Birth

Enlistment Information

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Biographical Notes

Henry Joseph Delargy was born on 8 October 1878 at Kumara, his birth registered as Henry De Largy. He was the elder son of Bernard and Margaret (née Davoren) Delargy who had married in 1877 at Hokitika. Having been the licensee of the Royal Hotel, Kumara, his father held the licence for the Marewhenua Hotel in North Otago as of March 1882. In May 1883 he applied for the licence of the Shamrock Hotel, Oamaru. By 1884 he was the hotelkeeper of the Bridge Hotel, Kurow. By 1890 he had taken up sheep farming at Hakataramea. In 1891 he stood for election to the Kurow School committee and applied for the licence of the Kurow Hotel. Henry was educated at St Patrick’s College, Wellington, where in 1894 he received a prize for the history of literature and authers. Perhaps his father was taking Henry and his brother to school, when Bernard Delargy and the two Masters Delargy of Kurow stopped off in Christchurch in November 1893. Mr Bernard Delargy died on 26 December 1899 at his Hakataramea residence, after some years of failing health. He had moved to Hakataramea on retiring from his hotel business.

A farmer at Hakataramea and single, Henry Joseph Delargy enlisted on 7 May 1917 at Waimate, after his name had been drawn for the South Canterbury District in the Sixth Ballot. He named his mother as next-of-kin – Mrs Margaret Delargy, Hakataramea, South Canterbury. Military Appeal Board sitting at Timaru on 16 May 1917 – “Henry Joseph DeLargy, farmer, Hakataramea, said he worked 7960 acres for sheep, 4125 acres of which were freehold, and there were 1700 acres of agricultural land. There were about 4000 breeding ewes at present on the farm; 300 acres were always sown in wheat. There were usually seven men kept on the farm. The appeal was adjourned so that both appellant and his brother might be called up under Section 35, and the case then reviewed.” In May 1918 he was allowed time until 29 July. He was a member of the South Canterbury quota of the Forty-sixth Reinforcements which left Timaru by the north express on 9 September 1918 after parading at the drill hall.

Henry Joseph Delargy died on 4 December 1943 at his residence, “Fettercairn”, Hakataramea, aged 65 years. After requiem mass at the Kurow Catholic Church, he was buried with his parents and brother in the Hakataramea Cemetery, for which he had been a trustee. He was survived by his sister, Mary Ellen, the wife of Leonard Pavletich, and her family.He also farmer the adjoining “Station Peak”. Both Henry and his brother, Bernard John Delargy (known as John), had served the Waitaki Gaelic Society and were involved in horse racing. Bernard John Delargy died on 3 January 1918 at Hakataramea. Mrs Margaret Delargy died on 7 September 1928 at her residence, “Fettercairn’, Hakataramea.

Sources

Kumara Times, 28 June 1878, North Otago Times, 3 March 1882, Oamaru Mail, 17 Mail 1883, 25 June 1884, 22 April 1891, 15 May 1891, 27 December 1899, 17 May 1917, 3 January 1918, NZ Times, 7 December 1894, Timaru Herald, 17 May 1917, 16 May 1918, 7 September 1918, Otago Daily Times, 8 September 1928, 6 December 1943, Press, 6 December 1943 (Papers Past) [08 October 2021; 06 February 2022]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [31 January 2022]; Hakataramea Cemetery headstone transcriptions (South Canterbury Branch NZSG cemetery records) [31 January 2022]; Who’s Who in New Zealand 1938 [31 January 2022]

External Links

• Military personnel file

Related Documents

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Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

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