Gallipoli bound

• Published date: 25 April 2024
• Publication title: Te Awamutu Courier

Petty Officer Fraser Robertson, a tuba player 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 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 the musicians — whom he thought would not perform well in war — had proved their bravery as stretcher-bearers.

Robertson...