Profile

GILSENAN, Michael
(Service number 27272)

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank	Private

Birth

Date	18/06/1894	Place of Birth	Knocknagarton, Ireland

Enlistment Information

Date	1 June 1916	Age	21 years 11 months
Address at Enlistment	Bluecliffs, St Andrews, Canterbury
Occupation	Farm hand
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	John GILSENAN (father), Knocknagarton, Virginia, Ireland.Mr Hugh FITZSIMONDS (friend), Cheviot, North Canterbury
Religion	Roman Catholic
Medical Information	Height 5 feet 7 inches. Weight 162 lbs. Chest measurement 34½-37 inches. Complexion fair. Eyes grey. Hair brown. Sight & hearing both good. Colour vision correct. Limbs well formed. Full & perfect movement of all joints. Chest well formed. Heart & lungs normal. No illnesses. free from hernia, varicocele, varicose veins, haemorrhoids, inveterate or contagious skin disease. Vaccinated. Good bodily & 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	18th Reiforcements, J Company
Date	11 October 1916
Transport	Tofua
Embarked From		Destination	Plymouth, Devon, England

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	Auckland Regiment

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	11 July 1919	Reason	No longer physically fit for War Service on account of Illness contracted on Active Service.

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	9 February 1971	Age	76 years
Place of Death	Timaru
Cause
Notices	Timaru Herald, 10 February 1971
Memorial or Cemetery	Timaru Cemetery
Memorial Reference	General Section, Row 59, Plot 1517
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Michael Gilsenan, born in 1894 at Knocknagarton, County Cavan, Ireland, was the son of John and Mary Gilsenan, of Knockgarton, Ireland. he was at home at Knocknagarton with his parents and siblings in 1901 and 1911. He was probably not long in New Zealand when, on 1 June 1916, he enlisted for war service with the New Zealand forces. He had not registered for compulsory military training under the Defence Act of 1909, stating that he was an emigrant. Michael was a fit and healthy young man, working at Bluecliffs. It would be at Bluecliffs that he met Emily Jean McCarthy whose brothers also served in World War One. In 1923 Michael and Emily married. .

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [15 September 2016]; NZ Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ Ref. AABK 18805 W5539 0045054) [18 August 2015]; Timaru Cemetery headstone image (Timaru District Council) [15 September 2016]; Timaru Herald, 31 May 1916, Evening Post, 28 June 1917, Sun, 11 March 1919, Press, 14 January 1939 (Papers Past) [15 September 2016]; Timaru Herald, 10 February 1971 (Timaru District Library) [16 September 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!