Profile

ANDERSON, Charles Edwin
(Service number 7/1327)

Aliases
First Rank Trooper Last Rank

Birth

Date 28/07/1896 Place of Birth

Enlistment Information

Date 15 June 1915 Age 18
Address at Enlistment 287 Tuam St East, Christchurch
Occupation Clerk, NZ Railways
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin John J. Anderson (father) St. Andrew’s South Canterbury
Religion Presbyterian
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 Destination Suez, Egypt
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns Balkans (Gallipoli) 1915, Egyptian 1915-1916, Egyptian Expeditionary Force, 1916
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 Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date 24 February 1986 Age 89
Place of Death
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Charles Edwin Anderson was born on 28 July 1896 and like his brothers he was educated at St. Andrews School, near Timaru. He was the tenth child of the thirteen children of John James Anderson and Julia (nee Bishop). Four of their children died in infancy and appallingly two other children died of whooping cough on the same day in 1892. Having lost four children they must have been distressed to see four of their remaining sons go to war. Thankfully the war had ended before the three youngest were old enough to enlist. When Charles enlisted in June 1915, in the Canterbury Mounted Rifles, he was employed as a clerk with the N.Z. Government Railways in Christchurch. He left New Zealand on the “Tofua” in August 1915 and arrived at Suez on 19th September. Charles served in Gallipoli and then in Egypt but was dogged by tonsillitis and general ill health. He was invalided out of Gallipoli, recovered and served in Egypt for a short time, where he again became ill with “vomiting, weariness and influenza”. He improved for a time and then contracted paratyphoid A in March 1916. Considered unfit for further service and shipped back to New Zealand on the “Ulimaroa” from Suez on 21 May 1916. Aand so ended his military service. On resuming civilian life he married Anne Maria Welsh in 1918. They had two sons: John, who had a family of two children; and David, who himself had four children. For a time Charles was a storekeeper in Sheffield and during his long life he trained trotters. Charles died on 24th February 1986, aged 89.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database (August 2014); SCRoll submission and biography by L Menchi, 25 September 2018

External Links

Related Documents

Researched and Written by

Carol Bell, SC branch NZSG; Tony Rippin, South Canterbury Museum (based on biographical work by L Menchi)

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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