Trench Blacks beating French Services 40-0 for the Somme Cup at Parc Jacques Anquetil, Paris on April 8, 1917.
Karl French knew little of his father’s story, now he’s sharing it with the world via Tainui Kāwhia Incorporation.
Tom French in touring kit for 1913 Māori All Blacks.
Tom French was a Māori All Blacks player, coach, life member of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union, referee and one-armed World War I veteran who was born under a pohutukawa at Waipapa Marae, Kāwhia.
He was proudly of Tainui-Ngāti Hikairo descent.
“His father John was tasked with putting the road through from Kāwhia to Ōtorohanga. Before that it was a goat track. You could understand how isolated and rural it was,” Karl said.
Nobody knows when he was born, not even Tom, but 1889 or 1890 is assumed.
Tom training in New Zealand as a sergeant in the Otago Battalion.
Tom died in 1970 when Karl was seven and lies at rest in the Waikumete Cemetery.
“I remember him being a very kind person and recall my brother Tony once remarked, ‘we were lucky to have a father like that’,” Karl said.
“On January 1, 2007, listening to the radio I heard what the prime minister had on the years agenda. One task was to attend the 90th commemoration of the battle of Passchendaele, Belgium in October.
“I remember thinking my father had a link to that battle and a switch was flicked on in my mind. Who was my father and what had he experienced in that far away land so long before?
“Ten years later, in October, I was on the Broodseinde battlefield at Aviatik farm at 6am, as the sun rose 100 years to the second after my father and the Auckland battalion launched their attack against the Germans.
“I’ve often wondered about getting Dad’s life history out into the world. I have always thought it would make a great movie.”
Tainui Kāwhia Incorporation’s Kenneth Riddell.
Rugby fans may have heard of the Tom French Cup, awarded to the best Māori player of the year since 1949. But who was Tom?
Much of Tom’s journey has now been shared on the Tainui Kāwhia Incorporation website.
TKI evolved from concerns about sand dune encroachment on the township of Kāwhia in the early 1960s.
Maram grass was trialled to stabilise the dunes before a forestation project was established.
Tom was a founding member of TKI committee of management and there is Tom French Grove near Te Puia Springs, Kāwhia.
Current members Stacey Whitiora and Kenneth Riddell wanted to tell Tom’s story as a starting point for a history project about those who were instrumental in forming TKI.
“I had contacted Kenneth about getting Tom French Grove officially recognised on Google and Trip Advisor,” Karl said.
“Stacey and Kenneth’s vision coincided with the twin biography project I have been writing about my father.
“This project would never have come about but for the vision of Stacey and Kenneth.”
Tom French in the 1940s-1950s.
One version is a shortened display, arranged on the website by Riddell.
The longer form is still to be polished.
Since March, Karl and Riddell have worked to refine the story to be more suitable to the web-based format.
“I crafted the design and layout of the page, laying down text boxes and illustrating them with Karl’s wonderful pictures of his father,” Riddell said.
“We at TKI are thankful that Karl has entrusted us with these precious accounts of his father.”
“We believe we have created something truly remarkable and are very proud to present this taonga of our tūpuna, Tom French, to the world.”
Karl (child) and Tom at Te Puia Springs Kāwhia in about 1967-1968.
Whitiora helped edit the story.
“The journey to uncover Tom’s story was collaborative. Karl and Kenneth worked together seamlessly to piece together the life of a man whose story was waiting to be shared.”
The site has become a sanctuary for Tom’s story – a place where his legacy could be expressed and celebrated.
“Tom’s life connects the past and present, ancestor and descendant of our whenua,” Whitiora said. “We discovered not just his story, but whakapapa, connection and belonging.”
Trench Blacks beating French Services 40-0 for the Somme Cup at Parc Jacques Anquetil, Paris on April 8, 1917. Tom is pictured centre behind the ball. From Free Lance Magazine 1917.
