SQUIRE, Gustave Wood
(Service number 29596)
From an album belonging to Gustave Squire, held in a family collection. (Courtesy of Sandra Murray. South Canterbury Museum 2014/128.04)
From an album belonging to Gustave Squire, held in a family collection. (Courtesy of Sandra Murray. South Canterbury Museum 2014/128.05)
From an album belonging to Gustave Squire, held in a family collection. (Courtesy of Sandra Murray. South Canterbury Museum L2014/028.03)
| First Rank | Private | Last Rank |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 10/03/1895 | Place of Birth | St Andrews, New Zealand |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | Age | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | |||
| Occupation | Sheep farmer | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | |||
| Next of Kin | George Wood Squire (father), Fairview, Timaru, New Zealand | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | New Zealand Expeditionary Force | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | 19th Reinforcements Specialist Machine-Gun Section | ||
| Date | 15 November 1916 | ||
| Transport | Maunganui or Tahiti | ||
| Embarked From | Wellington, NZ | Destination | Plymouth, England |
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | |||
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 | 163 August 1976 | Age | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | Timaru, New Zealand | ||
| Cause | |||
| Memorial or Cemetery | |||
| New Zealand Memorials | |||
Biographical Notes
Before the outbreak of World War I Squire worked on his father’s sheep farm at Fairview, south of Timaru. He enlisted for the Army in June 1916 aged 21. On his final leave before heading to war he was given a send-off at Fairview School, where he was presented with a wrist watch as a memento of home. Squire completed his New Zealand training at Featherston Camp and left for war as part of the 19th Reinforcements aboard the Maunganui in November 1916.
Squire served in the Machine Gun Company while on the Western Front. During the war he unfortunately spent a lot of time in military hospitals being treated for illness, including a period in March 1917 for mumps. In the tough winter following the terrible battle of Passchendaele Squire must have been in the sodden frontlines because he was admitted for trench foot. Trench foot is a painful condition involving tissue damage that afflicted soldiers in the trenches since they spent so much time with their feet in mud or water.
Squire survived the war but had another brush with illness after peace was declared when he caught the flu during the Spanish Influenza Epidemic. Thankfully he survived the deadly flu and returned to New Zealand in 1919. Squire and other South Canterbury men returned to Timaru in May 1919 aboard a special train and were given an excited welcome from a large crowd of locals. In the years following he returned to the land and bought a farm near Cave. In World War II he served in the local Home Guard unit and helped train men on the machine gun.
Sources
Cenotaph (20 October 2014)
External Links
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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.
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