Profile

GILLESPIE, James Richardson
(Service number 13/2439)

Aliases
First Rank	Trooper	Last Rank

Birth

Date	31 August 1886	Place of Birth	Ayr, Scotland

Enlistment Information

Date	25 August 1915	Age	28 years
Address at Enlistment	Motere Station, Waipawa
Occupation	Shepherd
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Mrs Sarah G. GILLESPIE (mother), North Road, Oamaru
Religion	Presbyterian
Medical Information	Height 5 feet 5½ inches. Weight 140 lbs. Chest measurement 34-37 inches. Complexion dark. Eyes blue. Hair black. Eyes both 6/9. Hearing - right ear normal, left ear fair. Colour vision normal. Limbs well formed. Full and perfect movement of joints. Chest well formed. Heart and lungs normal. Teeth good. Free from hernia, varicocele, varicose veins, haemorrhoids, inveterate or contagious skin disease. Vaccinated. Good bodily and mental health. No slight defects.

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	Auckland Mounted Rifles
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	7th Reinforcements
Date	9 October 1915
Transport	Aparima or Navua or Warrimoo
Embarked From	Wellington	Destination	Suez, Egypt

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns	Egyptian
Service Medals	1914-15 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	3 June 1919	Reason	No longer physically fir for War Service on account of illness contracted on Active Service (malaria).

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	2 May 1960	Age	73 years
Place of Death	Waipukurau
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Waipawa Cemetery
Memorial Reference	Methodist Block F, Plot 10
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

James Richardson GILLESPIE was born in 1876 in Scotland, the son of James John and Sarah Gillespie (née RICHARDSON) GILLESPIE. His parents were married in 1884 in Scotland, where James and his brother Thomas were born before travelling to Melbourne, Australia, and settling in New Zealand by 1889. His father died in the Oamaru Hospital in 1900, leaving his mother with six children and in need of 'practical sympathy'; his mother died in Oamaru in 1920. James was educated at the Waimate School, and the Oamaru South and Oamaru North schools. At the North School he was the recipient of a first-class Attendance Certificate in 1898. His brother William was killed in action on 26 August 1918.

Sources

Cenotaph Database [18 August 2015]; NZ Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ Ref. AABK 18805 W5539 0044841) [18 August 2015]; ; Waipawa Cemetery headstone transcription (South Canterbury Branch NZSG Cemetery Records microfiches) [18 August 2015] ; School Admission Records (Oamaru Branch NZSG) [17 August 2015]; Oamaru Mail, 16 December 1898, 27 November 1900, 10 April 1918, 28 December 1920, Otago Daily Times, 10 & 13 April 1918, 27 September 1918, 2 April 1919, Timaru Herald, 10 April 1918, Press, 10 April 1918 (Papers Past) [18 August 2015]

External Links

Researched and Written by

Currently Assigned to

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!