Profile

RIDDER, Henry
(Service number 9/195)

Aliases
First Rank Trooper Last Rank

Birth

Date 2 September 1888 Place of Birth Geraldine

Enlistment Information

Date Age
Address at Enlistment Ferndale, Mataura
Occupation Farm hand
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin Frederick C. RIDDER (father), Lochiel, Southland
Religion Presbyterian
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation Main Body
Unit, Squadron, or Ship Otago Mounted Rifles
Date 16 October 1914
Transport Ruapehu or Hawkes Bay
Embarked From Port Chalmers, Dunedi 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

Farmer

Death

Date 25 August 1960 Age 71 years
Place of Death Invercargill
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Eastern Cemetery, Invercargill
Memorial Reference General Section, Block 36, Plot 553
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Henry Ridder, known as Harry, was born on 2 September 1888 at Geraldine, the oldest son of Frederick Christopher (Friedrich Christoph) and Anna Maria (née Rathgen) Ridder. In 1902 Harry transferred from New Brighton School to Waihaorunga School. The family afterwards moved to Lochiel, Southland. On the outbreak of war, Henry promptly enlisted. He was a farm hand at Ferndale, Mataura, and named his father as next-of-kin – Frederick C. Ridder, Lochiel, Southland. Trooper H. Ridder embarked with the Otago Mounted Rifles of the Main Body on 16 October 1914, departing from Port Chalmers for Suez, Egypt.

Wounded at the Dardanelles in June 1915, Henry Ridder returned home by the “Tahiti” in September 1915. “Trooper Henry Ridder (Otago Mounted) is twenty-six years of age, and the eldest son of Mr F. C. Ridder, Lochiel. He worked chiefly on his father’s farm, but when war was declared he was contracting in the Mataura district. He left the team for the farmer to finish the work himself, and promptly enlisted, going home to say good-bye to his parents. He left next morning for Tahuna Camp. Before sailing he applied for leave to go home again for a day or two, but was refused, the date of sailing being too near.” [Lyttelton Times, 1 July 1915.]

In 1916, he married Mary Macgregor Brass, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. After Mary’s death in 1942, he married Alice Jane Ridder. Henry died on 25 August 1960 at Invercargill, aged 71, and was buried in the Eastern Cemetery, Invercargill.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [06 August 2021]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [06 August 2021]; School Admission record (South Canterbury Branch) [07 August 2021]; Eastern Cemetery headstone image & burial record (Invercargill City Council) [07 August 2021]; Lyttelton Times, 1 July 1915, NZ Herald, 13 September 1915 (Papers Past) [09 August 2021]

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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