CLOSE, Percy Melville
(Service number 33237)
| First Rank | Private | Last Rank | Private |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 25 January 1882 | Place of Birth | Fairlie |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | Age | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | 136 College Road, Palmerston North | ||
| Occupation | Engine Driver | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | married 3 Jan 1917 | ||
| Next of Kin | Mrs M F Close (wife) 24 Bath St, Parnell, Auckland | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | NZ Expeditionary Force | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | 22nd Reinforcements, Specialist Coy, Machine-Gun Section | ||
| Date | 16 February 1917 | ||
| Transport | HMNZT 76, Aparima | ||
| Embarked From | Wellington | Destination | Plymouth |
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | NZ Machine Gun 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 | 13 January 1918 | Age | 35 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | France | ||
| Cause | Died of wounds | ||
| Memorial or Cemetery | Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood, onnebeke, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium | ||
| New Zealand Memorials | On Memorial wall, Timaru; Fairlie Primary School War Memorial; Mackenzie War Memorial, Fairlie, 2016 additions | ||
Biographical Notes
Percy was born at Fairlie Creek on 25 February 1883, the son of William and Mary Eleanor nee Dines, who married 1873 in New Zealand. The Close family lived in North St, Timaru and Percy was enrolled in the Infant school at the Timaru Main School, coming from Oamaru on 5 March 1889. He left school on 15 November 1899, destination work. His brother William left the Main school in 1896. A sister was called Jane.
Percy' s occupation at enlistment was given as engine driver. He married Mary Geraldine Buck in 1917. At enlistment his wife was listed as next of kin, her address being 24 Bath St, Parnell, Auckland.
Percy embarked from Wellington on 16 February 1917 on the troop ship "Aparima" for Plymouth, England. He served with the machine gunners in Palestine and then in France where he died of wounds on 13 January 1918.
His name is remembered on the South Canterbury Memorial Wall in Timaru, and the Cenotaph at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database (October 2014)
External Links
Related Documents
Researched and Written by
Jennifer Cordes, Mackenzie Genealogical Group
Currently Assigned to
Not assigned.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.
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