World War One

Bunny spent 5 years with the Wakatu Mounted Rifles before enlisting on the 29th of May 1915, in Nelson. He was attested on the 30th of May. His service number was 24/674, and he was a Rifleman, ‘C’ Company in the NZ Rifle Brigade, 2nd Battalion. His military records tell us he was five-foot five inches tall, with brown eyes, a dark complexion, dark hair, and he was a Roman Catholic. His service overseas is recorded as 2 years, 321 days from 9 October 1915 - 25 August 1917.

Bunny served on the Western Front, largely in the Bombing section. On the 18th of June 1917, he was reported wounded in Action while “consolidating trenches close to Messines sector near canal”.

Nelson Boys return to camp after enjoying holiday leave. Lewis (Bunny) Arnold back row far right. (Diggers' page - Nelson photo news - No 18: April 28, 1962).

From Battlefields to Spring Grove Railway

Ross Higgins recalled many of Bunny’s war stories, including that of his being badly wounded at the Somme; when the stretcher bearers arrived, he asked them not to bother taking him as he was as good as dead. Days later, he discovered his twenty-six comrades had been killed by concussion caused by the explosion. They still had their eyes open, which made him believe they were alive.³

“Bunny spent the rest of his life suffering the effects of shell shock, any loud noise would send him into a shaking fit and sadly, as children, we didn’t realise what the problem was, so they used to think it funny to explode fireworks near him and watch his reaction." Mr. Higgins said, “My father was a World War One veteran and he and Bunny would talk together every day about their experiences and the misery they had seen.” For the rest of his life Bunny still had twenty-seven pieces of shrapnel left in his body, these were pieces the doctors said were not worth the trouble of removing. He had many operations over the years to have far many more pieces taken out. Mr. Hogg said Bunny had a great sense of loss over the death of his comrades and despite the fact his thoughts often returned to his war days, he was always cheerful and had a great sense of humor.⁴

Army history sheet recording Lewis (Bunny) Arnold being discharged. (https://digitalnz.org/records/35035035/arnold-lewis-arthur).

Excerpt from Brian O’Donnell’s book

The following is an excerpt from Brian O’Donnell’s book “When Nelson had a railway: The life and death of New Zealand's last isolated railway 1879-1955”.

“Lewis Arthur ‘Bunny’ Arnold, one of the many dignitaries of the Nelson line.... An unofficial, unpaid Irish stationmaster of Spring Grove – known personally by everyone associated with the railway. Bunny’s link with the line commenced when he was carried off the Wellington ferry on a stretcher at the end of the long journey from the World War One battlefields of France, the only survivor from a trench that had been hit by a mortar. He was completely bandaged except for his eyes, prompting his mother to burst into tears when she met him at the foot of the ferry gangway at Port Nelson. He told her not to worry, he was home, others still in France were much worse than him.

Bunny died on the 23rd of July 1956 aged 73, just as the demolition gang was lifting the line at Wakefield. The railway and all those involved with it had become so much a part of his life that it was fitting that he never saw it removed. I was a pallbearer at his funeral at St. Joseph’s Church in Wakefield. During the service I could almost hear 404 leaving Spring Grove under load and smell the smoke it left in its wake. I certainly thought of the twenty-seven pieces of shrapnel still in Bunny’s body which were buried with him. Only once in the years since have I missed placing a poppy on his grave on Anzac Day as a tribute to a true war veteran and a colourful honorary stationmaster of Spring Grove.” - Ross Higgins.⁵

Statement of services for Lewis (Bunny) Arnold. (https://digitalnz.org/records/35035035/arnold-lewis-arthur).

Yarning

Ross Higgins recalled “Bunny was very well known throughout the Waimeas. After church on Sundays, people would gather around the street in Wakefield to listen to him telling stories. They could be about anything but were mainly about the war, mustering, and politics. Thirty to forty people would gather, and they regarded it as their entertainment for the day. With politics he would suddenly switch from one side to the other after a year or two and he had very interesting arguments as to why. Bunny had inherited a large amount of his Irish grandfather’s talents of witty storytelling and repartee and made very good use of those talents. He and Ross Higgins’ father, Hughie, would yarn for hours on end on wet days. World War One and mustering being the main topics and both of them had been involved in those events.”

“Bunny had no time for Generals at all. He saw too many of his mates ‘sent over the top’ to a certain death by enemy machine guns, and with a British Officer right behind holding a revolver pointed at their backs! He had seen men with their stomachs blown away – at one time, three of them still walking, but falling down one after the other. He would get very agitated if someone brought the subject of Generals up in conversation or disputed one of his war stories. He was quite badly shell-shocked, and the war obviously affected the rest of his life.”⁶

Bunny Arnold checking the track towards Wakefield with the aid of his dog, mid 1950s. (Ross Higgins in O’Donnell, 2005, p. 56).

