Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

John was born in Sandietown on the 22nd September 1885. He was educated at Waimataitai and St. Andrew’s Schools. He was the last of four Anderson brothers to enlist or be called up, possibly because he was married and had a child. He was the son of a Timaru wheelwright, John James Anderson and his wife Julia (nee Bishop).

When John enlisted in July 1916 he was working as a blacksmith for the Consolidated Company, Reefton and had married Lilian Eva Rose Rangitora Thompson (Turi) the year before on 1 January. Their first child, James Andrew, was born in January 1916. When John sailed away on the “Maunganui” on 15 November 1916 he was probably unaware that Turi was pregnant with their second child, Annie Alberta (Nancy), who born in July 1917. John arrived at Devonport in England in January 1917 and went to Sling Camp in Wiltshire. By March 1917 he was fighting in France. In Ypres, on 12 October 1917, he suffered a machine gun wound to his left forearm and left foot. He was initially ambulanced out and his arm was operated on at the 3rd Australian Stationary Hospital before he was sent to the City of London General Hospital where he had further surgery to his arm in January 1918. The injury left him with ulna nerve damage and, as he was considered unfit for service for six months, he was shipped back to New Zealand. He left Liverpool on 2 February 1918 on the ”Maunganui”, the same ship that had taken him to England. In New Zealand he continued his convalescence at Hanmer Springs. Turi travelled from Reefton to meet John in Christchurch – quite some journey as can be seen from an application form John made for reimbursement of the fare: I, John Edward James Anderson of Reefton, do solemnly and sincerely declare that my wife travelled to Christchurch, (to meet me on my return from England) on Tuesday the fifth day of March 1918, viz. By train to Otira, coach to Arthur’s Pass and train to Christchurch, and that the total cost for the return journey was £2.18.0. In civilian life John became a policeman and he and Turi had two more children: Leslie John was born in 1919, and Joyce Mabel (Joy) was born in 1926 John died in Nelson on 27 March 1967.

Sources

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file

Related Documents

• John Anderson biography by L Menchi (pdf, 335.9 KB updated 09-Oct-2018)

Researched and Written by

Tony Rippin, South Canterbury Museum (based on biographical work by L Menchi)

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.