JOHNS, Harvey
(Service number 10/1076)
| First Rank | Corporal | Last Rank | Sergeant |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 13/09/1892 | Place of Birth | Waimate, Canterbury |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | 14 August 1914 | Age | 21 years 11 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | 108 Derby Street, Gisborne | ||
| Occupation | Carpenter | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | Single | ||
| Next of Kin | Mrs JOHNS (mother), Beach Road, Ashburton | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | Main Body | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | Wellington Infantry Battalion | ||
| Date | 16 October 1914 | ||
| Transport | Arawa or Limerick | ||
| Embarked From | Wellington | Destination | |
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | Wellington Regiment | ||
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 | 3 April 1990 | Age | 97 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | War Veterans Home, Levin | ||
| Cause | |||
| Memorial or Cemetery | Avenue Cemetery, Levin | ||
| New Zealand Memorials | |||
Biographical Notes
Harvey Johns was born on 13 September 1892 at Waimate, the youngest son of Frederick and Elizabeth Anne Thomas (née Hosking) Johns. Frederick and Elizabeth had married in Cornwall, England, in 1875. Shortly afterwards they emigrated with Elizabeth’s widowed mother. They landed at Timaru and travelled to Waimate, South Canterbury, where they spent some years. Harvey was educated at Hampstead Public School, the family having moved to Ashburton in the mid 1890s. Harvey did well at school, receiving prizes in 1904 (Standard III), 1905 (Standard IV), and 1906 (Gardens). He was a member of the Ashburton Football Club. He served his apprenticeship as a carpenter and moved to Gisborne, where, on the outbreak of war, he enlisted in the Wellington Battalion. He had been a sergeant in the Territorials. He named his mother as next-of-kin – Mrs Johns, Beach Road, Ashburton. Corporal H. Johns embarked at Wellington with the Wellington Infantry Battalion of the Main Body, on 16 October 1914. He was promoted to sergeant on the battlefield at Gallipoli. On 7 or 8 August 1915 at Chunuk Bair he was wounded in the foot. This gunshot wound was serious. Sergeant Harvey Johns returned home by the hospital ship “Athenic”, arriving at Lyttelton in June 1916. Harvey married Ruth Jean Clark on 15 April 1931 at Gisborne. He died at the grand age of 97, on the 3 April 1990 at the Levin War Veterans Home. He was interred in the RSA section of Avenue Cemetery, Levin. His wife had died almost ten years prior. His brother Graham Johns also served in World War One and also came home by hospital ship. Another brother, Newman Johns, enlisted in 1918.
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [17 February 2021]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [17 February 2021]; Avenue Cemetery, Levin, headstone transcription & burial record (Horowhenua Family History Group) [18 February 2021]; Ashburton Guardian, 23 December 1904, 22 December 1905, 22 December 1906, Evening Star, 25 August 1915 (Papers Past) [17 February 2021; 05 March 2021]
External Links
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Researched and Written by
Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG
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Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.
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