‘Sleep on dear Ernie,your battles are o’er’: A Glimpse of a Mourning Community,Invercargill,New Zealand,1914-1925

Abstract

Focusing on Invercargill, one of the southernmost regional towns in the South Island, New Zealand, this article re-examines one of the clichés of the First World War: that few families were untouched by loss and grief. The analysis, using the community as the point of origin, provides evidence for two arguments. First, that soldiers had considerably more latitude in their expressions and rituals of bereavement than did families; and second, that public expressions of grief revealed a shared set of community values, most particularly those of civilian citizenship, that were core to Invercargill residents’ understandings of the war.