Occupation of Samoa in 1914

[EmilyFT]

I have been going through a suitcase full of records and letters from the war - most are letters home or simple documents of postings and service records which are very interesting to my family but not so much to others I think!

The only thing I have found that I was unsure if it might be of wider interest is a letter written by HG Hide who was serving on HMS Psyche as Senior Officer Coxswain (according to the letter). It details how originally the New Zealand transport ships and their escorts were planning on sailing to Sura to meet the Australian Squadron and then to Samoa. The letter says that they picked up German wireless signals just before leaving but they didn't think their course could have been leaked. The letter writer goes on to say that the Captain asked him to go ashore in civilian clothes and find out if there was any talk - he did so and it was common knowledge in pubs that they were sailing to Sura. The letter says he went back aboard and they changed course at the last minute to go to Noumea instead. The letter writer states that they believe if they had gone to Sura as originally planned they would have encountered the German ships in the vicinity. 

I am not at all knowledgeable about the war but I wondered if this letter would be of any interest and if so should I scan and upload it anywhere?

[aconnolly]

Hi Emily - welcome and thanks.  This would be of interest.  The NZ Samoa Expeditionary Force was rapidly formed and despatched, seizing German Samoa without a shot being fired on 29 August 1914 (30th in NZ as the date line came into play).  The reason for the seizure was to capture the radio station as this was part of a pan-pacific network through which German naval forces could be coordinated.  Any information such as that contained in your family records would help add to the over-all picture of this early involvement of New Zealand in the war.  Many thanks!

Andrew

 

[seaJane]

I am sure this site would be delighted to know: https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph

[horatio2]

Petty Officer Henry George HIDE Off. No. 187214 -  https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7142768

[KizmeRD]

I would imagine that avoidance of any encounter with German naval units would have been uppermost in everyone’s minds, what with Scharnhorst and Gniesenau being out and about.

MB

[GreyC]

Here are Samoan Fita Fita ceremonial guards during the German colonial reign from my collection.

[Fattyowls]

13 hours ago, EmilyFT said:

I am not at all knowledgeable about the war but I wondered if this letter would be of any interest

Hi Emily and welcome to the forum. I would definitely be interested as at least one of the Kiwi soldiers I have been researching participated in the Samoa operation, so any information would be great. It already sounds like you are an expert on this particular part of the war.

Pete.

[smclaren]

Post them up here somewhere on the GWF, Emily. They will be very interesting to read.

My grandfather (George McLaren - 12/2419) fought with the NZEF's 5th Reinforcements ... and several of his best mates in the war had been part of the "Samoan Advance Party", captured Apia, returned to NZ and then jumped straight back into the first available draft which was the 5th's in Trentham Camp. Poor ******* probably thought the rest of the war would be similar to the action in Samoa. What a shock they'll have.

In fact, parts of the 5th Reinforcements (Im guessing the old guys) were sent back to Samoa as a relief force for the original troops. From a letter home that George wrote to his mother on the 21st of February 1915 whilst in Trentham Camp NZ stated ...

"You remember the chap that was with Withey’s mill one year they called Dick, I think he got a fork run into his leg at Sutherlands when he was in the straw stack and was very bad, well he is here with the middle aged chaps that are going to Samoa to relieve the others. I dropped across him last night. I couldn’t help laughing at him, he is still the hard looking case with his spectacles on. You can tell the Witheys that the old Dick is here. Old Jimmy used to have rare fun out of him. Joe Carnegie’s brother is here somewhere, but I haven’t found him yet."

 

 

Edited 25 July , 2022 by smclaren

[aconnolly]

The Samoa Relief was men who like Dick referred to above were assessed as unfit for front line combat. All the originals came home early 1915.   Large number of the original SEF did re-attest and left again later in 1915 for Gallipoli and ultimately France. 

Andrew

[Neill Gilhooley]

I bring in Bethune Annandale here only because our Mr Hide was walking about in civvies. He has an unusual MIC in that he is listed as rank 'Civilian' for the Samoan EF:

Address 1. Samoa Crown Estates, Apia, Samoa 2. Sapatapoa [?], W. Samoa, W. Pacific

https://neillgilhooley.com/9th-royal-scots/index/ 

[aconnolly]

Neill - interesting.  From a NZ newspaper

 Papers Past | Newspapers | Samoanische Zeitung | 6 September 1919 | Capt. Annandale's Return..pdf

I cannot find a NZEF file on him and the article suggests he was sent there to sort issues relating to labour. 

 

Andrew

Edited 28 July , 2022 by aconnolly

[Neill Gilhooley]

Andrew, that is brilliant, thank you.

[Neill Gilhooley]

I had also never heard of the Senussi entering west africa (intending to recruit/cause revolt in Karno, Sokoto and Zaria) ...

[stevenbecker]

Neil,

Yes likewise Germans with that so called group.

While a few German were sent during to war to help the Senussi, these were miss trusted and killed or died strangely. Only a few later in the war stayed any length of time

While numbers of Ottomans did served in Libya and the Senussi as that county was a Ottoman provence (former since 1913.

British propergander like most of the early news papers stories.

S.B

[Neill Gilhooley]

Thanks Steve

[EmilyFT]

I've returned to this after life getting in the way somewhat! Here are the letters and the photograph (writing on reverse) that was included with the letter. Also his medals and enlistment(?) form! Hope they're of interest, I've enjoyed discovering them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

enlist.pdf

Edited 2 August , 2022 by EmilyFT

[aconnolly]

Many thanks Emily - absolutely wonderful - many thanks for sharing.

