FORSTER, Harold Alfred
(Service number 25360)
| First Rank | Private | Last Rank |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 22/11/1890 | Place of Birth | Napier |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | Age | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | Elizabeth Street, Petone | ||
| Occupation | Guard | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | |||
| Next of Kin | Police Sergeant FORSTER (father, Police Station, Petone, Wellington; then Timaru; then 418 Jackson Street, Petone | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | New Zealand Expeditionary Force | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | 13th Reinforcements, Auckland Infantry Battalion, A Company | ||
| Date | 27 May 1916 | ||
| Transport | Willochra or Tofua | ||
| Embarked From | Wellington | Destination | |
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | |||
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 | 14 March 1961 | Age | 70 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | Bellevue Hill, New South Wales, Australia | ||
| Cause | |||
| Memorial or Cemetery | Eastern Suburbs Crematorium, Matraville, Randwick City, New South Wales; ashes Columbarium, Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park | ||
| New Zealand Memorials | |||
Biographical Notes
Harold Alfred Forster was born on 22 November 1890 at Napier, the second son of John and Mary Matilda (née Furze) Forster. Harold was educated at Foxton, Feilding and Dunedin schools and perhaps others. As his father was a sergeant of police, the family moved about quite a lot. His mother died at their Petone residence in December 1912 after a long illness. Private H. A. Forster embarked at Wellington with the 13th Reinforcements on 27 May 1916. He returned to New Zealand in March 1918, his father having been stationed in Timaru. The South Canterbury men came from Lyttelton by special train expected mid afternoon on the 19th March. Harold married Vera Pollard in 1936 at Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He died on 14 March 1961 at Bellevue Hill, New South Wales, aged 70 years. He was cremated at the Eastern Suburbs Crematorium at Randwick, and his ashes are resting in the Columbarium at Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park. Harold’s brother Eric also served in World War One.
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [10 January 2021]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [19 January 2021]; School Admission record [22 January 2021]; Eastern Suburbs Crematorium, NSW, record (ancestry.com.au) [19 January 2021]; Sun, 13 March 1918, Timaru Herald, 18 March 1918 (Papers Past) [09 April 2015; 16 January 2021]
External Links
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Researched and Written by
Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG
Currently Assigned to
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Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.
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