Postcard 73

It’s a small world – “Charlie B is on the Arawa.”

Front

A group of Sri Lankans sit outside a building. They sit on mats with baskets and tea. In the centre a basket hangs on a scale. The card is captioned “Tea Industry, weighing the leaf.” The lower right corner is etched 49858.

Back

Headed: Union Postale Universelle, Ceylon (Ceylan) Postcard, with a divided back.  Above the heading is stamped: Printed in Germany. The left side is labelled: This space may be used for communication, the right: The address only to be written here.

The left margin reads: No. 3 Plâté Limited, Ceylon. (Copyright).

Transcription

Miss E. Cooksley
Longburn
Palmerston N
NZ

Arawa
21/11/14

Dear Elsie

Just a few lines to let you know we are all doing fine. Hoping you are all quite well as it leaves me.

Wishing you all a happy new year.

Charlie B.

Commentary

Initially I thought this card had little to do with the war other than being written towards the start. As I started to investigate what Arawa was, I wondered if it might be a ship. Then I stumbled across the website of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles. Here the Diary and Letters of 11/92 Trooper Roderick McCandlish-Wellington Mounted Rifles are transcribed with commentary by his Great Nephew Ross McCandlish.

In a letter Roderick sent to his mother from Trentham on 6 October 1914 he writes:

“The Canterbury Mounted Regiment is on the same boat, and some infantry.  Altogether, six hundred men, and two hundred and thirty horses. Charlie B is on the ‘Arawa’. It is a bit of hard luck that we did not get on the same boat, but he belongs to the 2nd Regiment and they keep each lot together. Its great the people one comes across here.”

Could this Charlie B on the Arawa be the Charlie B writing to Elsie? Among the commentary, Charlie B is identified as Charlie Baldwin. Three Charles Baldwins fought in World War I and fortunately all of their records are digitised and available from Archives NZ. On the basis of comparing signatures, if this is the same Charlie B then it is Charles Cameron Baldwin born in 1889, son of John and Bessie Baldwin of Turakina. Charlie B was the cousin of Willie Baldwin who was married to Roderick’s sister. Charles was invalided home late in 1917. In 1921 he married Heather Cunningham and worked as a farmer. He died in 1961 at the age of 72.

The troopship Arawa was originally built in 1907 by Swan Hunter Wigham Richardson, Wallsend Sunderland for Shaw Savill and Albion, London.  On 16 October 1914 it departed Wellington with the Wellington Infantry Battalion (less West Coast Company and 7 and 8 Platoons), Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment (less 2 troops), Field Artillery Brigade (in part), Signal Troop N.Z.E. 59 Officers, Naval Transport Officer, Medical Officers and Chaplain. 1,259 Men and 215 Horses.

This postcard is of the Arawa though the card is not part of Elsie’s collection.

On 1st November 1914 the Arawa assembled with the first convoy at King George’s Sound, Albany Western Australia in transporting the First Detachment of the Australian and New Zealand Imperial Expeditionary Forces.

On the 3rd December 1914 it arrived at Suez, Egypt. Charlie B would have been on board the Arawa at the date of the postcard.

The card was produced by Plâté Limited. It began in 1890 when a couple, A.W.A and Clara Plâté travelled to what was then called Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. They embarked on a career in photography in that country and the business still exists today.