Petty Officer Fraser Robertson (middle) with bandmates of the Royal New Zealand Navy Band. Photo / NZDF
Petty Officer Fraser Robertson (middle) with bandmates of the Royal New Zealand Navy Band. Photo / NZDF
A Navy officer and bandsman from Waikato has travelled to Gallipoli for the third time, where he will take part in Anzac Day commemorations.
Petty Officer Fraser Robertson, a tuba player from Te Awamutu and member of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) Band, previously played at the commemorations in Turkey in 2014 and 2017.
Robertson recently made an exciting discovery: serving brass-band musicians were among the Anzacs who made their way to Turkey in 1915.
Before Robertson’s deployment to Gallipoli for the commemorations, New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) historian Dr Andrew Macdonald shared tales of those brass-band musicians landing in Gallipoli during World War I.
Macdonald said some were members of regimental bands, but others were serving as soldiers on the front lines.
“That kind of resonated for me after being to Gallipoli twice,” Robertson said.
Royal New Zealand Navy Band member Petty Officer Fraser Robertson has gone to Gallipoli for the third time for Anzac Day commemorations. Photo / NZDF
Robertson added he had been aware that some musicians had waded ashore at Anzac Cove, but he didn’t know that some of them had brought their instruments.
Research by author and editor Chris Bourke indicated that while band music was almost absent from the historical record of Gallipoli, it was still able to be heard by New Zealand troops serving there.
It was not only New Zealand troops who heard their comrades’ brass music at Gallipoli - Turkish soldiers would also have heard them play.
Bourke’s research showed enough bandsmen landed at Gallipoli to form four bands and small musical gatherings were sometimes held relatively close to the Turkish lines.
For safety reasons, the Canterbury Battalion’s musicians played their first concert in the dark in Canterbury Gully - also known as Rest Gully.
The following evening, the Turks brought their own band to the trenches, and both events were eventually drowned out by rifle and artillery fire.
The commander of the Wellington Battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel William Malone, also documented that musical gatherings took place. He wrote that the musicians – whom he thought would not perform well in war – had proved their bravery as stretcher-bearers.
Robertson was especially interested in the life of fellow tuba player Private William Griffiths.
Private Griffiths, born and raised in Timaru, was based in Auckland during his New Zealand Expeditionary Force enlistment, and was a stretcher-bearer in the Auckland Battalion. He died after suffering a gunshot wound to the head during the August offensive in 1915.
The interesting part for Robertson was that Griffith was a bandsman in the Auckland City Corps of the Salvation Army.
“It’s quite intriguing. Brass bands have played a significant part in my family and life.
“I am a third-generation member of the Te Awamutu Brass Band, and my family is still heavily involved with the local band.”
Royal New Zealand Navy Band member Petty Officer Fraser Robertson, of Te Awamutu, in Gallipoli. Photo / New Zealand Defence Force
Robertson and Macdonald are part of the NZDF contingent of 40 who arrived in Turkey last week, ahead of Thursday’s commemoration ceremony.
Part of the contingent’s programme was to go on battlefield tours and learn more about the battles fought at Gallipoli.
On the recent battlefield tour, Macdonald highlighted how veterans he spoke to mentioned singing together in small groups and away from the front lines.
“Based on what these elderly men – men who had served at these places inside the Anzac perimeter – told me, song was a form of distraction from what they had been through, as well as a form of camaraderie. It was also a means of relaxation.”
In some places, the trenches of each side were as little as five metres apart.
“The landscape still amazes me. You see how far away the Turkish soldiers would have been from the New Zealanders to the point where they could have easily had a conversation,” Roberston added.
