Profile

LATIMER, John Ernest
(Service number 8/789)

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank	Lance Corporal

Birth

Date	10/02/1894	Place of Birth	Oamaru, New Zealand

Enlistment Information

Date	24 August 1914	Age	20
Address at Enlistment	44 Williams Street, Timaru, New Zealand
Occupation	Labourer
Previous Military Experience	10th Infantry Regt
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Mr John Latimer (father) Torridge St, Oamaru
Religion	Presbyterian
Medical Information	6 foot 2 inches tall, weight 150 lbs, chest 32 inches, dark complexion, blue eyes, dark hair, good teeth

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	Main Body
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	Otago Infantry Battalion
Date	16 October 1914
Transport	Ruapehi or Hawkes Bay
Embarked From	Port Chalmers, New Zealand	Destination	Suez, Egypt

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	Otago Infantry Battalion

Military Awards

Campaigns	Egyptian, Gallipoli, Western Europe
Service Medals	1914-1915 Star, 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		Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

1 January 1917: France, gun sot wound to left hand - treated in London

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	16 August 1918	Age	24
Place of Death	Bapume, France
Cause	Killed in action
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Queens Cemetery, Bucquoy, Pas de Calais, France
Memorial Reference	I. O. 5
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

John was born 10 February 1894, at Oamaru to John Thomas and Janet (nee Reid) Latimer, of Torridge Street, Oamaru. He received his primary education at the Oamaru North School, first being admitted on 31 Jan 1899.

Prior to joining up for service in WWI, he was employed as a labourer for E Glass and Son, Oamaru, and gave his current address as 44 Williams Street, Timaru. Enlisting at Oamaru on 24 August 1914, he stated he had had served in the 10th Infantry Regiment. He was described as being aged 20, single, 6 foot 2 inches in height, weight 150 lbs, chest measuring 32 inches, of dark complexion, blue eyes, dark hair, teeth good and of the Presbyterian faith. Posted to the 2nd Otago Infantry Battalion, and after initial training, on 16 October 1914 he embarked with the Main Body from Port Chalmers on SS Ruapehu or Hawkes Bay, arriving in Suez, Egypt, 3 December 1914.

John served in Egypt, Gallipoli and later France where, on 1 January 1917, he was wounded in action, receiving a serious gunshot wound to the left hand. After hospital treatment in London, he returned to France in April 1917. On 16 August 1918, during the battle for Bapume, France, he was killed in action and was buried in Queens Cemetery, Bucquoy, Pas de Calais, France. For his service John was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal which, after the war, were forwarded, along with a plaque and scroll, to his mother. Also awarded to his family in the 1960’s was the Gallipoli Medallion.

Sources

Auckland Museum Cenotaph database (June 2015); Archives NZ (Personal File); NZSG Index V5; Papers Past

External Links

Military personnel file

Researched and Written by

Ted Hansen (SC branch NZSG)

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.

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