Mrs Cannington, of Waimea street, yesterday received word from the Minister of Defence that her eldest son, Sergeant Harold W. Cannington, was killed in action on July 9th. Sergeant Cannington was a Nelson Collegian, and was in the local office of the Public Trustee. He left New Zealand with the Main Force, and served through the Gallipoli campaign. Mrs Cannington's second son has just returned to Nelson invalided from the front. -Nelson Evening Mail, 24/7/1916.
News has just come to hand of the death in action of Sergeant H. W. Cannington at the age of 23, who for many years was a resident of this city. Sergeant Cannington always evinced a deep interest in military matters, and immediately on the outbreak of war offered his services to the Defence Department. He left New Zealand with the Main Body with the rank of corporal, and gained his additional stripe in Egypt. He saw service in the Canterbury section of the Main Body at the Suez Canal in the fight with the Turks, and was present at the landing in Gallipoli in April of last year. After serving for some months on the peninsula he was invalided to Lemnos, and always refused the offer to be invalided back to New Zealand, so keen was his desire to see the war to a successful conclusion. Sergeant Cannington was born in Christchurch. He joined the Public Trust Office staff in Wellington, on leaving Nelson College some five years since. Not only was Sergeant Cannington a keen territorial when he held non-commissioned rank, but took a very active part in all outside games. He was well known in rugby circles in Wellington, where he played for the St. John’s Football Club, and afterwards for the Wellington Club. His brother. Private S, Cannington, has just been invalided back to New Zealand from Egypt. His widowed mother, Mrs W. Cannington, resides in Nelson. -NZ Times, 29/7/1916.
The Official History of Harold Cannington's Regiment, the Canterbury Infantry, has this to say about the night of the 8/9 of July, 1916: At 9.15 p.m. on July 8th, the enemy opened a still heavier bombardment on all our positions, but concentrated particularly on the centre of the 1st Canterbury Battalion's front line trenches. On the right centre (known as No. 2 Locality, with the strong point called "the Mushroom" in advance of the front line) was part of the 1st Company, the remainder of which was in No. 1 Locality (on the right flank of the battalion) and in the support trenches of the two localities. Part of the 12th Company was in No. 3 Locality, in the left centre.
In the light of subsequent experience, all the British front line trenches were at this time far too strongly garrisoned, and it was impossible for any shell to land in a trench without causing several casualties. The Mushroom had a garrison of one officer and forty other ranks, of which the bombardment which began at 9.15 p.m. killed the officer, his platoon sergeant, and five men, besides severely wounding several others.
When the bombardment lifted off the Mushroom, about fifty of the enemy attacked the strong-point. The survivors of the garrison, under Sergeant S. Brister, repelled this attack, but were immediately attacked from both flanks by enemy bombing parties. Fighting desperately, the garrison on the right was driven back up the communication-trench leading back to No. 2 Locality. This party was commanded by Sergeant Brister, who, though wounded, refused to surrender, and established a block in the communication trench, which he held till our counter-attack had been delivered.
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