BIRD, James Samuel
(Service number 3/564)
| First Rank | Private | Last Rank | Private |
|---|
Birth
| Date | Unknown | Place of Birth |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | Age | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | |||
| Occupation | |||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | Single | ||
| Next of Kin | J. Bird (father), Waimate | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | No.1 Stationary Hospital | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | NZ Medical Corps | ||
| Date | 21 May 1915 | ||
| Transport | Marama | ||
| Embarked From | Wellington | Destination | Sydney, Australia |
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | NZ Medical Corps | ||
Military Awards
| Campaigns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Medals | |||
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 |
Death
| Date | 23 October 1915 | Age | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | Lost at sea, HT Marquette, Aegean Sea | ||
| Cause | Drowned | ||
| Memorial or Cemetery | Mikra Memorial, Greece | ||
| New Zealand Memorials | On Memorial wall, Timaru; St Augustine Church War memorial; Waimate First World War Memorial | ||
Biographical Notes
James Bird was the son of Mr and Mrs Joseph Bird of Painstown, Waimate. Marama then transfer to Moldavia for Suez. Marama then transfer to Moldavia for Suez (Evening post 23 May 1915). One of 29 crew and 182 troops lost on the torpedoed Marquette 23 Oct 1915. The Marquette was a British merchant ship of 7057 tons. It sank when a torpedo launched from a submarine hit it 36 miles south of Salonica Bay. Ten of this who died were NZ nurses who had been working at No.1 NZ Stationary Hospital in Port Said in Oct 1915 when they were ordered to prepare to go to Lemnos. The hospital was to be set up there to care for casualties being brought back from the Dardanelles. The Transport Ship Marquette took on board officers and men of the NZ Medical Corps, 36 NZ Army Nursing Staff, 610 officers and men of 29th Divisional Ammunition Column, 541 mules and some ammunition n mid October sailed for Salonika. The French torpedo destroyer Tirailleur joined the convoy on 22 Oct which gave credence to the idea that there was a real danger of b wing attic led by German submarines in the Mediterranean. The torpedo destroyer left the convoy on 22 Oct and at 9.156am on 23 Oct the Marquette was hit by a torpedo on the starboard side and began to list. Within about 15min she had sunk.
Sources
Cenotaph Sep 2013
External Links
Related Documents
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Researched and Written by
Carol Bell, SC branch NZSG & Timaru Herald
Currently Assigned to
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Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.
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