Far From Home: Tales of migrant soldiers at Tyne Cot

In the first of a three part series, CWGF Guide Alex Carter shares the stories of migrant soldiers commemorated by Commonwealth War Graves at Tyne Cot Cemetery, our largest war cemetery in the world.

Tyne Cot Casualty Stories

Hi, my name is Alex and I am one of this summer’s guides at Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium. 

I have always been fascinated by stories of migration, and in this blog series I will aim to investigate the stories of several of the hundreds of migrant soldiers buried at the cemetery I work at every day. 

By discussing their extraordinary lives, I hope to illuminate the wider process of migration across the 20th century and its importance to the First World War. 

World War One - The Wider Picture

Image: A group of New Zealand soldiers making a cup of a tea on the Western Front (© IWM (Q 660))

The Great War has been immortalised as the first truly global conflict. The citizens of nations, colonies and dominions participated en masse from all corners of the world. 

Mass global emigration, which predates the start of armed conflict by centuries, was foundational to this. 

Men and women from Great Britain and continental Europe established their presence in of Canada, Australia and New Zealand before, during and after the war.

This paved the way for the mobilization of their populations at the Western Front and beyond. The tale of their participation is one of first, second and third-generation immigrants serving their ‘mother country’. 

This often seems at odds with traditional historical narratives that place the First World War at the centre of the rise in nationalism across Europe at the time.

Instead, it paints a picture of an interconnected imperial world built by the mass movement of European populations that adapted their own sense of nationality to the country they settled in. 

This blog series will investigate the stories of these men, from the British Isles to Continental Europe.

These accounts matter because, unlike the vast majority of men who enlisted where they lived, fallen emigrant soldiers left behind multiple grieving communities spread across the globe. 

More generally, it is hoped that the stories that follow will provide greater insight into the interconnected nature of Imperial armies.

In the process, I hope to challenge some of the generalisations that often arise in the study of nationalities in the First World War.

New Zealand – from Silktown to Sweden

It often surprises Kiwi visitors to Tyne Cot when I tell them that a large proportion of New Zealand soldiers buried there were not natives but migrant men. 

Swelling the ranks of the sizeable ANZAC contingent on the Western Front were men born and raised in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and even continental Europe. Many more on top of this were second and third-generation emigrants. 

Indeed, the very existence of the state of New Zealand - along with that of its dominion counterparts Australia and Canada - was underpinned by mass emigration from the other side of the globe.

Walter Bullock - a British-born Kiwi at 3rd Ypres

Image: Corporal Walter Whiston Bullock (© Auckland Museum)

Walter Whiston Bullock was one of these migrant men who led an extraordinary but tragically short life, now laying under Belgian soil. His story is particularly important to me because he was born and raised a stone’s throw away from my hometown of Macclesfield, Cheshire. 

I stumbled across his story earlier this year whilst mountain biking along a track running past his childhood home in Macclesfield Forest. Someone had left a framed picture of him by the ruins of his house with details of service, and I knew I had to find out more about him and visit his grave for myself during my time working at Tyne Cot.

Born into a silk printing family (the dominance of the industry in the town such that it was dubbed ‘Silktown’), he moved with his family to Auckland at the age of 10 after the death of his father in 1892. 

Fast forward roughly 22 years to June 1915, and Walter made the decision to leave his occupation as a tinsmith to enlist in the Wellington Battalion, which would become the Wellington Regiment of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He shipped off to Egypt in October of the same year and survived stints in Gallipoli and the Somme which saw him promoted to Corporal by the time he arrived in Flanders for the 3rd Battle of Ypres.

An award-winning effort

Image: Walter’s grave at Tyne Cot (XXI.G.18) – note the initials ‘DCM’, which denote his Distinguished Conduct Medal (Picture by author)

On the 4th October 1917, Walter was involved in the famed ANZAC effort at the Battle of Broodseinde, part of the larger 3rd Battle of Ypres. Now more commonly known as the Battle of Passchendaele, this was a huge allied offensive that aimed to push the Germans off the high ground around Ypres and capture the occupied ports on the Belgian coast. 

