Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

William Joseph Brosnahan was the youngest son of Edward and Catherine (née O’Driscoll) Brosnahan. He was born on 29 January 1894 at Temuka and baptised Roman Catholic there on 4 February 1894. Not too long after, Edward and Catherine moved to Christchurch. Edward and Catherine who had married in New Zealand in 1870, had seven daughters and six sons, probably all but the two youngest born in Christchurch. William was educated at the Christchurch Marist Brothers’ School where he received the prize for Standard III reading 1905. The following year Wm. Brosnahan received a Standards IV and V prize for 2nd place for arithmetic. The schools of North Canterbury made their annual excursion to Lancaster Park on 24 November 1906 for the purpose of holding the great athletic carnival that is the chief function of the schools’ athletic year. Boys and girls ran, jumped, skipped and bowled their hoops, or rode their bicycles, and thousands of their fellows lined the fences to cheer their favourites to victory. W. Brosnahan and his nephew E. Brosnahan (Marist Brothers) won the boys’ Siamese Race under 11 years. In a truancy case before the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court on 11 March 1908, Edward Brosnahan, whose son had not attended the Marist Brothers’ School, was fined 2 shillings. This was probably the youngest son William.

William J. Brosnahan, freezer, 142 Chester Street, Christchurch who enrolled at the Christchurch Defence Office for the 7th Reinforcements on 25 May 1915, was medically examined on 1 June 1915. He was 5 feet 5¼ inches tall and weighed 149 lbs, with a chest measurement of 33-37 inches. He had a fresh complexion, blue eyes and black hair. His sight, hearing, colour vision, heart and lungs were all normal, his limbs and chest well formed, while his teeth passed. He was free from diseases, vaccinated, and in good bodily and mental health. He had a small scar on his left knee. The Canterbury quota of the Seventh Reinforcements left in the evening of 14 June for the Trentham concentration camp. The men paraded at King Edward Barracks at 6 p.m., his Worship the Mayor farewelling the recruits there. He congratulated them on the step they were taking and expressed the hope that they would perform great deeds of valour. In the name of the citizens and those who loved them, he urged them to be loyal to their King and country and loyal to themselves. He urged them to acquit themselves like men and follow the great example of the men who had gone before them and performed the seemingly impossible task they had. Three lusty cheers were given by the men for the Mayor, and then they gave three cheers for the King. Colonel Chaffey wished the men good luck in a bright and breezy speech. “. . . . . . You have a great duty to perform, but it is a great privilege to fight the battles of the Empire. . . . . . . We wish you good luck; the whole of Canterbury will be looking forward to seeing you emulating the great deeds already performed by New Zealanders at the front. You have got to make yourselves fit to do the same, and I am sure you will do it. Go on, boys, and good luck to you.” “Three cheers for the colonel,” called out one of the men and three hearty cheers they gave him, followed by three cheers for the ladies. Escorted by the C.Y.C., Citizens’ Defence Corps, Caledonian Pipe, and Senior Cadets’ Drum and Fife Bands, and by 500 members of the Citizens’ Defence Corps, the men marched to the railway station through long lines of spectators. A special train awaited them at the station, and they quickly boarded it. The arrangements for the departure were carried out without a hitch, and the train left punctually on time. There among the men comprising the quota was W. Brosnahan (Infantry). A large crowd assembled on the ferry wharf at Lyttelton to bid the men good-bye. The Lyttelton Unit of the Citizens’ Defence Corps, the Boy Scouts, and the Coast Defence Band paraded, and the band played a number of patriotic airs before the Maori pulled out. He enlisted, as William Brosnahan, on 15 June 1915 at Trentham. A freezer for the Christchurch Meat Company, residing at home, single and Roman Catholic, he named his father as next-of-kin – Edward Brosnahan, 142 Chester Street, Christchurch.

