Lieutenant Spencer Westmacott

Spencer Westmacott (1885-1960) was an officer with the 16th Waikato Regiment which departed New Zealand for the First World War in October 1914. Westmacott was ...
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Spencer Westmacott (1885-1960) was an officer with the 16th Waikato Regiment which departed New Zealand for the First World War in October 1914. Westmacott was part of the Allied invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula on 25 April 1915, and was one of the first New Zealanders to head up into the steep hills to join the Australians. He later remembered it as ‘the most glorious day of my life’ (Alexander Turnbull Library, Micro-MS-847-2). However, by nightfall he had been evacuated with severe wounds, his frontline service at an end. His right arm was later amputated at a military hospital in Egypt. Now a larger-than-life Lieutenant Spencer Westmacott aims his pistol at the entry to Te Papa museum's latest exhibition in Wellington, NZ. He's the first of eight central characters who feature in "Gallipoli: The Scale of our War".
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