The extremely scare Boer War/WW1 group of three issued to Joseph Arthur Metzger, who served in South Africa with the 10th NZMR Contingent and later served on the Western Front where he was wounded twice before being captured and made a Prisoner of War at Meteren in April 1918.

 

Joseph Arthur Metzger was born on 9th April 1882 to a German father, Joseph Metzger, and his Prussian (modern-day Poland) wife Ernestine Henrietta Radke. Joseph snr. had been educated in Germany (Wurtemburg) and England before training as a butcher. He came to New Zealand via Australia in the late 1870s, settling at Invercargill. He married Ernestine Radke at Invercargill in December 1879 and built a successful butchery business in Invercargill before building and operating the Bay View Hotel at Bluff in 1892. It was into this family of some means that Joseph jnr. was born – the first of Joseph and Ernestine’s nine children. Joseph was educated at Gladstone School, and then when the family moved to Bluff, at Bluff School.

 

Joseph was accepted for service in the 10th NZMR Contingent in April 1902, embarking on the Norfolk on 19th April 1902. He saw brief service in South Africa before returning to New Zealand in July 1902. He received the Queen’s South Africa Medal in 1904. In the years following his return from South Africa, Joseph worked as a labourer at Awarua. In September 1914 he was arrested for drunkeness in Dunedin, and the following year was convicted of receiving 70 bottles of ale which had been stolen from a warehouse. During the court proceedings Joseph indicated he was ‘anxious to go to the front’, and the judge had no problem with granting probation to facilitate this.

 

Joseph attested for service in the NZEF on 6th December 1915, serving in Egypt and on the Western Front with 8th (Southland) Company, 2nd Battalion, Otago Infantry and joined his unit on 16th June 1916 at Armentieres. During the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on 15th September 1916, Joseph suffered a gunshot wound to his left shoulder. Following treatment, Joseph returned to his unit in early October. In the rest period following the New Zealand Divisional offensive operations, Joseph fell foul of military law. He was arrested for being absent without leave (AWOL) in November 1916, and when in open arrest, broke arrest to go AWOL once again. He was found guily be Field General Court Martial and sentenced to three months Field Punishment No. 1 and loss of all pay over that period. Following his release in March 1917, Joseph served a month with the NZ Working Battalion, before returning his unit in April 1917. On 8th June 1917, during the Battle of Messines, Joseph was wounded for a second time, remaining with his unit. Records show that Joseph was admitted to No. 13 General Hospital on 20th June 1917 having suffered a gun shot wound to his back and had been ‘slightly buried’, presumably by shell fire. Following treatment at Bolougne, Joseph returned to his unit on 20th July 1917. Over the next few months Joseph was in and out of hospital suffering from mylagia, and was away from his unit for the disastrous attack at Passchendaele on 12th October 1917. In April 1918, following period at a rest camp, Joseph was posted to 2nd NZ Entrenching Battalion. He was captured during the mass-capture of the 2nd NZ Entrenching Battalion on 16th April 1918, and held in Germany until the end of the war.

 

After the war Joseph lived on Ruapuki Island in Foveaux Strait, working as a sheepfarmer although the Electoral Rolls show him as a labourer from Bluff. He died 11th May 1947 at Invercargill, having never married. He is buried in the Metzger family plot in Bluff Cemetery.

 

QSA is correctly impressed 9667 PTE. J. A. METZGER. 2ND REGT 10TH N.Z. CONT: and the WW1 medal are correctly impressed 8/4456 PTE. J. METZGER. N.Z.E.F. Note the QSA does come with the South Africa 1902 clasp but is this is not shown in the photograph.

Only five members of the New Zealand Contingents were captured during the First World War.

Service file held at Archives New Zealand (Boer War)

Service file held at Archives New Zealand (WW1)