Profile

DAVIDSON, John
(Service number 13431)

John Wilds & family — Portrait of Mr John Wilds with his daughter Mrs Mary Annie Davidson and three grandchildren (including a baby John Davidson), outside his home in North Street, Timaru, circa 1896.

The children have been identified as (from left to right) Esther Davidson, John Wilds (grandson of John Wilds) and John Davidson. (South Canterbury Museum 2057)

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank	Private

Birth

Date	17/06/1894	Place of Birth	Timaru

Enlistment Information

Date	16 December 1915	Age	21 years 5 months
Address at Enlistment	183 North Street, Timaru
Occupation	Stock drover
Previous Military Experience	8th South Canterbury Mounted rifles
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Mrs M. A. DAVIDSON (mother), 183 North Street, Timaru
Religion	Presbyterian
Medical Information	Height 5 feet 9½ inches. Weight 148 lbs. Chest measurement 32½-36 inches. Complexion fair. Eyes grey. Hair brown. Sight and hearing both good. Colour vision correct. Limbs well formed. Full and perfect movement of all joints. Chest well formed. heart and lungs normal. teeth ? No illnesses. Free from hernia, varicocele, varicose veins, haemorrhoids, inveterate or contagious skin disease. Vaccinated. Good bodily and mental health. No slight defects. No fits.

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	13th Reinforcements, J Company
Date	27 May 1916
Transport	Tofua
Embarked From	Wellington	Destination	Devonport, Devon, England

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	Otago Infantry Regiment. New Zealand Entrenching Battalion.

Military Awards

Campaigns	Western European
Service Medals	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	21 May 1919	Reason	On the termination of his period of engagement.

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

28 September 1916 wounded knee, admitted to hospital.

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	19 March 1969	Age	74 years
Place of Death	Christchurch
Cause
Notices	Timaru Herald, 21 March 1969
Memorial or Cemetery
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

John Davidson was born on 17 June 1894 at Timaru, the son of Andrew McKenzie Davidson and his wife Mary Anne née Wilds. He married Elsie Meldrum Mackie on 7 May 1924 at Otipua. John and Elsie had three children.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [01 August 2016]; NZ Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ ref. AABK 18805 W5537 0032049) [02 August 2016]; Timaru Herald, 21 March 1969 (Timaru District Library) [02 August 2016]; Timaru herald, 14 December 1903, 20 December 1907, 9 december 1915, 23 October 1916 (Papers Past) [03 August 2016]

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!