Profile

POLSON, Donald John
(Service number 35981; 933)

Aliases	Enlisted as Donald
First Rank	Corporal	Last Rank	Corporal

Birth

Date	10 October 1870	Place of Birth	Timaru

Enlistment Information

Date	13 November 1916	Age
Address at Enlistment	48 College Street, Wellington
Occupation	Clerk
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	(1) Mrs R. POLSON (mother), 2 Disraeli Street, Addington, Christchurch; (2) G. M. POLSON (brother), Public Works Department, Westport
Religion	Presbyterian
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	New Zealand Mounted Rifles
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	8th Contingent
Date	7 June 1917
Transport	Surrey
Embarked From		Destination

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	Canterbury Mounted Rifles

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals
Military Awards	Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO); Mentioned in Despatches (MiD)

Award Circumstances and Date

DSO London Gazette, 19 April 1901 "In recognition of services during the operations in South Africa (Especially for services in North West Transvaal.)"

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 October 1919	Reason	No longer physically fit on account of illness contraced on active service.

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	17 September 1930	Age	60 years
Place of Death	Wairau Hospital, Blenheim
Cause	Disease - myocardial degeneration
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Omaka Cemetery, Blenheim
Memorial Reference	RSA Section, Block D, Plot 9
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Donald John Polson, born on 10 October 1870 at Timaru, was the eldest son of George McLeod and Robertina (née Gunn) Polson, both of whom came from Helmsdale, Caithness, Scotland. Donald had a notable miliyary career, serving in the South frica War, with distinction, in World War One, and with the Forces post World War One.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database (incomplete study) [04 May 2017]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [04 May 2017]; Omaka Cemetery, Blenheim, headstone transcription (South Canterbury Branch NZSG cemetery records) [04 May 2017]

External Links

Researched and Written by

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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

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