Profile

WORNER, Alfred
(Service number 14727)

The Worner Brothers — (Courtesy of C Jackson )

Geraldine Hockey Club Memorial Pavilion — "Erected by the members in memory of their comrades who fell in the Great War 1914-1918” (Courtesy of K Close and P McAuliffe )

Geraldine Hockey Club Memorial Pavilion - plaque — The plaque above the building’s door reads: “Geraldine Hockey Club Memorial Pavilion. Erected by the members in memory of their comrades who fell in the Great War 1914-1918”.
The building was opened on 22 October 1923. It still stands today (2019) in the Geraldine Domain. (Courtesy of K Close and P McAuliffe )

Geraldine Hockey Club Memorial Pavilion plaque - restored in 2023 — (Courtesy of K Close )

Aliases	Enlisted as Alfred Warner Helem
First Rank	Sergeant	Last Rank

Birth

Date	Unknown	Place of Birth

Enlistment Information

Date		Age
Address at Enlistment	Ohutu, New Zealand
Occupation	Farm hand
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Peter Dunbar Helem (father), Ohutu, New Zealand
Religion
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	New Zealand Rifle Brigade
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	5th Reinforcements 4th Battalion, H Company
Date	26 June 1916
Transport	Tahiti
Embarked From	Wellington, New Zealand	Destination	Devenport, England

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	New Zealand Rifle Brigade, 1st Battalion

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals
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		Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	13 August 1917	Age
Place of Death	Ypres, Belgium
Cause	Killed in action
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Messines Ridge (New Zealand) Memorial, Messines Ridge British Cemetery, Belgium
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials	On Memorial wall, Timaru; Geraldine War Memorial; Geraldine War Memorial; Geraldine Hockey Club Memorial Pavilion plaque

Biographical Notes

Alfred was the son of Frederick William and Florence May Worner (nee Helem), one of the couple's nine children. When only one year of age his father died, so he went to live and was raised by his mother's borther, Peter Dunbam Helem and his wife. As a reuslt when he enlisted he did so under the surname Helem and gave his parents as Mr. and Mrs. Peter Dunbar Helem of Ohutu, Rangitikei.

Two of his brothers, Alexander and George Worner, also served in the war and all three were killed in action.

Sources

Cenotaph (12 August 2013)

External Links

Researched and Written by

Tony Rippin (South Canterbury Museum)

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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!