Regards

Andrew

[christine liava'a]

On 28/07/2022 at 19:26, Neill Gilhooley said:

I bring in Bethune Annandale here only because our Mr Hide was walking about in civvies. He has an unusual MIC in that he is listed as rank 'Civilian' for the Samoan EF:

Address 1. Samoa Crown Estates, Apia, Samoa 2. Sapatapoa [?], W. Samoa, W. Pacific

https://neillgilhooley.com/9th-royal-scots/index/ 

Bethune Annandale was a Scotsman living in Samoa. His brother Stanley Annandale also had connections with Samoa. Both are mentioned in my book  Fitafita mai Samoa, which hopefully will be republished next year. This is what I wrote about them. 

Bethune Inglis Annandale was born in Edinburgh, Midlothian Scotland in 1880, son of Thomas Annandale and Mary Eveline Nelson, and travelled to Samoa in 1906 to become the manager of the Upolu Rubber Company. He served in the Samoan Expeditionary Force as a civilian, then the Royal Scots, where he became a 2nd Lieutenant in 1915, and a temporary Lieutenant in the West African Regiment on 12 July 1916. On 5 February 1918 he was gazetted as Lieutenant. He resigned his commission on 24 February 1920, and was granted the rank of Captain. On 23 April 1918 he transferred to the Chinese Labour Corps as Acting Captain. He ceased to be employed by the  Labour Corps on 20 June 1919 and relinquished the rank of Captain. He married firstly Gagautaua Tuatagaloa by whom he had 4 children. He then returned to England where he married Mabel Clara Coleclough in 1937. Captain Annandale had worked for many years under the German rulers of Samoa, and considered that the New Zealand administration did not consider the prosperity of the planters in their administration of Samoa. He died in 1959 in Sussex, England.

 

William Stanley O'Neil Annandale, brother of Bethune Annandale, son of Thomas Annandale and Mary Eveline Nelson, served in Africa. He was born in 1881 in Edinburgh. He departed from Sydney in June 1915, a planter from the Solomon Islands, arriving in London on 14 July 1915. He was gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, Special Reserve, on 11 August 1915, and to be a Temporary Lieutenant while serving in the West African Frontier Force on 31 May 1916. On 1 July 1917 he was gazetted as a Lieutenant. After the war ended he travelled to the Belgian Congo. He married firstly 41 Jacqueline Bond in Sydney in 1926, and secondly Irene Craig in Samoa in 1935. He died in Samoa in 1962.

13,000 Miles to Enlist; Patriotism of two brothers. There have been published several extraordinary coincidences of the war, but one that has just come to light is, perhaps, among the most remarkable of them all. It concerns two brothers named Annandale, members of a wellknown London family. They both owned cocoa plantations in the South Pacific Islands, the older brother in Samoa and the other in Fiji. Although  these islands are comparatively close to each other, the brothers had not met for some considerable time. Many months after the war had been in progress, they became acquainted with the real state of affairs in Europe, and unknown to each other, and practically simultaneously, decided to come home and join the army. Each sold his plantation and commenced the long journey of about 13,000 miles. The brother in Fiji came home via Australia and Suez, the other across Canada and the Atlantic. The elder brother arrived a day after the other, and on going into a London hotel, was greeted by the manager, who said “Hello, your young brother is in the next room. He only arrived from Fiji last night, and has come home to join the army.” – The Daily Mail; Samoa Times; 10 Feb 1917

 bethune annandale.pdfstanley annandale.pdf

Edited 3 August , 2022 by christine liava'a

[Neill Gilhooley]

Emily, thanks for the letter.

6 hours ago, christine liava'a said:

Fitafita mai Samoa, which hopefully will be republished next year.

Christine, this is excellent, my thanks, and for the photo and newspaper story. Let us know when your book is republished. Kind regards, Neill

[EmilyFT]

I have also transcribed the letters and captions for the photograph here - https://imgur.com/a/YwH9PKl

[seaJane]

What fascinating stories! Thank you to all contributors.

[stevenbecker]

Neil,

I refer to the first group under this man

Mannesmann Otto-Felix    Capt Dr deR Cav (Maj)     Intell officer sent Expedition to Libya encourage the Sanusiya under Ahmad al-Sharif to fight the British     1915-16    (1874 at Remscheid KIA 10-4-16) murdered by arabs A German physicist and engineer as the Vice Consul of the German Empire in Tripoli 1914 from Wurttenberg Ulans 

by these I found sent after that failure

Todenwarth Paul Freiherr Wolff von und zu     ObLt Cav    Intell officer sent Expedition to Libya sent to take over from Mannesmann     1916-18    (1876 at Todenwarth Thüringen died 1-8-65) from unknown (possibly Thuringia) Ulan Regiment No 6 captured by Russians during a patrol at the end of 1914 and was brought to Siberia and spring 1915 he managed to escape along the Trans-Siberian Railway to neutral China to Western Front military intelligence awarded Ottoman War medal shown in Klaus Wolf's Book

S.B

Edited 4 August , 2022 by stevenbecker

[Neill Gilhooley]

Thanks again Steve, all very interesting. (When I worked in Libya one of my colleagues was Faraj Senussi, and he claimed to be of this 'family', he was a very nice guy).