Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Louis Brosnahan was born on 1 August 1894 at Kerrytown, the fourth son of Hugh and Julia (née Scannell) Brosnahan. He was baptised (Aloysius Brosnahan) in the Temuka Catholic Parish two weeks later. Hugh and Julia who both emigrated from County Kerry, Ireland, married in 1876 at Timaru. They had five sons and seven daughters, probably all born at Kerrytown and possibly all reaching adulthood. Julia died on 20 September 1898 at Kerrytown and was buried at Temuka. Along with his siblings, young Louis was educated at St Joseph’s Convent School, Kerrytown. In 1905 Louis participated in the picturesque exhibition of dumb-bell drill at the school’s grand annual concert. In 1909, L. Brosnahan of the Kerrytown Roman Catholic School was successful in the Sixth Standard examination and gained the Certificate of Proficiency.

In March 1914 Louis Brosnahan appeared in Court at Timaru charged with failing to render service under the Defence Act; he explained that he had been busy at harvest and had neglected to write to the officers; in May 1914 the case was dismissed as he had attended parades and drills. When Miss Nora Brosnahan, a daughter of Hugh and sister of Louis, married Mr Bartholomew McGrath at St Mary’s Church, Pleasant Point, on 3 August 1915, her brother Louis was best man. He may well have been the L. Brosnahan who played cricket for the South End Club (Timaru) in the challenge match for the Bristol Cup in November 1915. He also participated in other sports – in August 1916, L. Brosnahan (Celtic) was selected in the Reserve backs for a combined rugby team to play against the High School; at the annual meeting of the Timaru Rowing Club in late September 1916 L. Brosnahan was elected a new member.

Louis Brosnahan was medically examined at Timaru on 21 September 1916. Standing at 5 feet 8½ inches, weighing 150 pounds, and with a chest measurement of 33-35½ inches, he had a fair complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. His sight, hearing and colour vision were all good, his limbs and chest well formed, and his heart and lungs normal. He was free from diseases, vaccinated, and in good bodily and mental health. Dental treatment was carried out on 4 October 1916. A farewell social and presentation were to be given to Louis Brosnahan of the 22nd Reinforcements in a granary at Waitawa on 6 October 1916. Enlisting at Timaru on 10 October 1916, he was a painter residing at Charles Street, Timaru and belonged to the 2nd South Canterbury Regiment. Single and Roman Catholic, he named his father as next-of-kin – Hugh Brosnahan, 21 Spencer Street, Addington, Christchurch. Louis had been previously rejected as unfit for the military on account of a broken collar bone.

Posted initially (October 1916) to C Company, 22nd Reinforcements, he was transferred to the 21st Reinforcements in January 1917 at Trentham, then back to the 22nd later in the month.

Private L. Brosnahan embarked with the Canterbury Infantry Regiment of the 22nd Reinforcements, departing from Wellington on 15 February 1917 per the “Navua” and disembarking at Devonport, England on 26 April. Marching into Sling on 26 April 1917, he was attached to Strength. Proceeding overseas to France on 26 May 1917, he was attached to Strength at Etaples two days later. He joined his Battalion on 19 June in in the Field in France.

Before long - on 3 August 1917 – he was admitted to the No. 3 New Zealand Field Ambulance, having been gassed by a shell. Five days later [8 August 1917] he was admitted No. 2 Australian Casualty Clearing Station. Wounded (gassed slightly) he was then admitted to No. 2 Canadian General Hospital at Etaples (France) on 11 August 1917. He was next admitted to the Convalescent Depot at Etaples on 21 August, then transferred to the Base Depot and attached to Strength on 29 August. He was transferred to No. 2 New Zealand (area) Employment Company on 22 September 1917, then classified C by the NZEF Travelling Medical Board on 3 [13] November 1917. Detached to England on 30 November, he was discharged to Torquay, marching in on 5 December 1917 from France. A week later he was classified unfit for Active Service.

