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Hi,
There are resources for Indian BMD that I have seen on this website.
Where did they emigrate from to N.Z. in 1889? If it was England will be easier to trace.
I grew up in Hamilton
Trish
They emigrated from Bangalore, after Agnes gave birth to at least two sons (James (nickname Jim)) and Walter (my great-grandad). I looked deeper into Messines Ridge through Google, and found out it was here that mustard gas was used for the first time, by the Germans. It was very awful stuff, mustard gas. 
Now this is sparking my interest in Passenchendaele even more (the fact that lots of ancestors were there, I mean), so it's a good thing I'm taking a WW1 history paper this year!
Passchendaele: Encyclopedia II - Passchendaele - July 1917
Passchendaele - July 1917
As a second stage of the action, General Sir Hubert Gough was put in charge of the attacks to secure the Gheluvelt Plateau which overlooked Ypres. Huge numbers of guns were moved into the area and started a four-day bombardment, but the Germans recognised the sign of an impending offensive, and moved more troops in to reinforce the defences.
In July the Germans used mustard gas for the first time. It attacked sensitive parts of the body, caused blistering, damage to the lungs and inflammation of the eyes, causing blindness (sometimes temporary) and great pain.
One problem in carrying the offensive forward was the Yser canal, but this was taken on July 27 when the Allies found the German trenches empty. Four days later, the offensive proper opened with a major action at Pilkem ridge, with allied gains of up to 2000 yards. The Allies suffered about thirty-two thousand casualties--killed, wounded or missing--in this one action.
Ground conditions during the whole Ypres-Passendale action were atrocious. Continuous shelling destroyed drainage canals in the area, and unseasonable heavy rain turned the whole area into a sea of mud and water-filled shell-craters. The troops walked up to the front over paths made of duckboards laid across the mud, often carrying up to one hundred pounds (45 kg) of equipment. It was possible for them to slip off the path into the craters and drown before they could be rescued. The trees were reduced to blunted trunks, the branches and leaves torn away, and the bodies of men buried after previous actions were often uncovered by the rain or later shelling.
Hi HollyMM,
Welcome to Rootschat
What time frame are we looking at?. I see you are in N.Z. did she die there?
We need more info to start searching please.
Trish
DAVIES.
Herald, 20th June 1940.
On June 19th at the residence of her daughter, Mrs Pascoe, 8 O'Rorke Street, Onehunga, Agnes, widow of the late Charles Arthur Davies and mother of Ruby, Agnes, Margaret, Ethel, Lucy, Jim, Walter, Bill, Dick, Lou, Tom and Charlie, in her 78th year. Requiem Mass will be celebrated at the Church of the Assumption, Onehunga, today Friday at 9 am, the funeral then leaving for the Mangere Cemetery at 3pm.
Searching 'Menase' alone, I get, of all things, 'The Phantom Menace'! So, does anyone have any idea how to dig deeper into finding this elusive name? I also am unsure of quite where she was born, but she was apparently born in India. However, is 'Menase' known in any way as an Indian surname (keep in mind this is her maiden name)?
No 7 General Hospital was actually in St Omer...
The New Zealand Division's first major trial on the Western Front was during the Battle of the Somme. It took part in the Fourth Army's attack on 15 September. By the time they were relieved on 4 October, the New Zealanders had advanced three kilometres and captured eight kilometres of enemy front line. More than 7000 had become casualties, of whom 1,560 were killed.
In June 1917 the New Zealand Division further distinguished itself in the storming of Messines ridge. During the Third Battle of Ypres in the following October, however, it was bloodily repulsed in its second attack at Passchendaele; with 850 dead, this remains the worst disaster in New Zealand's history in terms of lives lost in a single day.
If you don't get any luck from other sources I'll check my books in the morning. It's a bit late (for me) to do any research tonight.
Alan NZ
The internet isn't being very helpful to me at all.
