21/05/2026
A survivor of the Gallipoli landings on April 25 1915.
This is Private William Grey 6/810 of the Canterbury Infantry Battalion, pictured here with his 4 sisters after the war.
William was born in Oamaru in 1892, his mother Emma Jane Fridd married Frank Grey who raised him as his own.
William was working as a labourer in Kingsdown near Timaru when war broke out, he was one of the early recruits for the 2nd South Canterbury Company of the Canterbury Infantry Battalion. The battalion raised at Addington in Christchurch during August 1914, moved to Wellington the following month before departing New Zealand on the morning of the 16th of October 1914 as part of the Mainbody – the largest body of men to leave NZ.
William and his unit were aboard the ship Athenic HMNZT 11 and stopped at various ports along their journey including Hobart, Albany, Colombo and Aden briefly which is modern day Yemen before being diverted to arrive at Alexandria in Egypt on the 3rd of December having passed through the Suez Canal.
After further training and guard duties, William and half of the Canterbury Infantry Battalion boarded the ship Lutzow and left Alexandria at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 12th, and entered Mudros harbour, in the island of Lemnos, early in the morning of the 15th. The Lutzow would move out for the Gallipoli landings and arrived at 7 a.m. off Anzac Cove on the morning of 25th April. Deploying from the Lutzow in smaller towing boats (“lighters”) to reinforce the initial Australian landings. 1st and 2nd Companies of the Canterbury Battalion began their landing at 12.30 p.m. They were immediately ordered to reinforce the left flank of the 3rd Australian Brigade which had landed earlier in the morning.
Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart with the 2nd Company got well forward, and took up a position on the upper portion of Walker’s Ridge, which ran north-east from near Pope’s Hill down to the sea. They immediately became involved in heavy fighting, Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart, going back to bring up reinforcements, collected a large party of Australians, and was killed while exposing himself in leading them up to the firing line. There the 2nd Company and the Australian reinforcements repulsed with the bayonet three Turkish attacks, and then withdrew slightly to more suitable ground, where they dug in.
It was during this fighting that William was wounded in action.
Its hard to imagine William’s journey back down to the beach for treatment on the gunshot wound to his right thigh. The wild scramble that day to get as far in land as possible led to so much confusion and nobody knows how long it took him to be evacuated. From ANZAC Cove to a hospital ship to eventually arriving in Egypt, I am sure he would have been in agony along with so many of his comrades at the time.
After admission to hospital in May 1915, William was eventually deemed medically unfit for further war service and was to be returned to NZ.
He arrived home in September aboard the ship Tahiti which arrived with some of the earliest NZ wounded from the Gallipoli campaign.
He was given two months leave before being discharged and returned to civilian life.
William married Doreen Annie Fifield in 1917. William, who worked as a motor mechanic and motor salesman, and Doreen lived all their married life in Christchurch. William Grey died on 26 October 1959 at Christchurch, aged 67 years, and was buried at Waimairi Cemetery, Christchurch. He was survived by his wife, their daughter Dorothy May (Mrs Cook) and son William Frank (known as Frank), and three grandchildren. Doreen died in September 1969 and was buried with William at Waimairi. Two uncles of William served in World War One – Peter Fridd, who was killed in action in 1916 in France, and John Fridd (Jack); and a cousin also served – Albert Fridd.
His son Frank served during WW2 also as a machine gunner in North Africa and Italy before returning home.
Information sourced from South Canterbury Museum and The history of the Canterbury Regiment, N.Z.E.F., 1914–1919 by David Ferguson printed in 1921.
