Lives of the First World War

Robert James Pullin’s obituary appeared in ‘The Otago Witness’ on the 12th June 1918. There he is describes as ‘a hearty Irishman’ and as a man who ‘radiated good humour wherever he went’. Colleagues in the Salvation Army recorded that he ‘was a popular and earnest man devoted to his duty’. Captain M Elford of the Salvation Army recalled a letter from Pullin to the Corps Sergeant Major in which he told of his joy in carrying on God’s work on the battlefield, presumably among his fellow soldiers, and of how he had a sense of God protecting him in the midst of danger. It was by such dedication to his work that he had also ‘earned the respect … of the citizens of Port Chalmers’. ‘Robbie’ seems to have made a trip back to Ireland just prior to his death. A Mr J. J. Toomer, back in New Zealand and writing of Pullin at the time of his death, said he had sometime previously received a letter from his own son Leslie. The soldier said, ‘I have just had a talk to Bob Pullin. He looks splendid in body and is well in his soul. He is just off to Ireland to see his people. He has waited a long time for this and is in high spirits.’

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