Artist Lindsey Kirk at her exhibition at the Army Museum in Waiouru, 2023-2024, will exhibit similar works at the Jack Morgan Museum from this weekend.
Artist Lindsey Kirk at her exhibition at the Army Museum in Waiouru, 2023-2024, will exhibit similar works at the Jack Morgan Museum from this weekend.
Before they were soldiers, they were farmers, bootmakers, blacksmiths, and kauri climbers.
Artist Lindsey Kirk’s latest exhibition brings New Zealand’s wartime history to life — not through uniforms and medals, but through the everyday lives of the men who fought in World War I.
Kirk was commissioned to paint some of the New Zealand soldiers who died from the battle for Le Quesnoy in 1918. She has completed 24 portraits of the nearly 200 Kiwis New Zealanders involved at Le Quesnoy and will continue to paint more of the soldiers. There are three from Northland that will be featured in the exhibition at the Jack Morgan Museum from March 9 to May 3.
The Northland soldiers are Cyril John Allan, Francis Richard Morrow and Henry Danzey.
Cyril was from Hukerenui and was a kauri climber when he enlisted in 1915. He was wounded during the Battle for the Somme and later endured surgery on his face and jaw.
Kirk said he survived and was living in Te Kamo when he died in October 1969.
Both Francis and Danzey were from Tapuhi. Francis, a farmer, was killed on November 4, 1918, during the assault and liberation of the fortified northern French town of Le Quesnoy.
Danzey was a blacksmith and died in the Battle of Ypes in June 1917.
Lindsey Kirk at the Le Quesnoy Communal Cemetery making crayon rubbings to be used on paintings for various soldiers.
Kirk said the portraits that capture the soldiers’ pre-war identities give viewers a sense of what each man’s life was like, ensuring they are remembered not just as soldiers but as the young men they were before the battlefield.
One of the paintings that will be in the exhibit of Andrew Sinclair, from Mosgiel, who was a bootmaker.
“Many of these young men worked at jobs which no longer exist or have changed dramatically,” Kirk said.
“I had never heard of the occupation of Kauri climber until I read about Cyril Allan, who survived the battle of the Somme and returned to New Zealand.
“To see that one was a butcher or that he made boots added so much meaning to the person.”
John Raynor was a bridge builder from Kawhia.
Kirk hoped to exhibit the work elsewhere in New Zealand.
She has already received favourable feedback from families. She said people were delighted to see the soldiers remembered for their previous life and not just their army experience.
“Families especially were pleased that their relative was portrayed in a way that celebrates their early life and place in the community. In Le Quesnoy people were moved as they realised more deeply what these men had given, that they had come from so far away to help.”
Admission is included with museum entry: $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $2 for kids.
Yolisa Tswanya is deputy news director at the Northern Advocate based in Whangārei.
