War hero from influential family

HERO: Norman Athelstan Robieson, born in Wairarapa in 1884.

High on the hills of Mount Victoria in Wellington, with panoramic views of the city, there wends a street named after a forgotten war hero from Wairarapa. On Tuesday members of his family joined councillors and staff from Wellington City Council gather to mark the centenary of the death of Norman Robieson. Gareth Winter from the Wairarapa Archive looks at this story.

The bloodlines of two of the most influential families in early Wairarapa came together in the children of James Robieson and his wife Eliza Renall.

Robieson came to New Zealand as a 12-year-old with his sister Jean, Charles Rooking Carter's wife. He stayed in Wellington where Carter was a successful businessman and eventually came across to Wairarapa, managing Carter's extensive North Run pastoral holdings on the Taratahi Plain.

In 1863, then aged 24, Robieson married Elizabeth Percy Renall, the daughter of the charismatic miller and politician Alfred Renall and his second wife Eliza Percy. Renall and Carter had both been important driving forces in the establishment of the Small Farms Association that led to the closer settlement of the Wairarapa valley, and Eliza's family were to also venture into Wairarapa, where they were successful farmers.

In time, James and Eliza were able to purchase a parcel of North Run in the Te Whiti area from Carter, naming it Cavelands from the cave system formed by the Taueru River. By 1876 the family were farming 576 acres on which they erected an imposing two-storey homestead where they raised their 14 children.

The youngest of these children was Norman Athelstan, born at Cavelands in 1884. He was educated at the local Te Whiti School, alongside his siblings, and a large number of Renall cousins, his uncle Joseph Renall, a future mayor of Masterton, also farming in the area.

He stayed at Te Whiti School until he was 15, and then shifted to Wellington, where he found work with the Wellington City Council.

He continued his studies in Wellington - in 1903 he was studying at the Wellington Technical School, earning a first place prize for book-keeping. Later, he studied at Victoria University, and became a member of the Victoria College Officers Training Corps, excelling at target shooting. He was also very interested in other sports, notably tennis, yachting and golf.

He tried to enlist almost as soon as war was declared, having his medical on August 18, 1914, then entered Trentham Camp in October and joined the Wellington Mounted Rifles. Despite being so sporty, he was a small man - his medical examination papers disclose that he weighed 57kg on enlistment. He was promoted to corporal a few days after his arrival, although he was demoted to lance-corporal once he arrived overseas.

He left New Zealand in the middle of December 1914, destined for Egypt, where he underwent further training before heading to the Dardanelles in May 1914, shortly after the landing at Anzac Cove.

Unfortunately, his army records are scant for his period of service on the Gallipoli Peninsula. He was severely injured, with gunshot wounds to the skull and forearm. According to newspaper reports, he was wounded by shrapnel shot shortly after reaching the firing line. In August he was placed on the hospital ship HMS Asturias, bound for England where his wounds could be better treated, but on August 21, in the Mediterranean between Malta and Gibraltar, he died.

He was buried at sea.

In a will made out the day before he left for camp, he divided his assets among his siblings and their spouses.

His workmates did not forget him. In late July 1916, Wellington mayor JP Luke unveiled an oil portrait of Norman Robieson in the club room of the Town Hall, with staff and family representatives present.

The mayor paid tribute to Robieson, referring to his courage and "nobility in laying down his life so that others may live". The following year the council renamed Victoria Rd in Mount Victoria in his honour. His name is now recorded on a large bronze plaque in the Wellington City Council atrium, along with all the staff who served. After the war, his name was included among the many recorded on the Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli.

Ironically, despite his strong Wairarapa links, he seems to have been forgotten in the period after the war. His name does not appear on the Soldiers Memorial in Queen Elizabeth Park but the Robieson family plot in the Masterton Cemetery contains a small granite stone that marks his passing.