Mary Elizabeth Costin

David and Andrew Costin were the sons of Thomas Costin and Mary Elizabeth Costin (née Hall) who had married in St John's at Miles Platting in Manchester, England on 15 June 1889. Younger brother Thomas Costin had been born at Horwich in early 1900, but died at four years of age on 28 December 1904. He was buried in the Holy Trinity Churchyard in Horwich. David and Andrew had both been born at Horwich also; David on 15 February 1892, and Andrew on 6 January 1894. The family emigrated to New Zealand at some stage between 1905 and 1911. David was working as an engineer for A. Hatrick & Co. when he signed up to serve during World War I in Wellington on 7 October 1916. Andrew was working for W. Hernig & Co. at 160 Cuba Street in Wellington before he too signed up in Wellington on 23 February 1917. The brothers both ended up serving as signallers with the Otago Infantry Regiment, 1st Battalion. On 11 December 1917 David and Andrew were in a bivvy (temporary shelter) together in the splintered remnants and muddy quagmire of the Polygon Wood battlefield, around four miles east of Ypres, when a shell landed and blew the bivvy in. David was killed instantly and Andrew seriously injured. Andrew was admitted to the No. 3 New Zealand Field Ambulance and treated in the field. He was sent on to the No. 2 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station where he died of his wounds the following day. It is not known where David was buried, but he is remembered on the Buttes New British Cemetery New Zealand Memorial [Otago Regiment Panel]. Andrew was buried in the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery [Plot XXVII, Row DD, Grave 10A.]. Thomas and Mary had survived all three of their children. They must have visited Horwich at some stage, as Thomas died there on 19 November 1920 and was buried in the same place as his son Thomas, the Holy Trinity Churchyard. Mary must have returned to New Zealand as she died 21 years later, at her Barton Road home at Heretaunga, a suburb of Upper Hutt in the Wellington region of New Zealand's North Island. She was buried in the St. John's Anglican Churchyard Cemetery [Block E] in Trentham, Upper Hutt. Her headstone also commemorates her husband, along with their two sons whose lives were cut short by the barbaric senseless of World War I (bio by Debbie McCauley, 10 February 2024).