Private W. Brosnahan embarked with the Canterbury Infantry Battalion of the 7th Reinforcements, departing from Wellington on 9 October 1915 and disembarking at Suez, Egypt on 18 November. On 16 February 1916, he was admitted to No. 1 Australian Dermatological Hospital at Abassia, suffering from VD. A month later he was discharged to the Overseas Base at Giza. It was at Giza, on 25 March that he was punished (confined for 7 days and fined 40 shillings) for insolence to an NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer) and for absence without leave from parade (24 March). Having embarked at Port Said for France per the “Kinfauns Castle” on 13 April 1916, he was attached to the New Zealand Base Depot at Etaples on 24 April. But, on 3 May 1916, he was admitted to the VD section of No. 26 General Hospital at Etaples, then transferred to No. 9 Stationary Hospital at Havre the next day. Discharged again to the Base Depot on 11 June, he was posted to the 2nd Company 1st Canterbury Infantry Battalion in the Field at Armentieres on 18 July.

William Brosnahan was awarded 14 days Field Punishment No. 2 for drunkenness when on active service on 2 September 1916. He was awarded the same punishment again when on active service on 28 October 1916, this time for helping to create a disturbance in an Estaminet (a small café selling alcoholic drinks). He was sent to hospital, sick, on 1 January 1917 and was admitted to No. 3 New Zealand Field Ambulance. The next day he was transferred to No. 1 Australian Casualty Clearing Station, suffering from synovitis of the left knee. On 12 January 1917 he was admitted to the 2nd Australian General Hospital at Wimereux. The injury which had occurred on 31 December 1916 while he was training, was of a trivial nature. The soldier was not to blame and had been in the performance of military duty at the time of the accident. After being admitted to the No. 1 Convalescent Depot at Boulogne on 29 January 1917, he was again attached to Strength at the Base Depot at Etaples on 17 February. In early February 1917, Mrs Brosnahan, sen., of Chester Street, received a cable message stating that her son, Private W. Brosnahan, who left New Zealand with the Seventh Reinforcements, had been admitted to hospital in Boulogne suffering with an injured knee. His next punishment had come at Boulogne when he was deprived of 3 days’ pay for breaking into camp at 9pm on 3 February 1917. Just twelve days after rejoining his Battalion in the Field on 14 March, he was awarded 10 days Field Punishment No. 2 (26 March) for having been drunk when on active service on 13 March.

The casualty list issued on 20 June 1917 was the heaviest since the New Zealand Division participated in the battle of the Somme. W. Brosnahan, 6/2947, Canterbury Infantry Regiment, had been severely wounded on 7 June (trench feet) and admitted to hospital, firstly to No. 77 Field Ambulance, then to No. 2 Casualty Clearing Station, and finally to No. 7 General Hospital at St Omer. Nevertheless, the shrapnel wound was reported as slight. The hospital and progress report on 18 July listed Private Brosnahan as a not severe case. William suffered a (slight) gunshot wound which traversed the lower third of his right fibula. He was very sloughy when he was admitted to No. 1 New Zealand General Hospital at Brockenhurst on 2 July, having embarked for England per Hospital Ship the previous day. He was bipped through without anaesthetic on 9 July. A small piece of necrosis bone was removed from the fracture area on 11 July, his progress being favourable, and again on 9 October. There was much callus but no functional disability. An x-ray showed that some minute metal pieces remained in the fracture area. He was discharged from hospital and transferred to the New Zealand Convalescent Hospital at Hornchurch on 31 October 1917. There was still a great excess of tender callus and the skin over it was discoloured.

The Medical Board held at Hornchurch on 29 November 1917 recommended that he was unfit for war service for six months and unfit for home service for three months. Classified unfit by the Medical Board in England on 8 December 1917 and placed on the NZ Roll, he went on leave and was then discharged to Torquay on 28 December. On 30 December 1917, however, Brosnahan was admitted to the Venereal Section of No. 3 New Zealand General Hospital at Coleford (UK) – VDG (Venereal Disease – Gonorrhea). Discharged and attached to the VD convalescent section on 1 February 1918, he was discharged from there to the Discharge Depot at Torquay four days later.

