Profile

McHATTIE, Clarence John
(Service number 24/2511)

Cpl Clarence John McHattie — Pictured some time after being appointed Corporal in November 1916 and being further promoted to Staff Sergeant in April 1917, while serving on the Western Front. (Courtesy of Y Jones )

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank	Staff Sergeant

Birth

Date	14 December 1892	Place of Birth	Blenheim

Enlistment Information

Date		Age
Address at Enlistment	Tokomaru Bay
Occupation	Bank officer
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status
Next of Kin	James McHATTIE (father), Timaru Post Office
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	5th Reinforcements, 2nd Battalion, F Company
Date	1 April 1916
Transport	Tahiti or Maunganui
Embarked From		Destination	Suez, Egypt

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

Bank officer

Death

Date	26 October 1951	Age	58 years
Place of Death	Auckland
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Cremated; ashes interred Waikumete Cemetery
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Clarence John McHattie was born on 14 December 1892 at Blenheim, theson of James and Mary Elizabeth (née Mears) McHattie. When he enlisted, his father was employed in the Post Office at Timaru. C. J. McHattie was in a contingent of South Canterbury soldiers who came from Christchurch by a special train and were welcomed home on 9 May 1919. A great crowd gathered at the station and cheered loudly when they arrived. The soldiers expressed their appreciation to the ladies who gave them fruit and cigarettes. The Mayor congratulated the soldiers on their heroic achievements abroad, thanked them on behalf of the whole community and expressed the hope that they would soon regain their health, before calling for three hearty cheers for them. Mr Craigie, M.P., said that all were proud of what they had done in the struggle for liberty and freedom, and expressed the hope that “they would have many happy years in this prosperous land”.

Clarence was appointed to the rank of Sergeant three months after enlisting. He reverted to ranks on 6 May 1916, after arriving in Egypt. He was later promoted to Lance Corporal in October 1916 at etaples, after being transferred to the Western Front, then again to Corporal late the follwoign moth. Finally he was promoted to Staff Sergeant on 19 April 1917 in France, a rank he held ntilreturnign to New Zealand and being discharged.

Clarence married Mary Ellen Oates in 1919. He died on 26 October 1951 at Auckland, aged 58 years, and was cremated, his ashes being interred in Waikumete Cemetery. His wife survived him by more than 38 years.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [23 June 2020]; NZ BDM Indexes (Depratment of Internal Affairs) [24 June 2020]; Waikumete Cemetery record (Auckland Council) [23 June 2020]; Timaru Herald, 10 May 1919 (Papers Past) [21 June 2020]

External Links

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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

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