Profile

LINDSTROM, George Alfred
(Service number 70400)

Aliases Enlisted as George Albert LINDSTROM
First Rank Private Last Rank Lance-Corporal

Birth

Date 18/02/1900 Place of Birth Timaru

Enlistment Information

Date 8 October 1917 Age 17 years 7 months
Address at Enlistment Papakura, Auckland
Occupation Farm hand
Previous Military Experience 11th Taranaki Rifles - left district
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin Miss Ruby BUCHANAN (cousin), 5 Tootager (Trafalgar) Street, Timaru
Religion Roman Catholic
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Unit, Squadron, or Ship 36th Reinforcements, C Company
Date 23 April 1918
Transport Willochra
Embarked From Wellington Destination Southampton, Hampshire, England
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With NZ Infantry

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals British War Medal; Victory Medal
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 18 October 1919 Reason On termination of period of engagement.

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Electrician; sander

Death

Date 16 January 1971 Age 70 years
Place of Death Christchurch
Cause
Notices Press, 18 January 1971
Memorial or Cemetery Memorial Park Cemetery, Christchurch
Memorial Reference Block 3, Plot 342
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

George Alfred Lindstrom was born on 18 February 1900 at Timaru, the oldest son of Gustaf Hjalmer Lindstrom and Georgina Annie (Queenie) née McGarva. Gustaf from Sweden and New Zealand born Georgina married in 1896 in New Zealand. They had four daughters and three sons. George was educated at the New Plymouth Convent School, Frankley Road School, New Plymouth, and West End School, New Plymouth. His mother died in 1915 at New Plymouth.

On enlisting, George gave his birth year as 1897, presumably to disguise his real age. That, too, may have been the reason he served as George Albert Lindstrom. He was a farm hand at Papakura, Auckland. Single and Roman Catholic, he named his cousin as next-of-kin – Miss Ruby Buchanan, 5 Tootager (Trafalgar) Street, Timaru. Ruby’s mother was a sister of George’s mother. Private G. A. Lindstrom embarked with the 36th Reinforcements, departing from Wellington for Southampton, England, on 23 April 1918 per the “Willochra”. He actually disembarked at Suez on 31 May 1918. The Hororata’s draft which was due at Wellington on or about 20 September 1919, brought home G. A. Lindstrom, 70400, of Timaru. He was discharged on 18 October 1919, on the termination of his period of engagement and received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

George Alfred Lindstrom married Ethel Duggan on 18 April 1922 at the Hawera Roman Catholic Church. He died on 16 January 1971 at Christchurch, aged 70 years, and was buried at Memorial Park Cemetery after a service at St Paul’s Catholic Church. He was survived by his widow, two sons and four daughters. Ethel was buried with him in 1983 and a son in 1992.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [26 June 2023]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [26 June 2023]; School Admission records (New Plymouth Branch NZSG) [26 June 2023]; Memorial Park Cemetery, Christchurch, headstone transcription (South Canterbury Branch NZSG cemetery records) [26 June 2023]; Memorial Park Cemetery burial records (Christchurch City Council) [26 June 2023]; Star, 26 August 1919, NZ Times, 27 August 1919, Press, 18 & 19 January 1971 (Papers Past) [26 June 2023]

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, South Canterbruy Genealogy Society

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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