McCABE, William Francis
(Service number 57298)
| First Rank | Private | Last Rank |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 10/11/1891 | Place of Birth | Waimate |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | Age | 24 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | Palmerston | ||
| Occupation | Farm labourer | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | |||
| Next of Kin | Mr John McCABE (father), Palmerston South | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | |||
| Date | |||
| Transport | |||
| Embarked From | Destination | ||
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | 29th Reinforcements | ||
Military Awards
| Campaigns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Medals | |||
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 |
Death
| Date | 30 April 1939 | Age | 47 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | |||
| Cause | |||
| Memorial or Cemetery | Palmerston Cemetery, Otago | ||
| New Zealand Memorials | |||
Biographical Notes
William Francis McCabe was the youngest son of Irish-born John McCabe and his wife Maria (née Duggan). William attended a succession of schools - Waihao Native Waimate, Weston, Oamaru Roman Catholic, Weston again, and St Patrick's Oamaru.
William was a farm labourer at Palmerston when called up by the ballot of January 1917. He testified for service twice, first in February, then again in April, and reported for duty in June and was initially assigned to D Company, 29th Reinforcements on 2 June 1917. He was initially classified (at Palmerston) as Class A fitness, despite noting in his February attestation that he had been rejected for Territorial service in 1911 and noting some medical issues. However, a Medical Board held on 20 June at Featherston found that permanent disability of his right leg meant William could not march, so therefore recommended his discharge as unfit for service. The medical case sheet records he had “Old necrosis right leg” (in his tibia), for which he had been operated on four times 14 years prior, when he would have been around 10 years of age. William was subsequently discharged from service, having spent less than a month in camp.
Later in life William married Ellen Margaret Gilbert in 1928. He died aged only 47 years of age on 30 April 1939.
Sources
NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [09 June 2019]
External Links
Related Documents
No documents available.
Researched and Written by
Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG; Tony Rippin, South Canterbury Museum
Currently Assigned to
Not assigned.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.
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