PROJECTS
JUDE DOBSON


Soldier Stories

Project: Documentary
Role: Researcher, Writer, Presenter, Director, Producer
Client: NZ Herald
Company: Homegrown Television

The soldier stories of Le Quesnoy dropped daily on The Herald, in the week of the centenary of the liberation of Le Quesnoy in November 2018. I chose three men that survived the battle who had family alive to help tell the story, and two men who died who are remembered by their school. I also created a piece about the battle and wrote the accompanying print pieces.

The Herald hosts all the stories here (including a piece about the future NZ museum, which is now out of date given the museum was completed five years later). 




The Battle: A week before World War One ended, the New Zealand Division, on its own, liberated the northern French town of Le Quesnoy from German occupation. The walled medieval town needed a medieval answer to get inside. A ladder.




2nd Lieutenant Leslie Averill: Scaling a 13 metre medieval wall by ladder, into an enemy occupied town in WW I, is not for the faint hearted.




Reverend Clive Mortimer Jones:
The role of a WW I chaplain was a challenging one.




Sergeant Reginald Hird:
A story about how love can bloom even in the horrors of war time, half a world apart.




The Auckland Grammar School Fallen:
Auckland Grammar School had 1500 masters and old boys leave NZ shores to serve overseas in WW I - 309 of them would never return. Arthur Daw and Robert Kennedy were two of them.