William Brosnahan returned home per the “Remuera” (Returning Draft 191 of invalided soldiers), embarking at Liverpool on 7 September 1918 and arriving on 22/23 October 1918. The Provisional Medical Board assembled on board the “Remuera” at the Port of Wellington on 22 October, found that he was suffering disability as a result of the gunshot wound to his right leg and fracture of the fibula. He still required treatment which it was recommended that he receive as a hospital out-patient at Christchurch while residing at 142 Chester Street. William Brosnahan was finally discharged on 1 January 1919, no longer physically fit for War Service on account of Wounds received in Action.

William returned to the family home, taking up work as a framer and a gardener. Unfortunately, his troubles were not over. In 1922 he got into a bit of strife. Photographs of William Joseph Brosnahan (or William Brosnhan) were printed in the NZ Police Gazette of 1 March 1922. William and his immediately older brother Thomas Edward Brosnahan had been tried at Christchurch on 11 December 1918 for playing a game of chance, each fined £10. Charged at the Magistrate’s Court on 25 October 1922 with being an idle and disorderly person, in that he had no visible means of support, and in that he habitually consorted with reputed thieves, he pleaded not guilty and was remanded on bail until 1 November. After hearing the evidence, the Magistrate said it was not sufficient to convict accused on either charge. The charges were, therefore, dismissed. In February 1926, Brosnahan was fined for trespass on a racecourse (Invercargill). 20 April 1926 saw another court appearance for William Joseph Brosnahan, who was charged with being disorderly while drunk and using obscene language in a public place. The case was adjourned until the next day. William was fined £3 and witness’s expenses 17s 6d, for being disorderly while drunk in Manchester Street. Obscene language used by Brosnahan cost him £2 and costs (7s). On 18 November 1930 at the Christchurch Court, William Joseph Brosnahan (36) was charged with being a rogue and a vagabond, in that he had played a game of chance at the Addington Showgrounds. He and a fellow showman were fined £20, in default two months’ imprisonment with hard labour. In late December 1931, Brosnahan was fined £1 and costs for drunkenness, and £2 and costs for fighting in a public place (the Esplanade at New Brighton on Boxing Day).

Following a visit to the New Zealand Cup meeting of the New Zealand Whippet Racing Club, at Riccarton on 29 October 1933 by detectives, William Joseph Brosnahan and others were arrested on charges of carrying on the business of bookmakers. They were charged with the offence before a Justice of the Peace and remanded. Brosnahan, aged 39, a butcher, of Oxford Terrace, was fined £20. In February 1935, William Joseph Brosnahan, of Oxford Terrace, pleaded guilty to a charge of trespassing on the Waiau racecourse during a race _ meeting, while he was prohibited from entering on to a racecourse. He was fined £2 and ordered to pay costs. In March 1936, William Joseph Brosnahan, of 410 Oxford Terrace, made a voluntary appearance at the Magistrate’s Court and pleaded guilty to a charge of travelling on the Christchurch-Invercargill express with intent to evade paying the fare. He had used a railway employee’s free pass which he did not own. Later he had paid his fare. The defendant who had a long list of previous convictions, was fined £5 and ordered to pay costs. Brosnahan was one of seven persons charged with being on licensed premises after hours on 8 May 1937, and fined. At the Magistrate’s Court in August 1937, William Joseph Brosnahan pleaded guilty to a charge of carrying on business as a bookmaker at Riccarton. He was fined £30 and ordered to pay costs, in default three months’ imprisonment. The accused was seen outside the entrance to Riccarton racecourse, about 3 p.m. taking money from a number of men. He was caught by a detective and a constable, who found him with £38 2s in his possession. “He was building up a fairly substantial list against himself in this Court. He was fined £20 for a similar offence a few years ago.” Brosnahan was arrested just before the Winter Cup. He had £l6 of betting money in his possession and £22 belonging to another man. He was only in a small way and was not regularly in the trade. He hawked clothes and did bookmaking as a sideline. He had used no obstructive tactics when the police accosted him. He was a man who did not get a good start in life, and he drifted into such an offence as this.” Facing another bookmaking charge in November 1941 at the Riccarton Racecourse Hotel, he was again charged. “He was evidently bookmaking only in a limited way. The accused had two previous convictions for bookmaking—in 1933 and 1937. The accused was a returned soldier, and only went in for bookmaking in a small way, . . . .” Not nine months later, he again pleaded guilty to a charge of carrying on business as a bookmaker and was again fined, this time £50. William Joseph Brosnahan, butcher and showman, (fresh complexion, dark brown hair, grey eyes, medium nose, stout build, scar on right ankle), was fined £50 when tried at Christchurch on 24 September 1942 for carrying on the business of bookmaker. William Joseph Brosnahan, aged 52, who pleaded guilty to carrying on the business of a bookmaker on 6 December 1947, was convicted and fined £l5.

