100 Kiwi Stories: From Gallipoli to Western Front, one community's sacrifice mirrors experience of an entire nation

Arthur Elderton.

89 By the end of 1918, there was barely a street in New Zealand where a door hadn't been darkened by the war.

The great European battles had claimed 17,000 lives.

Almost 10 per cent of the fledgling nation's population of 1.1 million served overseas. World War I's effect on small country towns and city communities was wide-ranging, and immensely devastating.

Now, a research project by Paul O'Connor, head of history at Burnside High School, has examined the impact of war on one particular community - which could represent anywhere in the country.

From Papanui to Passchendaele looks at the Christchurch suburb as a "microcosm of communities throughout New Zealand from which all New Zealand soldiers of the time originated".

A roll of honour remembers the 96 locals who went off to war and never returned.

Two of the Papanui men kept diaries and sent home letters, now held at Canterbury Museum.

Jack Leversedge.

Christchurch Boys' High-educated bank clerk Jack Leversedge signed up at the outbreak of war as a patriotic 20-year-old.

The Canterbury Regiment infantryman landed at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915.

"Our company safely ashore whence the fun began," he wrote.

"The Turks seemed to have a machinegun for every 10 men and played terrible havoc but the bayonet was always too much for them."

Later, he fought at the notorious Quinn's Post.

"In some places our trenches are less than 10 yards from the Turks who give us an awful time with bombs."

After the August offensive, Leversedge was evacuated with enteritis. Bad health ended his war but he never recovered, dying at a Christchurch sanatorium on November 24, 1918.

He is buried at St Paul's Cemetery in Papanui.

Another Papanui man whose war ended tragically was Arthur Elderton - a descendent of writer Charles Dickens.

He arrived on the Western Front in May 1916.

Days later, he described his first action: "Rather exciting but came through safe." On June 30, he wrote about how "awfully lucky" he had been.

But just weeks later his luck ran out and he died from shrapnel wounds on July 10.

A nurse's harrowing letter gave his mother the bad news.

"He was such a fine lad - it was hard to see him just slip from us. I am deeply sorry to be the bearer of such tragic news and to have so very little to tell except the bare fact."

• For more information visit www.pap-to-pass.org.

To read the first 88 stories in this series go to tinyurl.com/nzhworldwarone.