Profile

NELSON, Charles Henry
(Service number 53514)

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank	Private

Birth

Date	13 November 1886	Place of Birth	Frizington, Cumberland, England

Enlistment Information

Date	5 February 1917	Age	30 years
Address at Enlistment	19 Myrtle Crescent, Wellington
Occupation	Butter factory manager
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Miss M. A. NELSON (sister),19 Myrtle Crescent, Wellington; 28 Barrett Street, New Plymouth; 74 Daniel Street, Wellington South; 100 Owen Street, Wellington; C/0 Mrs Tonkin, Bellfield Hill, Timaru
Religion	Methodist
Medical Information	Height 5 feet 3½ inches. Weight 135 lbs. Chest measurement 34½-35½ inches. Complexion fresh. Eyes blue. Hair light. Sight - both eyes 6/24; normal with glasses. Limbs well formed. Full & perfect movement of all joints. Chest well formed. Heart & lungs normal. No illnesses. free from hernia, varicocele, varicose veins, haemorrhoids, inveterate or contagious skin disease. Good bodily & mental health. No slight defects. No fits. Fit

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	27th Reinforcements, F Company
Date	16 July 1917
Transport	Athenic
Embarked From		Destination	Liverpool, Merseyside, England

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals	British War Medal; Victory Medal
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	11 April 1919	Reason	No longer physically fit for War Service on account of Wounds received in Action.

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

14 October 1918 admitted to hospital at Netley - gunshot wound to back; 19 November transferred to 1st NZ General Hospital at Brockenhurst..

Post-war Occupations

Farmer

Death

Date	7 March 1929	Age	42 years
Place of Death	Murchison
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Murchison Cemetery
Memorial Reference	Plot 606
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Charles Henry Nelson was the son of Jonathan and Anna Maria (née Sim) Nelson, of Frizington, Arlecdon, Cumberland, England. In 1891 four year old Charles was at home with his family at Frizington, and again in 1901 when he was an errand boy. By 1911 he was a labourer at Timaru, New Zealand. Two brothers followed him to New Zealand – John Radcliffe Nelson, a home missionary, and Isaac William Nelson, a boot salesman. Both were called up in 1917, and Isaac enlisted, serving only in New Zealand. His only sister, Martha Annie Nelson, also came to New Zealand and was next-of-kin for Charles. Charles married dorice (Dot) Brown in 1925 in New Zealand. Dorice lived into her nineties and was buried with Charles at Murchison.

The Methodist Church of Timaru placed a handsome window in the Bank Street Church as a memorial for the war victims of the congregations. Apart from the names of the fallen appearing on the window, the names of all who served were inscribed in a book which was to be preserved in the Church. Included in the names was that of Charles Nelson.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [31 March 2020]; 1891, 1901 England census returns (ancestry.com.au) [31 March 2020]; Murchison Cemetery burial record (Tasman District Council) [31 March 2020]; Timaru Herald, 5 July 1922 (Papers Past) [24 March 2020]

External Links

Researched and Written by

Currently Assigned to

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

Tell us more

Do you have information that could be added to this story? Or related images that you are happy to share? Submit them here!