The Farm

Bunny had a war pension, but it was something that he never talked about. His right hand had only the index finger, thumb, and half of one other finger left after the trench explosion that killed all his mates. He slowly gained as much strength in the index finger as in the arm itself, as the doctors had told him he would. He could easily lift a bucket of milk with the finger! He was unable to use an axe or a post-hammer, because of his injuries, so the farm fences suffered.

The farm included the present (2024) forest tree nursery and the totara hillside on the eastern side of the valley, and it was nearly all flat.

“Bunny had a fair struggle to hold the farm together. He gave us the impression that he expected the old dad to walk back in the gate and things just remained ‘as was.’ He was a bit lost. Of course, he struggled to milk a cow with just one finger. It took him years to master how to milk a cow, just a cow; although I think that he supplied the dairy factory with a billy of cream, like a lot of others did.”

“They built a very good hop kiln on the farm, close to the existing house there. It was one of the better hop kilns around. I saw that kiln and I knew every inch of it and, of course, he kept his old Overland car in there. The kiln was very well constructed with a concrete end where the fire was. Most of the others were just clay. It was the first concreting done in Spring Grove. They just got the new kiln and they put the garden in and when they’d just put it in, Bunny and his dad said, ’what the hell are we doing all this work for?’ So they pulled it all out again!” (Their Irish genes must have really come to the fore on that occasion!) “I think a lot did that, there was a lot of work in them, manual work. Putting in all those poles – a big cost getting the poles and a struggle to get them. Climbing up to put the wires up was a huge job with a three-legged ladder. They had to put the anchors in – all by hand.”

Bunny had horses and some machinery such as a plough and discs and he grew oats. The farm had an excellent stable for the horses, and it was better than most around the area. One of the last draught horses was sold to Alf Silcock from Dovedale and Alf walked it all the way home.⁷

Scan of a medical report for Lewis (Bunny) Arnold as an Invalid. (https://digitalnz.org/records/35035035/arnold-lewis-arthur).

Dog Trialing

Ross talked about the dog trial committee of June 1946 which was convened especially to conduct the New Zealand Championships of that year. The championships were held down at Max’s in Clover Road, Hope. Ross thought that there were a few combined clubs in the committee, but that mainly the members were from the Waimea Club. It was a big event at the time.

Bunny was well known as an expert at swearing, so Chris asked Ross about it: “Swearing – Bunny? Well, of course he couldn’t whistle, this is a good story, too. He was badly disfigured, and he could never whistle of any sort, but, my God, if his dog went the wrong way at the dog trials over here, he would let him know in English, exactly what he thought of him!”. “They reckoned that Bunny’s event attracted more visitors than any other aspect of it. If they knew Bunny was going to run at a certain time on a certain afternoon, people would turn up, just for the circus! They would clap and cheer and shake hands with him when he came down. I don’t think that he ever won anything with a dog, but a big part of the Waimea Dog trials was Bunny’s event!”⁸

1946 Dog Trial committee. Bunny Arnold, second from right, standing. (Personal collection. Richmond, Nelson).

The Overland Car

About 1926, Bunny bought a brand-new Overland car, and he used it to take his parents and sister Violet to St. Joseph’s Church in Wakefield each Sunday. He also took it to Nelson about every two months; eventually when the vehicle registration went up, Bunny put the car up on blocks in the hop kiln and he biked the four kilometres to church after that.

“One day, Bunny had stopped outside the Brightwater Hotel. The car was running pretty rough, and the boys said, ‘lift the bonnet up,’ and the trouble was, he didn’t know anything about that car, when he first drove it. He and his father wouldn’t have known what a bonnet was! So, he lifted the bonnet up and they said, ‘Oh, there’s a wire off a spark plug,’ ‘Oh,’ said Bunny, ‘I’ll put that back on!’ They had a fair kick in them, you know – they had a magneto.

Bunny of course leapt up in the air and his father said to Lewis (Bunny’s real name) ‘what’s the matter with ye, Lewis?’ And Lewis, of course, he didn’t know what it was either! Lewis said, ‘I don’t know but I think my heart missed a beat!’ He was really quite serious about it. After that he found out what electricity was! That was a true one.” The ‘boys’ of course, thoroughly enjoyed the whole performance! After the family stopped travelling by horse and buggy, (and the Overland car) Bunny and his young sister, Violet, used their trusty bicycles for the 4km journey from their Spring Grove home to church.⁹

Smoking

Bunny was known as being a fairly heavy smoker and because of his injuries he was unable to roll his own cigarettes. Tailor-made cigarettes at the time were only about fourpence a packet of ten and if you took out a packet to get a cigarette, it was normal practice to offer one to anyone else with you. Well, it turns out that Bunny was a step ahead of that procedure and he would have several packets on him with only one fag left. So out would come a packet and, “oh, sorry, I’ve only got one left.” One can only assume that not only did it save him from giving cigarettes away, but no doubt he would score a few – seeing that he was in such dire straights!¹⁰

Bunny is buried at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Pitfure Road, Wakefield, which has been the place of worship for many members of the Arnold family since it was built in 1870 and the cemetery is the final resting place for fifteen of them.