On 28 June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie were assassinated in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo. The fallout from this faraway event would ultimately claim the lives of 18,000 New Zealanders and lead to the wounding of 41,000. Places thousands of miles from home with exotic-sounding names such as Gallipoli, Passchendaele and the Somme etched themselves in national memory during the First World War.

The war took approximately 100,000 New Zealanders overseas, many for the first time. Some anticipated a great adventure but found the reality very different. Being so far from home made these New Zealanders very aware of who they were and where they were from. In battle, they were able to compare themselves with men from other nations. Out of this, many have argued, came a sense of a separate identity, and many New Zealand soldiers began to refer to themselves as ‘Kiwis’.

Ormond Burton, a decorated veteran of Gallipoli and the Western Front, summed up a popular and enduring view of the significance of the war on New Zealand society, stating ‘somewhere between the landing at Anzac and the end of the battle of the Somme, New Zealand very definitely became a nation’ [1].

Quick facts and figures

The total population of New Zealand in 1914 was approximately 1.1 million

Almost 100,000 New Zealanders served overseas in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF)

More than 2200 Māori and around 500 Pacific Islanders served overseas with the New Zealand forces

11 Victoria Crosses were awarded to soldiers serving with New Zealand forces

Several thousand New Zealanders served in the Australian or British imperial forces, being awarded a further five Victoria Crosses

In all, 550 nurses served overseas with the New Zealand Army Nursing Service, while others enlisted in the United Kingdom

Around 18,000 New Zealanders died in or because of the war, and there were 41,000 instances of wounding or illness; 2779 died at Gallipoli and more than 12,000 on the Western Front

The names of those who died are recorded on approximately 500 civic war memorials throughout New Zealand

For a more detailed discussion of First World War statistics click here

[1] Ormond Burton, 'A rich old man' (unpublished autobiography), p. 138