{"id":237636,"date":"2026-01-17T06:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T06:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/237636\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T06:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T06:49:09","slug":"the-great-adventure-grandson-brings-far-north-soldiers-world-war-i-story-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/237636\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The great adventure\u2019: Grandson brings Far North soldier\u2019s World War I story to life"},"content":{"rendered":"

He has produced three editions of Jim\u2019s story. The latest details how the \u014ckaihau farmer and musician swapped the Far North for the trenches of the Western Front, and his part in the dramatic and historic liberation of French town Le Quesnoy<\/a> from Nazi occupiers on November 4, 1918.<\/p>\n

Hughes said he, his siblings, and their cousins used to go to Jim\u2019s \u014ckaihau farm during school holidays as children. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were kids and we\u2019d rifle through drawers in the living room of the farmhouse and find a dagger.\u201d<\/p>\n

The children would probe whether the dagger came from the war but Jim wouldn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first received his diaries, correspondence and memorabilia, I had little idea of the stories within,\u201d Hughes said, adding that the situation would be the same for any person in their thirties with limited knowledge of World War I. <\/p>\n

Jim\u2019s diaries detailed everything from life in the trenches to the glamour of Paris.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt very privileged to be the person who was given that opportunity. Consequently, I grasped it with both hands,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n

\"\u014ckaihau\u014ckaihau farmer Jim McKenzie in uniform ahead of leaving for Europe to fight in World War I. <\/p>\n

Jim was born on 17 May, 1876, in Russell in the Bay of Islands. He was the second youngest of James McKenzie and Jessie McDonald\u2019s 13 children.<\/p>\n

Hughes said his grandfather had been a musician, dancer, farmer, soldier and much more. He played violin in a local orchestra, along with his brother Bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loved dancing, he loved conversation. He was typical of those Scots who emigrated: sociable, musical, family oriented,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n

\"FarmerFarmer Jim McKenzie seated at left with a violin and his brother Bill, standing at left, in the \u014ckaihau Orchestra in 1912.<\/p>\n

Jim was 40 when he enlisted, making him much older than most soldiers. <\/p>\n

He had lost sight in one eye during a forestry accident so was initially rejected for service. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe family folklore goes he memorised the eye chart and the medical papers say, \u2018sight of left eye bad\u2019 but in fact he had no sight.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hughes said Jim was determined to get to the war because his close friend Jack Bindon had been killed at Gallipoli.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a farmer, Jim was exempt from military service, but as a late starter at the age of 40, he was determined to serve King and Country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hughes said this was typical of the nationalistic fervour of the time. <\/p>\n

From November 11 and into December Jim wrote about marching with \u201csore feet\u201d as he and his regiment marched more than 200km into Germany.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew Zealand gunners loading a howitzer near Le Quesnoy in 1918. <\/p>\n

The last battle Jim fought was at Le Quesnoy. His company was charged with undertaking a clockwise flanking manoeuvre around the north of the town, storming the locations of Ramponeau and Villereau. <\/p>\n

Following the liberation of Le Quesnoy, Jim resumed his diary entries on November 9 with a simple: \u201cScouting round for vegetables.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hughes laughs about how Jim\u2019s diaries were often understated and brief, covering entire battles in one sentence or writing \u201cditto\u201d for days on end, signalling the periods of monotony soldiers experienced. <\/p>\n

\"JimJim McKenzie\u2019s wartime diary.<\/p>\n

Jim returned to New Zealand on June 23, 1919, and resumed life on the farm. <\/p>\n

He married his neighbour Alice and together the couple had four children: Florence Joan (Hughes\u2019 mother), Margaret Anne, Gordon Cameron and James Douglas.<\/p>\n

Hughes and partner Eileen in 2024 visited locations on the Western Front, including the NZ Liberation Museum \u2013 Te Arawhata in Le Quesnoy. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to imagine this gentle farmer from North Auckland with a bayonet in his hand, face to face with a German soldier,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n

Hughes had found visiting his grandfather\u2019s battlegrounds humbling.<\/p>\n

The two most fascinating sites had been where Jim first joined the front line and where lightly armed New Zealanders were \u201cthrown into the gap to save the day\u201d on March 26, 1918, near Mailly-Maillet.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be there exactly 100 years to the day, in a place where many Kiwis fell, was thrilling but also extremely sad,\u201d Hughes said. <\/p>\n

Hughes\u2019 research gave him a newfound respect for his grandfather and the other soldiers. <\/p>\n

Hughes counts himself very lucky that he knew Jim, albeit in his later years.<\/p>\n

Hughes was almost 10 when his grandfather died on January 24, 1958.<\/p>\n

Today, he describes Jim as \u201cquite the character\u201d.<\/p>\n

” … I remember him as a lovely, funny old man who wore trousers with braces and smelled of honey.”<\/p>\n

Hughes hoped the book would give Jim\u2019s family a glimpse of his personality and achievements.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe book The Great Adventure, which Alan Hughes has written about his grandfather Jim McKenzie.<\/p>\n

When asked what he believed his grandfather\u2019s lasting legacy would be he said: \u201cIn a word, leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim came from a family of Scottish leaders. His own grandfather had emigrated to Canada from the Highlands, then to New Zealand almost 40 years later. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe travelled halfway around the world, and Jim did the same for a cause in which he believed,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He has produced three editions of Jim\u2019s story. The latest details how the \u014ckaihau farmer and musician swapped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,433,32220,13916,1038,528,12026,42835,140228,16773,5630,424,61340,111,43,139,529,69,9061,96734,427,223,2044,61,6149,377,4741],"class_list":["post-237636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-adventure","tag-alan","tag-asked","tag-brings","tag-far","tag-farmer","tag-grandfather","tag-grandson","tag-great","tag-hughes","tag-life","tag-mckenzie","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-often","tag-soldiers","tag-story","tag-the","tag-time","tag-to","tag-war","tag-world","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}