What do you know?
David - you can see the Cenotaph record for him here: http://muse.aucklandmuseum.com/databases/Cenotaph/9003.detail? - at the end you can find a link to his service record, which unfortunately has not yet been digitised, but probably will be fairly soon.
The Cenotaph page confirms he was with the Canterbury Mounted Rifles and embarked in October 1914, so he would have been at Zeitoun for Xmas 1914. Sadly it looks like he died of sickness in October 1915 (in the UK after serving in Gallipoli), so your Xmas card must be from 1914.
You can read a detailed war diary of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles here: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/canterbury-mounted-rifles
And their official history is available here: http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1CMRi.html
Regards, Jamie
He was Pietro Luisetti from Woodend, Nth. Canterbury. I was lead to believe he was working for my grandfather as a farm labourer when he enlisted. Also I believe my grandparents sent horses away with these men.
Hi David The Wellington, Auckland and Canterbury Mounted Rifles were at Zeitoun Camp, near Cairo, at around Christmas time in both 1914 and 1915 - eg see the WMR diary here: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/wellington-mounted-rifles/1914 - though in 1915 they didn't actually arrive until 27th December.
If you can give me the name of the soldier, we can check his service record which might provide more information. Regards, Jamie Mackay
I have come in the possession of a letter written to my grandparents for Zeetown, Egypt by a N.Z. mounted rifleman. It was Christmas Day but no year is recorded. I would be interested to know the year.
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