The Kiwis’ objective was the Gravenstafel Spur, the first of two fingers of higher ground protruding from the ridge near Passchendaele. In a successful bite-and-hold operation, it was taken in what was to be the last successful attack before the brutal slog to the village of Passchendaele. 

Walter’s contribution on that day was nothing short of extraordinary. For it, he was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal, an award for gallantry second only to the Victoria Cross and given to just 388 other Kiwi soldiers across the entire war.

Official reports recount that Walter coordinated and led a raid on a German dugout at Korek, capturing 100 prisoners and 8 machine guns. He was later killed in action, one of 319 of his comrades also killed on that day.

Walter is now buried just a few fields over from where he died, under the soil he gave his life to capture. He is one of 519 Kiwi burials at the Tyne Cot, the largest grouping on the Western Front. 

His death left communities grieving 11,000 miles apart, from Macclesfield to Auckland. He is commemorated by both the local memorial in his native village of Langley, and by a road that passes through it – ‘Bullock’s Lane’.  

Now that we have used Walter as an extraordinary example of a surprisingly common migration journey, I’d like to turn to an altogether more singular life story – that of Lance Corporal Peter William Olsen.

Peter William Olsen – a Swede of three nations

Image: Lance Corporal Peter William Olsen (copyright unknown)

Peter William Olsen’s life was remarkable in a completely different way to that of Bullock’s. This is because it was a tale of not just two, but three nations. 

Olsen was born in Järvsö, Sweden in 1890. In 1899, at the age of 9, Olsen’s parents decided to move the family to Queensland, Australia.

Perhaps not content with the economic opportunities in his new home, the small town of Maryborough, Olsen’s enlistment documents reveal that he was working as a farmer in New Zealand when he signed up to fight with the Wellington Regiment in July 1916. 

Over the top at Messines and Broodseinde

Image: Olsen’s grave at Tyne Cot (XII.E.20) (Picture by author)

Leaving New Zealand in October of that year, Olsen fought at Messines before finding himself, like Walter, waiting to go over the top on the 4th October at the Battle of Broodseinde. 

The circumstances of Olsen’s death are less clear, but he was reported missing and confirmed killed in action later that day. He is now, like Walter, interred at Tyne Cot, one of three of his countrymen commemorated there. 

Tragically, he was one of three brothers that served, only one of which returned home. His brother, Andrew, fought with the Australians at the Battle of Fromelles and fell on 19th July 1916, just three days before Peter enlisted himself. 

United in death

Despite the obvious differences between Walter and Peter’s lives, by a twist of fate, they ended united in death whilst serving in the same regiment on the same day of the same battle. 

Such deeply interconnected stories speak powerfully to the importance of migration to New Zealand’s involvement in the First World War. 

Who knows how differently events would have unfolded, how many more men would have lost their lives, if, for example, Walter had remained in his native Cheshire, never performing the medal-winning effort that was pivotal to the outcome of the battle? 

Now multiply this singularity by the thousands, and you have an accurate representation of how important migrant soldiers were to New Zealand’s war effort. 

Keep an eye out for the next blog in this series, which will shift the focus from New Zealand to Canada.

Want to support the Commonwealth War Graves Foundation Guides Programme? Donate Today

The Commonwealth War Graves Foundation Guides Programme gives young history lovers an opportunity to work for Commonwealth War Graves in France and Belgium.

They welcome visitors, share the incredible stories of those commemorated by Commonwealth War Graves, and help assist our guests on their journey of remembrance at important sites like Thiepval in Northern France and Tyne Cot, Belgium.

We’re passionate about preserving the memories of the Commonwealth’s war dead and interacting with young people to keep their stories alive. Our Guides help us in our core mission while becoming equipped with real-life skills to aid their personal development.

Our Guides Programme relies on your generosity. 

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