On 21 February 1917, Lance-Corporal Ormond Burton of the 2nd Battalion Auckland Regiment took part in a raid that saw him awarded the Military Medal for bravery – he was also awarded the Medaille d'Honneur after the taking of Grevillers. He would later write the official history of the New Zealand Division before becoming one of New Zealand’s leading Christian pacifists.

Ormond Edward Burton was born in Auckland on 16 January 1893. By 1913 he was sole-charge teaching at Waimana Sawmill School, in the Bay of Plenty. Here, and later at even smaller schools in the area, he developed an innovative educational programme, largely based on the natural world around him. At night he read assiduously: the Bible, history, philosophy and poetry, which would lead to his pacifist views.

Early in 1915 Burton sailed with the No 1 New Zealand Field Ambulance. At Gallipoli he stayed aboard the Lutzow to tend the wounded and dying, but was later a stretcher-bearer. In September 1915 he was evacuated to Egypt, and by May 1916 was with the New Zealand Division in Flanders. During the raid by his battalion on 21 February 1917, Burton continued tending the carrying of the wounded in "No Man's Land" under a very heavy and accurate enemy barrage until all were got away.

In 1917 Major General Sir Andrew Russell asked Burton to write a short account of the New Zealand Division in the war. The monograph was published as Our little bit and given to every serviceman at the armistice. It was extended and about a year later published as The New Zealand Division.

Burton had fought in the war because he believed the destruction of Prussian militarism would usher in a new age of peace and freedom through forgiveness and reconciliation under God. Horrified and disillusioned with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, he became a resolute convert to Christian pacifism. In 1923 he told students at the New Zealand Student Christian Movement conference that Jesus Christ was above family, friends and country and urged them to resign their commissions in the territorials and refuse to join the armed services.

The day after the Second World War was declared in September 1939, Burton and two others condemned it before a crowd of 200 outside Parliament. Under emergency regulations only hours old, expressing such views was unlawful and all three were arrested. Burton was visited in jail by the deputy prime minister, Peter Fraser, who was worried that Burton, a returned soldier and a charismatic speaker, might attract the nucleus of a large and embarrassing anti-war movement. Burton rejected Fraser’s plea to desist and resumed speaking in Allen Street. He was arrested and fined three times in the next four months, and after a large meeting in February 1940 at Pigeon Park, was sentenced to a month’s hard labour. On his release he went straight back to the speaking podium and was imprisoned for a further three months. By June, Burton’s permit to speak at the Basin Reserve was cancelled, poster parades were banned, and street speakers were forced indoors. Subsequently, Burton and 10 other CPS members spoke briefly at Pigeon Park before being arrested. On this occasion Burton was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment.

Active until his death in 1974, Burton spoke out against the Vietnam War, leading a number of marches and sparking debate within religious circles. Despite his autocratic nature, he had been widely admired and respected for his courage, even by those who did not agree with his message.

Archives Reference: AALZ 25044 Box 2 / F1018 archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=24183975

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