Profile

COLVILL, Alexander
(Service number 49668)

Aliases	May be G. A.
First Rank	Private	Last Rank

Birth

Date	31 October 1896	Place of Birth	Glentunnel

Enlistment Information

Date	26 February 1917	Age	20 years 4 months
Address at Enlistment	Waihaorunga, Waihao Downs
Occupation	Farm hand
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Mrs J. HAWKINS (mother), Waihaorunga, Waimate, Canterbury
Religion	Presbyterian
Medical Information	Height 5 feet 4¾ inches. Weight 130 lbs. Chest measurement 33-35 inches. Complexion ruddy. Eyes grey. Hair fair. Sight - both eyes 6/6. Hearing & colour vision both noemal. Limbs well formed. Full & perfect movement of all joints. Chest well formed. Heart & lungs normal. No illnesses. Free from hernia, varicocele, varicose veins, haemorrhoids, inveterate or contagious skin disease. No vaccination mark. Good bodily & mental health. No slight defects. No fits. 2 scars right arm from old bullet wound. Class A.

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	28th Reinforcements, Specialists Company, Machine-Gun Section
Date	24 July 1917
Transport	Waitemata
Embarked From		Destination	Plymouth, Devon, England

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns	Western European
Service Medals	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	7 June 1919	Reason	On termination of period of Engagement.

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	25 December 1955	Age	59 years
Place of Death	Auckland
Cause
Notices	Timaru Herald, 27 December 1955
Memorial or Cemetery	Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland
Memorial Reference	Block K, Row 5
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Alexander Colvill was the son of Alexander and Isabella (née Nicol) Colvill, both born in Scotland. He was educated at Glentunnel School then Waihaorunga. His father had died in October 1900 at his farm, Wairiri Valley, Glentunnel. To wind up the estate of Alexander senior, in January 1901 there was a clearing sale of stock and implements and the sale of his "choice farm" which was in "splendid order" and included a new house of seven rooms with all conveniences. Come August 1906, his widow, Isabella, offered for lease a good small farm situated between Glentunnel and Coalgate and held in the estate of Alexander Colvill. As of 1906 his mother was Mrs Hawkins. She appears to have married Thomas Hawkins in 1915. Alice Linda Hawkins, a step-sister of the Colvill family, was born in 1909.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [05 November 2016]; NZ Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ Ref. AABK18805 W5562 0129229) [09 November 2016]; Press, 30 October 1900, 21 January 1901, 4 August 1906 (Papers Past) [09 November 2016]; Timaru Herald, 27 December 1955 (Timaru District Library) [09 November 2016]

External Links

Researched and Written by

Currently Assigned to

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!