Profile

KARTON, George Francis
(Service number 24/1405)

Aliases
First Rank	Rifleman	Last Rank	Driver

Birth

Date	15/04/1895	Place of Birth	Timaru

Enlistment Information

Date	24 August 1915	Age	20
Address at Enlistment	48 Ferguson St, Palmerston North, Wellington
Occupation	Hairdresser
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	single
Next of Kin	Mrs F Karton (mother) Buchanan St, Timaru
Religion	Church of England
Medical Information	Height 5ft 4in, Brown Eyes, Dark brown hair

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	2nd Reinforcements
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	2nd NZRB, F Company
Date	13 November 1915
Transport	Willochra or Tofua
Embarked From	Wellington	Destination	Suez, Egypt

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns	Egypt, Western front
Service Medals	British War Medal, Victory Medal, 1914-15 Star
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	8 June 1919	Reason	Termination of period of engagement

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

8 August 1917 - Slight gunshot wound left forearm in the field. Rejoined unit 16 August.

Post-war Occupations

Butcher, Gas fitter

Death

Date	21 May 1971	Age	75
Place of Death	Timaru
Cause
Notices	Dept of Internal Affairs
Memorial or Cemetery	Timaru cemetery-Services
Memorial Reference	Row 155 Plot 45
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

George Francis Karton was born at Timaru on 15 April 1895 to Francis and Madeline Karton of Buchanan’s Paddock.

On his enlistment George was a hairdresser, his last employer being FJ Torrie of Timaru (even though his last address is given as 48 Ferguson St, Palmerston North). He was described as 5ft 4in tall with brown eyes and dark brown hair, Anglican, and single. He was enrolled as a rifleman in the 2nd Reinforcements to 2nd Battalion, NZ Rifle Brigade, embarking at Wellington on 13 November 1915, bound for Egypt. He served in Egypt and the Western Front. Karton received a slight gunshot wound to his left forearm in August 1917 but rejoined his unit a week later. Later, the Timaru Herald of 11 November 1918 (Armistice Day) reported that Mrs F Karton of Buchanan Street had received word that her son, Private Thomas Karton, was wounded and admitted to hospital on 29 October. The paper also noted that Mrs Karton had "...three other sons at present in the firing line on the Western Front." George Karton was eventually discharged from duty on 8 June 1919, having served 3 years and 289 days. He was awarded the British War Medal, Victory Medal and the 1914/15 Star.

After the war George married Lucy Lavina Bracefield in 1921, and by 1928 was described as a butcher, living at 70 Church St, Timaru. When he died in May 1971, aged 75, he was living at 83 Otipua Rd. He is buried in Timaru Cemetery.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph database [August 2021]; NZBDM; Timaru District Council cemetery records at https://www.timaru.govt.nz/services/community-and-culture/cemeteries/cemetery-search; Papers Past at https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/; Assorted records at Ancestry.com [August 2021];

External Links

Researched and Written by

Sahiban Kanwal; Carol Bell, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.

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