Profile

MATHIAS, Gerald
(Service number 7/1317)

Aliases
First Rank	Second Lieutenant	Last Rank

Birth

Date	Unknown	Place of Birth

Enlistment Information

Date		Age
Address at Enlistment	P.O. Box 191, Timaru, New Zealand
Occupation
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Lewis Mathias (father), P.O. Box 191, Timaru, New Zealand
Religion
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	6th Reinforcements
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	Canterbury Mounted Rifles
Date	14 August 1915
Transport	Tofua
Embarked From	Wellington, New Zealand	Destination	Suez, Egypt

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals
Military Awards	Military Cross (MC); Mentioned in Despatches (MiD)

Award Circumstances and Date

Military Cross (MC) – Lieutenant, Canterbury Mounted Rifles: “For conspicuous gallantry in action. He led his troops with great courage and determination and succeeded in capturing between forty and fifty of the enemy.” – London Gazette, 3 March 1917, p2199 Mention in Despatches (MiD) - Lieutenant, Canterbury Mounted Rifles: “For gallant and distinguished conduct in the field or for other valuable services. General A.J. Murray’s despatch dated 1st March 1917. (Commander-in-Chief, Egyptian Expeditionary Force)." – London Gazette, 6 July 1917, p6774.

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		Age
Place of Death
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Gerald Mathias' outstanding service was specifically recognised by two awards. The first, a Military Cross (MC), was awarded while serving as a Lieutenant in the Canterbury Mounted Rifles. The published citsation read: “For conspicuous gallantry in action. He led his troops with great courage and determination and succeeded in capturing between forty and fifty of the enemy.” (London Gazette, 3 March 1917, p2199). While serving with the smae rank and unit he was then awarded a Mentioned in Despatches (MiD), which was published four months later. That citation read: “For gallant and distinguished conduct in the field or for other valuable services. General A.J. Murray’s despatch dated 1st March 1917. (Commander-in-Chief, Egyptian Expeditionary Force)." (London Gazette, 6 July 1917, p6774).

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database (9 January 2015); SCRoll web submission by M Smith, 2 & 3 September 2024; McDonald, Wayne, “Honours and awards to the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Great War 1914-1918”, 3rd ed. (Hamilton: Richard Stowers, 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.

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