Profile

BROSNAHAN, Patrick Joseph
(Service number 4/1743)

Aliases
First Rank	Sapper	Last Rank

Birth

Date	20/07/1884	Place of Birth	Kerrytown

Enlistment Information

Date		Age	30 yrs 10 mths
Address at Enlistment	C/o Mrs McDonald, Sumner Rd, Lyttelton
Occupation	Surfaceman N.Z.R.
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	H. BROSNAHAN (father), Kerrytown, South Canterbury, later at 21 Spencer Street, Addington, Christchurch
Religion	Roman Catholic
Medical Information	Height 6 feet 1 inch. Weight 172 lbs. Chest 34-37 inches. Complexion dark. Eyes brown. Hair dark. Sight, hearing, colour vision, heart and lungs all normal. Limbs and chest well formed. Full movement of joints. Two teeth require extracting and a partial lower plate is required. Free from hernia, varicocele, varicose veins, haemorrhoids, inveterate or contagious skin disease. Vaccinated. Good bodily and mental health. No slight defects.

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	9th Reinforcements New Zealand Engineers
Date	8 January 1916
Transport	Maunganui
Embarked From	Wellington	Destination	Suez, Egypt

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns
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	9 May 1919	Reason	No longer physically fit for War Service on account of illness contracted on Active Service.

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

July 1916 wounded in right thigh by machine gun bullet - no disability. Dating from 28 November 1918, in England, debility from Influenza. While on leave from his unit in France he took ill with influenza; he reported this and was sent to N.Z Continent(?) Hospital on 12 December 1918. He had been in bed for a fortnight in Ireland and treated by a doctor. Out of bed 3 days - sore throat, cough. The Medical Report of 18 December 1918 (Hornchurch Hospital) stated "P. does not look well. Still has sore throat & cough, short of breath on exertion". Advice that he was unfit for war service for 6 months, unfit to home for 3 months.

Post-war Occupations

Railway employee, tablet porter; postmaster

Death

Date	23 December 1933	Age	49 yrs
Place of Death	Christchurch
Cause	Illness - myocarditis; chronic pulmonary tuberculosis.
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Sydenham Cemetery, Christchurch
Memorial Reference	Block 18B, Plot 4
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Son of Hugh & Julia (nee SCANNELL) BROSNAHAN. Brother of Timothy John killed in action & Louis who also served. Patrick enlisted in October 1915 at Christchurch. He gave three years and 203 days of war service. His illness in 1918 was clearly attributable to his active service in the current war. In 1924 Patrick married Edith McDONALD who predeceased him (1932). At his Mediacl Examination in June 1915, Patrick was recommended as "A very suitable man". How sad to see a man who was well built succumb to the effects of illness attributable to his war service.

Sources

Cenotaph Database [29 July 2013]; N Z Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ Ref. AABK 18805 W5530 0018544) [16 April 2014]; CCC burial records (Sydenham Cemetery) [15 April 2014]

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!