Profile

EDMAN, Herbert Lionel
(Service number 6/3007)

Aliases Bert
First Rank Private Last Rank Private

Birth

Date 3 August 1893 Place of Birth Christchurch, New Zealand.

Enlistment Information

Date 12 June 1915 Age 22
Address at Enlistment Care of Mrs Beaumont, Stafford Street, Timaru, New Zealand.
Occupation Packerman
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin Mrs Katie Mansson (Mother), Hawkhurst Road, Lyttelton, New Zealand
Religion Church of England
Medical Information 5 foot 10 1/2 inches tall, weight 130 lbs, chest 31 1/2 - 34 inches, dark complexion, brown eyes, black hair, good teeth

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation 7th Reinforcements
Unit, Squadron, or Ship Canterbury Infantry Battalion, C Company
Date 9 October 1915
Transport Aparima, Or Navua Or Warrimoo
Embarked From Wellington, New Zealand Destination Suez, Egypt
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With D Company, 2nd Battalion, Canterbury Infantry Regiment

Military Awards

Campaigns Egyptian and Western Europe
Service Medals 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal.
Military Awards

Award Circumstances and Date

No information

Prisoner of War Information

Date of Capture
Where Captured and by Whom
Actions Prior to Capture
PoW Serial Number
PoW Camps
Days Interned
Liberation Date

Discharge

Date Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

9 July 1915 - Influenza, Trentham; 18 November 1915 - admitted to D.B.I. Hospital Egypt with VD; 15 December 1915 - admitted Choubra Isolation Hospital With Diptheria; 21 September 1916 - reported Missing in Action, France; Found in field 23 September 1916 - admitted To No 11 General Hospital Rouen France - Wounds to back - transferred by Hospital Ship Maheno to England same day; 24 September 1916 - admitted to No1  Hospital Brockenhurst, Hapmshire England with wounds to back.  Recorded On Military Sheet 13 October 1916; Succumbed to wounds on 11 November 1916.

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date 11 November 1916 Age 23
Place of Death No1 NZGH, Brockenhurst, Hampshire, England
Cause Died of wounds
Notices Timaru Herald, 16 November 1916 (page 6)
Memorial or Cemetery Brockenhurst (St Nicholas) Churchyard, Hampshire, England
Memorial Reference Plot A, Row 1, Grave 7
New Zealand Memorials On Memorial wall, Timaru, Lyttelton War Memorial and father's headstone in Lyttelton Cemetery

Biographical Notes

Herbert (known as Bert) was born at Christchurch on 3 August 1893, only son of John (1846-1910) and Kate Miriam (1866-1924 nee Ford) Edman. After his father’s death at Lyttelton in 1910, his mother Kate later remarried in 1913, Martin Mansson, a Swedish seaman. Herbert was educated at the Lyttelton Primary School. By 1915 he was working in Timaru as a Packer man for W. Evans (Flour Millers) of Beswick Street, and his address was care of Mrs Beaumont of Stafford Street, Timaru.

On 12 June 1915 Herbert enlisted for war service, and was posted to C Company, 2nd Battalion of the Canterbury Infantry Regiment. His mother, Mrs Katie Mansson of Hawkhurst Road (later 3 Jacksons Terrace) Lyttelton, was listed as his next of kin. He was described as being single, 5 foot 10 ½ inches tall, Anglican, his chest measuring 31 ½ - 34 inches, of dark complexion, brown eyes, black hair and having good teeth. Shortly after entering Trentham Camp, on 9 July, he was admitted to hospital for 10 days with influenza. Training completed, he embarked from Wellington with the 7th Reinforcements, Canterbury Infantry Regiment, on 9 October 1915. His contingent was bound for Suez, Egypt, and their transport was either the Aparima, Navua or Warrimoo (HMNZT 32, 33 or 34). Not long after arriving in Egypt, he was again in the D.B.I. Hospital from 18 November to 6 December, suffering from a personal complaint. Only out of hospital a few days, he was, on 15 December, admitted to the Isolation Hospital at Choubra, suffering from diphtheria and was discharged on 23 December to the base depot at Zeitoun.

On 8 March 1916 at Moascar, he was posted to D Company, 2nd Battalion Canterbury Infantry Regiment, and embarked for France on 7 April 1916. Later in the year his unit was at a place called Goose Alley which was near Flers on the Somme. During an attack on 21 September, he was reported as missing in the field and was not found until two days later with gunshot wounds to his back. He was immediately admitted to No11 Stationary Hospital at Rouen. Herbert was embarked the same day, on the Hospital Ship Maheno, for England, and admitted to No1 NZ General Hospital at Brockenhurst on the 24th. There he was to survive for another six weeks, but unfortunately died of his wounds on 11 November. Burial followed on 13 November 1916, in Plot A, Row 1, Grave 7, in the Brockenhurst (St Nicholas) Churchyard, Hampshire, England.

Herbert’s name is commemorated on the Timaru Cenotaph, Lyttelton War Memorial and his father’s headstone in the Lyttelton Cemetery. After the war, his mother, Kate Mansson, now living at 3 Jackson’s Terrace, Lyttelton, was sent his war medals, the 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal, plus a plaque and scroll.

Sources

New Zealand ANZACs in the Great War 1914-1918 at http://nzef.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=74098; "Lyttelton War Memorial" on Kete Christchurch at http://ketechristchurch.peoplesnetworknz.info/in_memoriam/topics/show/147-lyttelton-war-memorial#.V0vEFvl96M8 – Lyttelton War Memorial; Every Man Remebered at http://www.everymanremembered.org/profiles/soldier/362555/; "New Zealand War Graves - St Nicholas" on Brockenhurst Parish Church website at http://www.brockenhurstchurch.com/church-life/church-buildings/new-zealand-war-graves.php; Timaru Herald 16 November 1916 p6, Auckland Star 17 November 1916 p7, and Star 21 November 1916 p5 courtesy of Papers Past at http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz; Ancestry.com.au ;NZ War Graves Project at http://www.nzwargraves.org.nz/casualties/herbert-lionel-edman; Clare Church “New Zealand Graves Brockenhurst”, page 88

External Links

Related Documents

Researched and Written by

Patrina Buchanan; Ted Hansen, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Logo. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.

Tell us more

Do you have information that could be added to this story? Or related images that you are happy to share? Submit them here!

Your Details
Veteran Details
- you may attach an image or document up to 10MB