page letter echoes many of the stories told in the visitor experience of Te Arawhata.
Wayne and his wife Louise visited the museum in mid-2024, driving their camper van on a tour of the Western Front to pay their respects to fallen Kiwi soldiers and trace Jim’s journey during the war.
“The day Wayne and I visited Te Arawhata,” says Louise, “just happened to be on the 10th anniversary of the death of Wayne’s mum [Jim’s daughter] Doris. It was a very emotional time.”
Wayne’s parents, Doris and dad Don who were married in New Plymouth in 1957, never talked about his grandfather’s time in the war. And Jim, who died aged 88 in 1986, never really talked about it either.
“It’s surprising Wayne’s parents never discussed it with us given the backgrounds of the family with Wayne serving in East Timor and his dad serving in Cyprus,” says Louise.
“I just wish I’d asked more questions,” reflects Wayne.
He says reading his grandfather’s letter is incredibly moving and it has inspired the family to delve deeper into their history.
“One of the main things I’ve taken away from us visiting Te Arawhata is that if you have a letter like this, or have anything, share it because it adds to the story. It brings it to life.”
From Taranaki to the Western Front
Born on September 28, 1897, in the small South Taranaki town of Manaia, Jim joined the New Zealand Army on July 24, 1916. This meant he was underage, claiming he was 20 yrs and 10 months old instead of 19.
Following his service in Europe he was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal after being discharged on June 7, 1919.
He met his future wife Bertha with the pair marrying on December 27, 1924. Jim and Bertha were dairy farmers in Midhurst, just north of Stratford, for almost 20 years. They moved to Huiroa, further inland from Stratford, in 1941 where they had a dairy and sheep farm.
“He was a pipe smoker. He was a lovely old guy,” remembers Wayne.
The couple had 12 children and today Wayne laughs about how it wasn’t until his grandmother’s funeral that he realised he had 33 cousins.
“He wasn’t a real hands-on grandad because he had so many kids. I don’t remember seeing him angry. He was always smiling.”
Heroic, incredible, and proud
Wayne and Louise visited Le Quesnoy twice during their campervan tour of Europe because they had to go back and buy more souvenirs from Te Arawhata.
“We bought the museum coffee cups, they are really great, and Wayne kept using them in the camper van so we had to go back and buy more,” laughs Louise.
They also bought a number of books about the liberation, including a children’s book told through the eyes of a young Le Quesnoy child.
“We bought it for our granddaughter who is, as we speak, three weeks old, and we will attach the letter and photos of our visit to Le Quesnoy and Te Arawhata so her great great grandfather’s story and the other heroic Kiwi efforts will live on,” says Louise.
“Kiwis should come to the museum because not only does it make you feel proud to be a Kiwi, you realise that we have made a difference to people’s lives overseas,” says Wayne.
“What happened here is incredible. It helps bring home just how big a story it was, especially for the French people and the friendship that’s generated from it.
“We have to learn not to repeat the horrors of what have happened so to have a positive story about how good things can happen – it leaves a mark.”
For Louise, the magnitude of the 400-year-old walls was staggering.
“Wayne was completely dwarfed, and it was nearly impossible to see him, and the bomb craters in the walls were just as Jim described in his letter.
“It really was Kiwi number 8 wire stuff to come up with the idea of scaling the wall with a rickety old ladder. What those young men did was both amazing and absolutely heroic.”
Wayne: “Being here, learning the story, and walking around the ramparts is sobering because you stand there and imagine how nervous they must have been.
“I was so proud to stand in that same spot where the ladder was 106 years later.”