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Biographical Notes

Richard Augustine Walsh was born on 14 February 1898 at Levels Plains, South Canterbury, the third son of James and Annie (née Hoare) Walsh. James Walsh, senior, who was from County Cork, Ireland, and Annie Hoare, who was born at Kerrytown, New Zealand, of Irish parents, were married in 1891 at Pleasant Point and went on to have fourteen children. In June 1904, Richard and his brothers James and Michael, as well as other siblings, transferred to Gleniti School from the Kerrytown School, their parents having moved to Wai-iti (Gleniti) from Kerrytown. Richard left Gleniti for the Catholic School Timaru in March 1909. The younger children started at Kerrytown School or Gleniti School then went on variously to the Catholic School Timaru or the Marist Brothers School Timaru and Orari Gorge (Tripp) School (May 1910), where Richard also appeared. He left at the end of 1911 for work, having passed the Standard VI examination for Proficiency. In July 1905, the truant officer for the South Canterbury education district sued two parents for neglecting to send children (two in each case) to the school regularly as required by law. In the case of James Walsh, a fine of 2 shillings for each child was imposed. The four youngest Walsh children started at Orari Gorge School and left for Christchurch in December 1915. Mr and Mrs Walsh moved from Gleniti to the Tripp Settlement in 1910, Mr Walsh taking on farming. James Walsh had won a section of land in the Tripp Settlement ballot.

A sale of horses, harness, waggons, drays, seed sowers, etc., on account of Mr Jas. Walsh, at his farm, Levels Plains, on 29 September 1893. The sale was an unreserved one, Mr Wals having given up contracting. Then in mid-1894, James Walsh, a contractor of Levels Plains, got into financial difficulties, owing a great deal to creditors. He had a lease on 50 acres and had also taken up a house and 10 acres at Kerrytown. He attributed his difficulties to bad crops. “Had lost about £100 on the 50 acres in 1892; three horses had died whose value he estimated at £40, and he had losses in dealing.” He was allowed time to make an offer to his creditors. Mr James Walsh appears to have been an eloquent speaker. In November 1905, he proposed the vote of thanks to Mr Hall-Jones when he spoke on his political campaign at Gleniti. The meeting of the Trinity Debating and Social Society was held in the Gleniti Schoolroom on 5 July 1907, when a considerable number of members congregated to listen to the debate on “Home Rule for Ireland”. “The leader for the affirmative, Mr J. Walsh, very suitably and enthusiastically presented an excellent argument in favour of Home Rule. . . . . . An animated discussion, creating exceptional interest, ensued, most of the members present participating (frequently indulging in extraordinary flights of oratory). The chairman put the subject to the meeting, the vote resulting in a win for the negative, by the casting vote of the chairman.” In 1908 Mr J. Walsh was elected to the Gleniti School committee.

On moving to the Tripp Settlement, Mr Walsh had some of his contract tenders accepted by the Geraldine Road Board and the Levels County Council, especially as his prices were often the lowest. A clearing sale on behalf of Mr James Walsh, Tripp Settlement was to have been held at the beginning of May 1914 but was postponed until 12 May. At the November 1914 meeting of the Geraldine Road Board, “Mr Jas. Walsh, Orari Gorge, waited on the Board complaining of an excessive charge for horse feed supplied to four draught horses impounded by the Board’s pound-keeper. He said that a change of 2/6 per horse for a feed was exorbitant. The horses he alleged, were taken off the road at 3 a.m. and fed at 5 a.m., when they were not in need of it. The pound-keeper had practically taken the horses away from a feeder. He was sowing patriotic wheat at the time, and had no place to put his horses except bn the road. . . . . . The chairman said the Board made no exception of any ratepayer. Complaints had been received from all over the district, in regard to stray cattle and horses on roads, . . . . . Mr Walsh had not been singled out, and the feed charge made by the pound-keeper if not according to the schedule would be refunded. . . . . . Mr Walsh said he objected to the pound-keeper ‘scouting’ in the night for horses. The chairman said that the pound-keeper had to do some scheming to abate the nuisance. He found that unless he got out pretty early the owners of stray cattle and horses were there before him. The clerk said the pound-keeper could carry out his duties at any hour day or night. The clerk was instructed to make enquiries regarding the charger made by the pound-keeper for horse feed.”

Tragedy struck the Walsh family in 1915. Annie Walsh – wife of James Walsh and second daughter of the late Richard Hoare, Kerrytown - died at her Woodbury residence on 26 January 1915. At the beginning of February, James Walsh, Tripp Settlement, posted a notice – “I wish to sincerely thank Dr Paterson and all the kind friends who helped to alleviate my trouble in my recent sad bereavement.” At this time the children of Annie and James ranged in age from 23 years to 6 months in age. Then on 27 April 1915, James Walsh died after a very brief illness, his funeral leaving the Tripp Settlement for the Geraldine Catholic Church, thence for the Geraldine Cemetery. A post-mortem examination showed that death was due to septic peritonitis. Both died intestate. Only three of the family had reached adulthood – Mary Theresa Josephine (spinster), Michael Joseph Thomas (labourer) and James Raymond (labourer), all of Woodbury. William Dodds Fitzgerald, a long-time Kerrytown acquaintance, went surety for them as they sought administration of their father’s estate, which was given on 7 June 1915, on the grounds that the estate was small and was not liable to the payment of Death Duty. They stated that their father left surviving the following children – themselves; sons – Richard Augustine (17 years, labourer, Woodbury), Leo Redmond (15 years, labourer, Woodbury), Denis Patrick (14 years, labourer, Woodbury), Peter John (8 years, student, Woodbury), Francis Joseph (7 years, student, Woodbury); daughters – Margaret Gertrude (19 years, spinster, Woodbury), Monica Josephine (12 years, student, Woodbury), Agnes Julia (11 years, student, Woodbury), Amelia Josephine (9 years, student, Woodbury), Annie Catherine Madeline (10 months, Woodbury). William Dodds Fitzgerald also went surety for the same three eldest children, the only ones to have attained the age of twenty-one, as they sought administration of their mother’s estate. On 7 June 1915, it was ordered that letters of administration of the estate of Annie Walsh be granted to Mary Theresa Josephine Walsh, Michael Joseph Thomas Walsh and James Raymond Walsh. The surviving children of their mother were, naturally, the same as for their father; and their father had died after their mother but before June 1915. But on 19 June 1925, an order was made with reference to the administration of the estate of Annie Walsh – “Michael Joseph Thomas Walsh is hereby removed from the office of administrator of the estate of Annie Walsh.” James Raymond Walsh, labourer, and Mary Theresa Josephine Walsh, spinster, both formerly of Woodbury but then of Timaru, had petitioned the Court with regard to the administration their mother’s estate. The estate had not been valuable, consisting of a small parcel of land and an even smaller lot with a “cottage very much out of repair” in Timaru, with an undischarged mortgage. The land had been sold by Michael but with a condition that now required a transfer to the purchaser. Michael Joseph Thomas Walsh had left New Zealand for America about April 1922, “but to what part thereof we do not know and we have not heard from him since and do not know where he is now.” James and Mary were anxious to complete administration.

