Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

James Budge was born on 3 February 1885 (1884?) at Holm, Orkney Islands, Scotland, the elder son of James and Margaret (née Gaddie) Budge. James, senior, and Margaret had married at Holm in 1881 and over the next nineteen years they had nine children. Young James was at home at Holm with his family in 1891 and in 1901 when he was a cooper like his father. Mr Jas. Budge, 22 years, a farm servant. departed from England on 29 November 1908 by the “Rimutaka”, destined for Lyttelton, New Zealand. By 1911 he was a labourer at Waimate, South Canterbury.

J. Budge of Waimate, was one of the registrations at the Timaru Defence Office on 20 June 1916. The South Canterbury military district was congratulated on being able to send forward a full quota for the Nineteenth Reinforcements (July 1916). The Waimate men “were played down to the Railway station at noon” on 26 July and “farewelled upon their entrainment for Trentham as members of the 19th reinforcement”, J. Budge having volunteered for the Mounted Rifles. The deputy-mayor said “said they would show the enemy that the British race was not decadent, and that the Empire was knit together in a bond of loyalty and love and heart and soul in the cause of’ Liberty and Justice that the Allies were espousing. They were deserving of all honour for the part they were prepared to play and he wished them God-speed and a safe return to a warm welcome.”

James Budge enlisted on 28 July 1916 at Featherston. He was a shepherd for the Dominion meat Company, Waimate, single and Presbyterian. He had served for two years with the Orkney Volunteers. His address was P. O. Waituna, Waimate, and his nominated next-of-kin was his father – J. Budge, Fish-curer, St Mary’s Holme, Orkney Islands, Scotland. He also named a friend – J. Bitchener, Tepuni Farm, Makikihi, South Canterbury. Trooper J. Budge embarked with the New Zealand Mounted Rifles of the 20th Reinforcements, departing for Suez, Egypt, by the “Waihora” on 5 December 1916. A draft arrived in Wellington on 23 December 1917 – “Home for ‘Xmas”. “The men arrived in good fettle, many of them having been immensely benefited by the sea trip.”

Trooper James Budge was discharged on 20 January 1918 and was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. At a welcome home social held at Hook in mid-April 1919, for one nurse and seven soldiers, Trooper J. Budge was, unfortunately, unable to be present. From July 1916, the name of J. Budge appeared regularly on the Waimate Daily Advertiser Roll of Honour under the sub-title of Answered the Call. James was still at Waimate by the 1928 electoral roll. Where did he go to afterwards? His younger brother, John Shearer Budge, of St Mary’s Holm, served in World War One with the Royal Garrison Artillery, and died on 13 September 1918 in Belgium or France, aged 26 years.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museumm Cenotaph Database [07 July 2022]; 1891 & 1901 census returns (ancestry.com.au) [10 July 2022]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [10 July 2022]; Shipping record (ancestry.com.au) [10 July 2022]; Timaru Herald, 21 June 1916, 25 July 1916, 15 April 1919, Waimate Daily Advertiser, 26 July 1916, 30 May 1918, 15 April 1919, Dominion, 24 December 1917 (Papers Past) [18 September 2019; 09 & 10 July 2022]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, Teresa Scott, South Canterbury Genealogy Society

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.