Gordon Gerald Harper

Gordon Gerald Harper

Gordon Gerald Harper, No. 7/516, Machine Gun Squadron, Canterbury Mounted Rifles, died of wounds, 12 August 1916.

Second Lieutenant Gordon Harper is one of 18,058 New Zealanders who died as a result of First World War service and are listed on the Roll of Honour.

Born in February 1885 to prominent Christchurch citizens George and Agnes Harper, Gordon Gerald Harper was the second-youngest of 10 children. A blue-eyed redhead, Gordon attended Christchurch Boys’ High School, where he was a prefect, captain of the cadets, school magazine editor and member of the rugby and cricket teams. After finishing school Gordon had a variety of jobs before joining his younger brother Robin in farming at Waiau in north Canterbury. They farmed together until war broke out in August 1914.

Gordon and Robin enlisted in the machine gun section of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles. Each carried a whistle with which to summon the other when they were at the front. They left New Zealand with the Main Body in October 1914 and soon arrived in Egypt. Gordon and Robin spent five months there before the Mounted Rifles Brigade was called into action as reinforcements at Gallipoli in May 1915.

On 21 August Gordon and Robin took part in the attack on Hill 60, capturing an Ottoman machine gun before Gordon was shot in the neck. Robin helped carry Gordon down to the beach and had begun to head back inland when Gordon whistled for him. Robin came back and the two took confession on the beach before Gordon was evacuated to England. The attack was a failure, but Gordon and Robin’s actions during the fighting earned both of them a Distinguished Conduct Medal, a mention in despatches and promotion to second lieutenant. 

Gordon recuperated in England and returned to active service at the end of the year. In January 1916 he was reunited with Robin in the Mounted Rifles, which became part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force charged with defending the Suez Canal from enemy attack. That August Gordon was severely wounded during the Battle of Romani. When Robin heard the news he rode to his brother under heavy fire, put him across his horse and carried him to safety. Gordon was hospitalised in Cairo but died of his wounds three days later, on 12 August 1916.

Gordon is buried at the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery and is also remembered on the Christchurch Boys’ High School war memorial. When news of his death reached New Zealand, Gordon’s elder brother Eric volunteered for service. Sadly, Eric did not survive the war. Gordon’s death was especially hard on Robin. He wrote to his parents: ‘You can understand my feelings during this last awful week … as Gordon has always been more than a brother, if that is possible’.[1] Robin survived the war and returned home to a farming life, only to serve again in the Second World War. The Harper family recalls that when news of the war broke, Robin stood up and said: ‘I’m off. They got Gordon and I’d like another go at them.’[2] Robin survived his second experience of war and died in 1972 aged 85. 

Further information

Auckland Museum Online Cenotaph record

Commonwealth War Graves Commission record

Harper Brothers Great War Story

New Zealand mounteds attack Hill 60

Sinai campaign

Waiau war memorial

Christchurch Boys' High School war memorial

Jock Phillips (ed.) with Phillip Harper and Susan Harper, Brothers in arms: Gordon and Robin Harper in the Great War, NZHistoryJock, Wellington, 2015

'Objects from a desert war' blogpost by Jock Phillips (WW100)


[1] Robin Harper to George and Agnes Harper, August 1916, in Jock Phillips (ed.) with Phillip Harper and Susan Harper, Brothers in arms: Gordon and Robin Harper in the Great War, NZHistoryJock, Wellington, 2015, pp. 163–4.

[2] Robin Harper quoted in Jock Phillips (ed.) with Phillip Harper and Susan Harper, Brothers in arms: Gordon and Robin Harper in the Great War, NZHistoryJock, Wellington, 2015, pp. 174–5.

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