Saturday, August 16, 2014

New Zealand Military Hospital & Maori Battalion - Walton on Thames - WW1







New Zealand Military Hospital opened August 1915 - Closed 1920

Mount Felix House, Walton on Thames, Surrey


Private James Livingstone Porter served with the Otago Infantry Battalion.  He worked as a moulder before joining up early in the war and departing from Port Chalmers in October 1914.  He died of wounds sustained at Gallipoli in October 1916.
 
Corporal Thomas Wallace Phillips was part of the Auckland Mounted Rifles and the 2nd Reinforcements, he is mentioned on the War Memorial at Cambridge, New Zealand.
 
Private William Fox’s name is recorded wrongly on the banner as ‘Cox’.  He was a member of the Canterbury Infantry Battalion with the 4th Reinforcements.  The spelling mistake has been transferred once more from the banner to the modern commemorative plaque which is now installed in the church!

Acting Corporal John Brian Dalton had previously had a long association with the Hawera Mounted Rifles Volunteer Force.  He embarked from Wellington on 17th April 1915 to serve with the Otago Mounted Rifles as part of the 4th Reinforcements.  He was slightly wounded at Gallipoli but had become seriously ill by the time he reached England, where he was admitted to the hospital at Walton-on-Thames and died on the 2nd December 1915.

Corporal Henry Hudson was part of the Main Body of the Wellington Infantry Battalion who left Wellington in 1914.  He died two years later from heart failure following pneumonia.

Driver Arthur Hall was part of the Army Service Corps.  He died of heart failure following an operation at Walton-on-Thames in June 1916.
Driver William Henry Russell was part of the 9th Reinforcements of the New Zealand Field Artillery, he died of his wounds in September 1916.
Rifleman Edward Rout was employed as a general labourer by J. Cole of Papatoetoe before joining the 1st Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade.  He died of wounds inflicted to his right shoulder and right leg in October 1916.
Private Kingi Hamana was part of the 1st Maori Contingent, B Company.  He died of tuberculosis in October 1916.
Private John Lewis Boyd was part of the Auckland Mounted Rifles and the 7th Reinforcements.  His injuries left him paralysed from the waist down.  He remained in England after being discharged from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force as his mother lived in Hampshire.  He died in 1932 and was buried at Walton-on-Thames, so his name must have been added to the banner long after it was originally installed in the church, and only shortly before it was removed to make way for a more permanent memorial.

Sapper Jack Fleming was married to Anne Charleswood and had two daughters, Annie Elizabeth and Nellie.  He left his family in Auckland when he embarked in April 1916 with the New Zealand Field Engineers.  He died of disease in October the same year.
 
Private Montrose Baker from Gisbourne was a member of the Wellington Infantry Battalion and the 7th Reinforcements.  He died from his wounds.


Private William Henry Rishworth of Dunedin was wounded by shrapnel whilst serving with the Otago Infantry Regiment in the 12th Reinforcements.  He later died of his wounds at Walton-on-Thames.

Rifleman George Blinko was a cabinetmaker from Hastings who served with the New Zealand Rifle Brigade before contracting pneumo-coccal meningitis and dying on 6th January 1917.

Private Robert Black was husband of Alice Ann Black from Rarotonga and an accountant before he joined the Wellington Infantry Regiment.  He died of disease in April 1917.

Miss T. W. Bennet was a nurse in the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) who worked at the New Zealand General Hospital No. 2.  Unfortunately we have so far not been able to uncover any more information about her.

Colonel Charles Mackie Begg was a surgeon in the New Zealand Medical Corps and became the Director of Medical Services for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.  He died at his home in Twickenham from influenza and pneumonia in 1919.

Information from the Museum of New Zealand
New Zealand VAD Nurse

Wilmet Annie Bennett VAD Nurse, aged 32-  Daughter of the late Joseph Bennett, of Otahuao, Masterton, Wellington. died of an appendicitis 21/11/1918 buried at Walton on Thames
 
Maori Battalion 


 
The Maori Contingents red and black blaze was New Zealands first cloth distinguishing patch to be adopted in WW1. (and may reflect the traditional colours of the Maori people)
 
Buried at Walton on Thames

Private Ramera (Raniera) Wairau embarked from Wellington in September 1915 as part of the 2nd Maori Contingent.  He died of tuberculosis in 30 October 1916. Son of Ra and Wahati Wairau, of Opoutama, Hawke''s Bay.

Private Kingi Hamana New Zealand Maori Pioneer Battalion 03/10/1916 Son of Rongo and Pine Hamana, of Te Wairoa, Hawke''s Bay.

 
 
Private Taura from Atiu, Rarotonga, joined the Rarotongans Unit of the 3rd Maori contingent, despite not being able to speak any English.  Son of Tuakina Atiu, of Rarotonga, Cook Islands. He contracted tuberculosis and died 07/01/1917
 
 
 Maori Battalion,
 "Te Hokowhitu a Tu" -
'The 70 twice-told warriors of the War God'.
 
 
 

Memorial Banner; circa 1919; unknown maker; cloth, cotton, silk, metal, wood and cord; Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.


Detail of Memorial Banner; circa 1919; unknown maker; cloth, cotton, silk, metal, wood and cord; Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.