Both Private Louis Brosnahan, 38932, of Addington, and Private Barry B. Brosnahan, 51098, of Kerrytown, returned to New Zealand per the “Willochra” (Draft 147), embarking at Liverpool on 1 February 1918 and arriving back on 19 March 1918. Louis Brosnahan was discharged on 21 August 1918, no longer physically fit for war service on account of wounds received in Action (gas poisoning). He was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He returned to Timaru and resumed his employment as a painter. Louis Brosnahan and Nora O’Leary were married in “a quiet but pretty wedding” celebrated at the Sacred Heart Church, Timaru, in May 1921. His youngest brother Joe was best man. The bride wore a beautiful pendant, the gift of the bridegroom. Their daughter Beatrice Mary was born in 1923. Louis and Nora remained in Timaru until the late 1930s or early 1940s, but not without some problems on Louis’ part. At the civil sitting of the Timaru Magistrate’s Court on 5 December 1923, Louis Brosnahan was ordered to pay forthwith the Deputy Official Assignee in the estate of Mara Bros. £1 17s 4d in default fourteen days’ imprisonment at Paparoa. At the court in March 1928, judgment was given against Louis Brosnahan for £53 9s 6d. Then on 23 May 1929 at the Timaru Magistrate’s Court, Nora Brosnahan proceeded against Louis Brosnahan on a complaint for maintenance, separation and guardianship orders. After the hearing of evidence, defendant was ordered to pay 15/- per week for the maintenance of his child. The request for separation was refused. By July, Louis Brosnahan, who was £6/15/- in arrear with payments on a maintenance order, was convicted and sentenced to one month’s imprisonment, warrant to be suspended so long as current order is complied with, and 2/6 a week paid off the arrears.

According to Senior-Sergeant Mathieson in the Magistrate’s Court, Louis Brosnahan, paperhanger, a prohibited person, came home drunk on 6 October 1930, smashed a square-rigger on the floor, tore up carpets and locked his wife and daughter[s] outside. He also used bad language. Constable Brazier gained an entrance to the house and arrested Brosnahan. A fine of £4 and costs, in default fourteen days’ gaol, was imposed on defendant for procuring liquor during the currency of his prohibition order. There was another judgment against Louis on 21 December 1932, this one for £2. And in December 1935, he was ordered to give possession of a house to Cicely E. Pontifex on or before December 31 and was also ordered to pay £5/5/- rent owing and costs £2/12/6.

“The man who procures the liquor is worse than the weak one who falls,” commented the Magistrate (Mr C. R. Orr-Walker, S.M.), in fining Louis Brosnahan £l, costs 10/-, on 3 September 1936 for a breach of his prohibition order. Mr A. D. McRae, who appeared for defendant, said that a man named Wenlock had procured a demijohn of beer and had taken it to a bach where he and Brosnahan had consumed it. There was no suggestion that Brosnahan had been on licensed premises. At a sitting of the Timaru Magistrate’s Court on 10 August 1938, Louis Brosnahan was ordered to pay the Westport Coal Company on a judgment summons £l/2/- by August 24, in default two days’ imprisonment. The following month there was another claim against Louis, this one for 17/-

In December 1939, Nora Brosnahan proceeded against Louis Brosnahan for the disobedience of a maintenance order, the arrears of which amounted to £l0/2/- up to December 7. The Magistrate entered a conviction and imposed a sentence of one month’s imprisonment in Paparua Prison, the warrant to be suspended so long as defendant made a payment weekly off the arrears and kept up the current payments. There was yet another court appearance in January 1941 - “For failing to comply with a maintenance order in respect of his wife, Louis Brosnahan was convicted and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour, the warrant to be suspended so long as defendant pays 10/- a week off arrears now due (£ll0/2/- to November 14, 1940) and keeps up current maintenance together with past maintenance ordered to be paid.” He had been arrested by Mount Cook police in November 1941. Both Nora and Louis made their way to the North Island in the 1940s but were living at different addresses.

Louis Brosnahan died at Auckland on 3 July 1963, aged 68 years 11 months, and was buried (Aloysius) in the Soldiers Section of Waikumete Cemetery. Louis’ next-of-kin at death was Mrs Butler, 53 Margate Rd, Blockhouse Bay. Mrs Butler was his daughter Beatrice. He was also survived by one sister - Sister M. Rita, of Waimate (Margaret Brosnahan). His wife Nora who had died in October 1960 was buried in the General Section of Waikumete Cemetery. Sister Rita died in 1981, the last of the family. His formal name – Aloysius Brosnahan - appears only in his baptismal record and in his death and burial records. His father Hugh Brosnahan, relict of Julia, died at Oxford on 19 February 1924 and was buried with Julia at Temuka after his funeral at St Joseph’s Church at Temuka.

