Envelopes sometimes arrived weeks after the recipient knew the sender was dead.
80 Letters sent home by New Zealand soldiers arrived by the sackful during World War I. Addressed to wives, mothers, fathers, sisters and relatives, the letters provided a censored glimpse of the conditions facing the troops, their hopes and expectations and sometimes sadness at the loss of a mate.
The arrival of a letter from a faraway land was an occasion of comfort but could also carry a burden of grief if the envelope arrived weeks after the recipient knew the sender was dead.
In his book Letters from the Battlefield, military historian Glyn Harper records how Sergeant Allen Wilson's last words were retrieved from a page in his tunic after he was killed on the Western Front on October 4, 1917.
Addressed to his father, the letter said: "If you are reading this you will be aware that I have been called upon to render the most extreme sacrifice that my country can ask of her sons."
Professor Harper, who teaches at Massey, concluded from his research that soldiers did not consider the costly conflict an exercise in futility. While the troops might have felt the protracted struggle was taking a heavy toll, they remained largely convinced they were doing their best for king and country - and their families at home.
Rick Pickard, who manages John Walker's Field of Dreams Foundation in Manukau, showed the Herald a poignant letter from his relative, Private John Henry Tupara Pickard.
Dated April 7, 1914, it was sent from Cairo where the 23-year-old soldier was in camp with the Wellington Infantry Battalion.
Addressed to sister-in-law Stella, Private Pickard tells her that after four months of swallowing "enough sand to build a small pyramid" the troops are about to move on.
"I'd better not say where we are going in case the censor opens this letter," he writes, adding that he expects she will read all about it even before the letter is delivered.
The soldier - a Wairoa blacksmith - adds a personal note about what appears to be a family dispute, which must have been mentioned in a letter which found its way to Egypt.
"I am glad," Private Pickard remarks, "that East and the old chap have made it up again. I hope it will last, that's all."
Rick Pickard says his family did not know what the reference meant, but the young soldier - known as "Jack" - had a brother, George Eastwood Pickard, who was referred to as "East".
Jack Pickard finished his letter with a prescient note. Reinforcements were travelling with the troops as "they evidently expect a good many casualties".
On April 30, Private Pickard was wounded at Gallipoli.
Evacuated to a ship for treatment, he died at sea of his wounds in mid-May.
The letter to Stella contained his last words from the war.
