Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

John Patrick Forde, known as Johnnie, was born on 24 January 1894 at Glenavy, the elder son of John and Mary Ellen (Ellie, née Ford) Ford/Forde. Along with his six sisters and one brother, he was educated at Tawai School. His father died in 1909 at Waimate and his mother in 1912 at Oamaru.

He enlisted on 24 August 1914 at Dunedin. At the time he was a railway porter at Balclutha. He was serving with the New Zealand Railway Corps. Single and Roman Catholic, he named Mrs P. Forde, Aln Street, Oamaru, as his next-of-kin. This was surely his maternal grandmother who died in 1919 at Oamaru. Private J. P. Forde embarked with the Otago Infantry Battalion of the Main Body, departing from Port Chalmers for Suez, Egypt, on 16 October 1914. In early June 1915, the Waimate Daily Advertiser noted under Tawai Notes that “Private J. P. Forde who was wounded at the Dardanelles, was a Tawai lad having spent his schooldays here.”

Johnnie Forde had in fact been badly wounded eight days after the landing at Gallipoli and was admitted to the Southern General hospital at Birmingham on 20 May 1915. As a consequence, he was permanently disabled through the loss of an arm. It was 28 October 1916 when he embarked for home per the hospital ship “Maheno”, after nearly nineteen months in hospital in England. J. P. Forde was discharged on 20 January 1917, being no longer physically fit for War Service on account of Wounds received in Action. He returned to his work with the railways as a clerk.

John Patrick Forde died on 18 November 1918, at Lewisham Hospital, Christchurch, aged 24 years, and was buried privately at Linwood Cemetery, Christchurch. He was a victim of the influenza epidemic. After his grandmother’s death, his youngest sister Josephina (Mrs D. S. A. Weir, Ranfurly) was acknowledged as his next-of-kin. His legal next-of-kin was his younger brother, Patrick Forde, of Pembroke, Lake Wanaka, who was to receive his medals – 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [03 May 2023]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [03 May 2023]; School Admission records (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [03 May 2023]; Linwood Cemetery headstone transcription (South Canterbury Branch NZSG records) [03 May 2023]; Waimate Daily Advertiser, 5 June 1915, Evening Star, 18 November 1918, Press, 19 & 20 November 1918, Otago Daily Times, 19 November 1918, Sun, 19 November 1918, Star, 19 & 20 November 1918, Lyttelton Times, 20 November 1918, Otago Witness, 20 & 27 November 1918, Oamaru Mail, 21 November 1918 (Papers Past) [01 & 03 May 2023]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file

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