Louis was a brother of Timothy John Brosnahan who was killed in action at the Somme on 16 July 1916 and of Patrick Joseph Brosnahan who also served. His daughter Beatrice Mary Brosnahan served in World War Two in the Air Force; and three nephews are known to have served in World War Two – Hugh Patrick Brosnahan, son of Louis’ oldest brother Hugh Francis; Cecil Patrick McEvedy served in the Navy, son of his sister Emma; Timothy John McGrath served in the Air Force, son of his sister Nora. In addition, Joseph Patrick Brosnahan, son of his youngest brother Joseph served in Malaya from 1948 to 1964. Many other relatives served in World War One, so intertwined were the Kerrytown families – Daniel Joseph Brosnahan, son of John Hugh Brosnahan; Hugh Hoare, son of Mary Brosnahan; James Francis Poff, son of Johannah Brosnahan; Francis (Frank) Patrick Joseph Poff, son of Johannah Brosnahan; Leo John Aloysius Poff, son of Johannah Brosnahan; Michael Brosnan/Brosnahan, son of Timothy Michael (Thady Mick) Brosnan; James Timothy Brosnahan, son of Timothy Michael (Thady Mick) Brosnahan; James Gregory Brosnahan, son of Timothy Brosnahan; Michael (Mick) Anthony Spring died of wounds in 1915 at Gallipoli, son of Margaret Brosnahan; Thomas Leonard, son of Johannah (Hannah) Brosnahan; Timothy Gregory Breen, son of Norah Brosnahan; Daniel Scannell, son of Mary Brosnahan; Christopher Patrick Scannell, son of Mary Brosnahan; Timothy Joseph Perry was killed in action in 1917 in Belgium, son of Catherine (Kate) Brosnahan; Timothy Joseph Brosnahan was killed in action in 1918 in France, son of Hugh Brosnahan. And in World War Two – Cecil Patrick Hoare, grandson of Mary Brosnahan; Fergus Patrick Brosnan, son of Timothy Michael (Thady Mick) Brosnan; Michael James Sullivan, son of Lucy Bridget Brosnan and grandson of Timothy Michael (Thady Mick) Brosnan; Eugene Augustus Breen, grandson of Norah Brosnahan; Hugh Brosnahan was killed in action in 1942 in North Africa, son of Hugh Brosnahan and brother of Timothy Joseph killed in action in 1918; Patrick Francis Brosnahan was killed in action in 1943 in North Africa, son of Hugh Brosnahan and brother of Timothy Joseph killed in action in 1918; Daniel Peter Brosnahan, son of Cornelius Brosnahan.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [29 July 2013]; N Z Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ Ref. AABK 18805 W5530 0018539) [30 March 2014]; Waikumete Cemetery burial records (Auckland Council) [03 April 2014]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs); Timaru Herald, 21 September 1898, 28 November 1905, 22 January 1910, 6 March 1914, 29 May 1914, 21 August 1915, 12 November 1915, 8 August 1916, 28 September 1916, 4 & 6 October 1916, 29 August 1917, 21 May 1921, 20 February 1924, 6 December 1923, 24 May 1929, 26 July 1929, 9 October 1930, 22 December 1932, 12 December 1935, 4 September 1936, 11 August 1938, 22 September 1938, 15 December 1939, 17 January 1941, Otago Daily Times, 28 August 1917, Sun, 28 August 1917, 13 March 1918, Wanganui Herald, 28 August 1917, Press, 28 August 1917, 14 March 1918, 23 May 1921, 22 March 1938, Lyttelton Times, 28 August 1917, 14 March 1918, Evening Post, 13 March 1918, Dominion, 14 March 1918, Ashburton Guardian, 9 October 1930, NZ Police Gazette, 9 April 1941, 12 November 1941 (Papers Past) [02 April 2014; 17 October 2015; 10, 11 & 13 February 2016; 11 September 2019; 29 January 2020; 02 February 2024; 01, 07 & 16 February 2026]; Auckland City Council Online Burial Records (Waikumete Cemetery) [03 April 2014]; Timaru Herald, 5 July 1963 (Timaru District Library) [11 April 2014]; Baptism record (Christchurch Catholic Diocese Baptisms Index CD - held by South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [05 February 2026]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au)

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file

Related Documents

• BROSNAHAN Louis - newspaper clippings (pdf, 111.6 KB updated 06-Apr-2026)

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC Genealogy Society

Currently Assigned to

TS