Profile

DALE, Thomas John
(Service number 21803)

Aliases
First Rank Rifleman Last Rank

Birth

Date 19/04/1894 Place of Birth Grange, County Armagh, Ireland

Enlistment Information

Date Age
Address at Enlistment Ohape, Temuka
Occupation Farm labourer
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status
Next of Kin Mrs Sarah Jane BELL (sister), 18 Vogel Street, Richmond, Christchurch
Religion Church of England
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation New Zealand Rifle Brigade
Unit, Squadron, or Ship 7th Reinforcements, 3rd Battalion, G Company
Date 21 August 1916
Transport Mokoia
Embarked From Destination Plymouth, Devon, England
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals
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 Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Typewriter mechanic

Death

Date 6 January 1925 Age 31 years
Place of Death Cashmere Hills, Christchurch
Cause Not able to be discerned
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Bromley Cemetery, Christchurch
Memorial Reference Block 38, Plot 230
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Thomas John Dale, born in 1894 in County Armagh, Ireland, nominated his sister, Sarah Jane Bell, as his next-of-kin. Thomas and Sarah Jane had come to New Zealand in about 1906. Sarah Jane was some 25 years older than Thomas John Dale. In 1913, Sarah (Jane) married Thomas Bell. He left Timaru with the South Canterbury quota of the 16th Reinforcements on 3 May 1916. The badly decomposed body of Thomas john Dale was found in the Cashmere Hills on 22 February 1925. He was a returned soldier, who had been gassed and wounded during the war, and on his return he had suffered from the after-effects of his experiences there. His typewriter agency had been destroyed by fire, and at the time of his disappearance (5 January) he seemed very despondent over business matters. [see Press, 25 February 1925, 4 March 1925]. Sarah Jane and her husband Thomas Bell are buried in the same plot as Thomas John Dale.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [19 May 2019]; Bromley Cemetery headstone transcription [22 May 2019]; Timaru Herald, 2 May 1916, Press, 25 February 1925, 4 March 1925 (Papers Past) [02 August 2016; 22 May 2019]

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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