From about 1938 through until the mid-1940s, William lived in Oxford Terrace with his brothers Timothy (widower) and Thomas Edward. William Joseph Brosnahan – loved youngest son of the late Edward and Catherine Brosnahan - died at Christchurch on 15 July 1968, aged 74 years. Following a Requiem Mass at St Mary’s Church, he was buried privately in the Soldiers’ section of Ruru Lawn Cemetery, a services plaque marking his grave. His next-of-kin at death was Mr J. C. Barry, Christchurch (great-nephew, son of his sister Agnes). Two nephews of William – Timothy Edward Brosnahan and Leo Patrick Joseph Brosnahan – also served in World War One. Patrick Brosnahan, labourer, 142 Chester Street, Christchurch, was called up at the beginning of February 1917. A brother of William, Patrick was almost 20 years older. William’s father Edward Brosnahan died at his Christchurch residence on 11 September 1918, just a few weeks before William arrived home from overseas. Mrs Catherine Brosnahan died at Christchurch on 8 October 1927, her daughter Ellen having died at Catherine’s residence on 16 March 1927. The eldest of the family Margaret Brosnahan died at Christchurch on 28 April 1896, aged 24 years. Matthew Brosnahan died of pneumonia at Christchurch Hospital on 26 September 1914, aged 34 years.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [08 February 2016]; N Z Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ Ref. AABK 18805 W5530 0018551) [27 March 2016]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [09 February 2016]; Ruru Lawn Cemetery headstone transcription (South Canterbury Branch NZSG records) [08 February 2016]; Press, 29 April 1896, 19 December 1906, 15 June 1915, 26 October 1922, 2 November 1922, 21 & 23 April 1926, 17 March 1927, 10 October 1927, 19 November 1930, 29 December 1931, 30 October 1933, 8 February 1935, 13 March 1936, 21 May 1937, 12 August 1937, 12 November 1941, 25 September 1942, 9 December 1947, 16 July 1968, Lyttelton Times, 16 December 1905, 28 September 1914, 26 May 1915, 9 February 1917, 2 October 1917, 15 October 1918, Star, 24 November 1906, 11 March 1908, 2 October 1917, 12 September 1918, Sun, 26 May 1915, 15 June 1915, 21 June 1917, 19 July 1917, 14 October 1918 Evening Post, 21 June 1917, 19 July 1917, 14 October 1918, NZ Times, 15 October 1918, Timaru Herald, 19 November 1930, 30 October 1933, 13 November 1941; NZ Police Gazette, 8 January 1919, 24 February 1926, 3 December 1930, 14 October 1942 (Papers Past) [13 February 2016; 28 September 2022; 13, 14 & 15 February 2026; 10 March 2026]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [13 February 2016; 11 February 2026]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file

Related Documents

• BROSNAHAN William Joseph - newspaper clippings (pdf, 117.7 KB updated 06-Apr-2026)

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC Genealogy Society

Currently Assigned to

TS