Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Colin MacKenzie (McKenzie on Cenotaph) was born on 8 August 1880 at Lerwick, Scotland. When he enlisted, he was a master mariner but was employed at Clandeboye, Temuka. He named a friend, Miss Nellie Downes, of Temuka, as next-of-kin. Lance-corporal McKenzie embarked with the New Zealand Rifle Brigade of the 5th Reinforcements at Wellington for Suez, Egypt on 1 April 1916. He returned to New Zealand in March 1918. Embarking at Liverpool on 1 February 1918 per the “Willochra”, he arrived back on 18 March. The South Canterbury men came from Lyttelton by special train expected mid afternoon on the 19th March. But Colin MCKenzie/Mackenzie was an assumed name. He was Alexander Roscoe Chadwick and, being in trouble with the law in New Zealand from 1911, had already a number of aliases. In February 1911 he was ordered to Mount Eden gaol for two months with hard labourer on a charge of false pretences. The following month, on further charges, he was ordered five years in a reformatory. In March 1916, Colin McKenzie, born in 1881 in Scotland and then a soldier at Westport, was fined for false pretences. Colin McKenzie was discharged on 15 April 1918. On his return to New Zealand he was headed for Mt Eden Prison, Auckland. Presumably his criminal past was uncovered while he was abroad. Colin McKenzie, alias Chadwick, alias Hughes, etc., was arrested on 5 May 1920 on a charge of forging and uttering a cheque at Woodville in September 1919. He was committed to the Wellington Supreme Court on that and other charges, and also had several outstanding charges to be dealt with. He was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment on each of nine charges – nine months in all – and declared an habitual criminal. Alexander Roscoe Chadwick, a master mariner residing at Templeton, was called up in 1917, by which time he was overseas, serving as Colin Mackenzie.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [11 January 2021]; Police Gazettes, 17 September 1913, 8 April 1914, 18 & 27 March 1916, 18 October 1916 [16 Januaey 2021]; NZ Herald, 10 February 1911, Evening Post, 15 March 1911, Timaru Herald, 18 March 1918, Woodville Examiner, 12 May 1920, NZ Times, 11 June 1920 (Papers Past) [09 April 2015; 16 January 2021]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.