Ernie Winmill was engaged to Ethel Allison when he went away to war in 1915. The sweethearts wrote to each other faithfully throughout his time overseas. Ernie carried Ethel’s photograph with him and she kept his. Relics of this wartime romance – some of the letters, cards, telegrams and souvenirs that Ernie sent home to Ethel – are on display in the exhibition Dunedin’s Great War at Toitū Otago Settlers Museum. The most remarkable item is a letter written on a piece of fabric from the wing of a crashed German aeroplane. “Thought it would be rather an interesting curio for you”, wrote Ernie.
Ernie was from Lawrence, a 26-year-old self-employed farmer at Hawea Flat when he enlisted for war service in April 1915. He had three years experience with the Tuapeka Mounted Rifle Volunteers and was fit and healthy, an ideal candidate for the Otago Mounted Rifles. His one deficiency, like so many of the early recruits, was his teeth. Ernie’s were a shocker. His acceptance for the force was contingent on him getting a new denture. Once fitted up with his new teeth, however, he was good to go and sailed overseas with the 6th Reinforcements on 14 August 1915.
After further training in Egypt and the dismemberment of the Otago Mounted Rifles in early 1916, Ernie was transferred to the New Zealand Divisional Artillery. He served on the Western Front as a gunner through 1917 and 1918, being promoted to sergeant before suffering a serious wound in action near Haplincourt on 2 September 1918. That was the end of Ernie’s active war but it was another six months before he reached home. He had been overseas for 3 years and 200 days. Three months later, on 23 August 1919, Ernie and Ethel were married at St Mary’s church in Timaru.
Ethel Winmill
Ernie Winmill