Profile

KEAY, David Smith Laing
(Service number 6/487)

Aliases
First Rank Private Last Rank

Birth

Date 21 September 1891 Place of Birth Timaru

Enlistment Information

Date 11 August 1914 Age 22 yrs
Address at Enlistment Theodocia Street, Timaru
Occupation Clerk
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin John KEAY (father), Theodocia Street, Timaru
Religion
Medical Information Height 5 feet 10 inches. Weight 138 lbs. Etes blue. Hair light brown. Small sar below eye. Lower false teeth except incisors and canines

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation Main Body
Unit, Squadron, or Ship Canterbury Infantry Battalion
Date 16 October 1914
Transport Tahiti or Athenic
Embarked From Lyttelton, Canterbury Destination Suez, Egypt
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With Canterbury Infantry Regiment, 1st Battalion, 2nd (South Xanterbury) Company

Military Awards

Campaigns Gallipoli; Egypt
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 3 August 1917 Reason No longer physically fit for war service on account of illness contracted on active service.

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

March 1915 dysentery. March 1916 influenza. May 1916 ulcer. May 1916 invalided to England.

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date 21 February 1959 Age 67 yrs
Place of Death Dannevirke
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials Mackenzie War Memorial, Fairlie, 2016 additions

Biographical Notes

David Smith Laing KEAY was the son of John and Christina Binnie (nee SMART) KEAY. His brother, Ernest James KEAY, also served in WWI. Prior to enlistment he was a clerk for C.F.C.A.Ltd. David was one of many keen and determined applicants at the Drill Shed on 11 August 1914. He was not one of those rejected, mostly for defects to the teeth and one or two on account of height; he passed the medical exanimation and was sworn in. The successful applicants were liable to be called up at any moment, and it was quite probable that they would leave Timaru in a matter of days for the central camp at Christchurch as part of the 2nd South Canterbury Regiment's quota.

Sources

Cenotaph Database [21 February 2014]; Timaru herald, 12 August 1914 (Papers Past) [01 September 2014]

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available. 

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TS

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