HANDS, William Bernard
(Service number 23/1655)
| First Rank | Rifleman | Last Rank | Rifleman |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 20/03/1895 | Place of Birth | Cape Foulwind |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | 18 October 1915 | Age | 20 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | Geraldine | ||
| Occupation | Jockey | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | Single | ||
| Next of Kin | Mrs Augusta HANDS (later POLKINGHORNE) (mother), Cape Foulwind, Westport | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | New Zealand Rifle Brigade | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | 3rd Reinforcements, 1st Battalion, E Company | ||
| Date | 8 January 1916 | ||
| Transport | Tahiti of Warrimoo | ||
| Embarked From | Destination | Suez, Egypt | |
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | Rifle Brigade | ||
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 | 18 November 1968 | Age | 73 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | Westport | ||
| Cause | |||
| Memorial or Cemetery | Orowaiti Cemetery, Westport | ||
| New Zealand Memorials | |||
Biographical Notes
William Bernard Hands was born on 20 March 1895 at Cape Foulwind, the son of Bernard and Augusta Wilhelmina (née Peters) Hands. W. B. Hands passed the medical examination at Timaru in September 1915 and was sworn in for service at the Front. He was part of South Canterbury’s quota for the Ninth Reinforcements which left South Canterbury for Trentham on 18 October 1915. He was a jockey residing at Geraldine when he enlisted. William embarked on 8 January 1916. His father, Bernard Hands, who embarked on the same date and with the same company of the same reinforcements, was killed in action at the Somme eight months later. Mrs Hands married Charles Polkinghorne in 1917. William suffered permanent disability through the loss of his right eye. Father and son had successive service numbers.
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [18 September 2020]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [18 September 2020]; Orowaiti cemetery record [18 September 2020]; Timaru Herald, 14 September 1914, 18 October 1915 (Papers Past) [September 2020]
External Links
Related Documents
No documents available.
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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