Longueval bell

Longueval bell

• Height  179 mm
• Width  216 mm
• Weight  7 kg
• Note  C#

The Longueval bell is one of seven bells in the Carillon named for the 1916 Battle of the Somme and is dedicated to the memory of Wellingtonian Hugh ‘Nip’ Collins.

Hugh Collins

Born in 1892, Hugh was one of Andrew and Catherine Collins’ ten children. His father was a baker and the family lived in Island Bay on Wellington’s south coast. Hugh worked as a clerk and later as an accountant for G. H. Scales and Co., an export and shipping firm in Wellington. He was quite likely the same Hugh Collins who was convicted for taking part in a fist fight with a tram driver during the ‘Battle of Featherston Street’ on 5 November 1913, one of the most violent days of that year’s Great Strike.

In August 1915 Hugh enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. By April the following year he was on his way to the Western Front. A gunner with the New Zealand Field Artillery, Hugh’s first major engagement was during the Somme offensive in September 1916.

On 16 September, during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, Hugh was killed in action when he was hit by a shell while working to repair communication wires for his battery in the front trenches. Although his body was recovered and buried, his grave was later lost.

Hugh is among the more than 1200 men of the New Zealand Division commemorated on the New Zealand memorial to the missing at Caterpillar Valley. In 1926 Hugh’s father purchased one of the Carillon bells in his memory, named for the town of Longueval in France. The town is not far from where the New Zealanders made their push during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette and is also adjacent to the memorial which bears Hugh’s name. 

Further information

Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph - Hugh Collins record

Commonwealth War Graves Commission record - Hugh Collins

'Before the magistrate', Dominion, 7 November 1913, p. 8

'Breakers of the peace', New Zealand Times, 7 November 1913, p. 8

'In the dock', New Zealand Times, 18 November 1913, p. 7

'More men before court', Dominion, 18 November 1913, p. 9

'All sorts of people', Free Lance, 27 October 1916, p. 4

'Personal matters', Evening Post, 17 November 1916, p. 8