In March 1914 at Geraldine, R. A. Walsh and others had been charged with absenting themselves from drill. He was fined 5 shillings with costs 9 shillings and 6 pence. Richard Augustine Walsh was medically examined by the Travelling Medical Board at Timaru on 23 April 1918. He stood at 5 feet 8½ inches, weighed 128 pounds, and had a chest measurement of 31½-34 inches, a fair complexion, brown eyes and light brown hair. His sight, hearing, colour vision, heart and lungs were all normal, his limbs and chest well formed. He was free from diseases and was in good bodily and mental health, having had no fits or notifications for consumption, and having never been absent from work through ill-health or accident. He then enlisted that day. A shepherd at Peel Forest, single and Roman Catholic, he too named his aunt as next-of-kin – Mrs K. Nolan, Levels, Canterbury. This was his mother’s sister – Catherine née Hoare. He was serving with the 2nd South Canterbury Regiment. Leaving home on 20 May 1918, Private Walsh was posted to the 41st Reinforcements and entered camp the next day. A week later he was transferred to the 44th Reinforcements, Mounted Rifles, as Trooper. After a transfer to the 47th Reinforcements, Special Company, on 31 August, he was transferred back to the 44th Reinforcements, Mounted Rifles. There at Featherston, on 11 November 1918, he was granted leave without pay until further orders on demobilization on 18 November. It was noted that he was of good character.

Not too long after the war, Richard made his way to North Canterbury, where he engaged in labouring work in the Culverden area. In 1927 he married Ivy Marion Ethel Carson. Richard and Ivy had at least six children but only Michael Augustine, born in 1937, survived beyond infancy. Peter, Patricia, Richard, John, Paul and Anthony died in infancy; most are buried at Rotherham, one at Waikari. R. A. Walsh of Rotherham was present at a most successful dance held by the Catholic community of the Culverden district in September 1931. In the 1940s they moved to Hanmer Springs, then later to Christchurch.

Richard Augustine Walsh (late of Rotherham and Hanmer Springs) died on 28 March 1948 at Christchurch, aged 49 years. After a Requiem Mass at St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Papanui, he was buried at Ruru Lawn Cemetery, Christchurch. He was survived by Ivy and their son Michael. Michael Augustine Walsh married Noeline Anne McEwan in the 1950s and they settled in the Ashburton district. In the 1970s he married Mary Kathleen Coulter, a widow, who is buried with him at Ashburton. Richard’s wife, Ivy Marion Ethel Walsh, died on 23 May 1965 at Ashburton (of Christchurch), aged 58 years, and was buried with Richard after a Requiem Mass at St Peter’s, Beckenham. Richard’s two older brothers – Michael Joseph Thomas Walsh and James Raymond Walsh - served in World War One; as did Hugh Hoare, a cousin of the Walsh brothers’ mother, and Francis Joseph Nolan, their cousin. A younger brother Denis Patrick Walsh may have served in World War Two. On 4 September 1916 at Timaru, D. P. Walsh, who had failed to put in a parade since August 24, was fined 5 shillings and 7 shillings 6 pence costs. The names of both Denis Patrick Walsh, Shirley, Christchurch, and Richard Augustine Walsh, Hanmer Springs, were drawn in the ballot of late 1942. Peter John Walsh had been drawn in a 1940 ballot. At his death in 1957, Denis Patrick Walsh was a war pensioner.

Sources

NZ Defence Force Personnel Records (per ancestry.com.au) [02 June 2024]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [08 December 2015]; Temuka Leader, 28 September 1893, 25 January 1912, Timaru Herald, 16 May 1894, 29 July 1905, 17 November 1905, 6 July 1907, 14 March 1910, 25 January 1912, 2 February 1915, 28 & 30 April 1915, Press, 24 March 1914, 19 September 1931, 29 March 1948, 14 September 1957, 24 May 1965, NZ Tablet, 11 March 1915, 8 April 1915, Lyttelton Times, 30 April 1915 (Papers Past) [15 November 2015; 08 December 2015; 26 & 27 June 2024; 01 & 02 July 2024]; School Admission records (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [08 December 2015]; Ruru Lawn Cemetery burial records (Christchurch City Council) [02 July 2024]; Ruru Lawn Cemetery headstone transcription [02 July 2024[; Probate records (Archives NZ/Family Search) [26 June 2024]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [20 December 2015; 26 June 2024]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record

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