DUNSFORD, William George Geoffrey
(Service number 43856)
| First Rank | Gunner | Last Rank | Gunner |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 14 May 1890 | Place of Birth | Invercargill |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | Age | 26 years | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | Opotiki | ||
| Occupation | Fencing contractor | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | Single | ||
| Next of Kin | Mrs Fanny DUNSFORD (mother), Wai-iti Road, Timaru | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | New Zealand Expeditionary Force | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | 26th Reinforcements, New Zealand Field Artillery | ||
| Date | 12 June 1917 | ||
| Transport | Maunganui | ||
| Embarked From | Destination | Plymouth, Devon, England | |
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | NZ Field Artillery | ||
Military Awards
| Campaigns | Western European | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Medals | British War Medal; Victory Medal | ||
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 |
Death
| Date | *1975 | Age | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | South Africa | ||
| Cause | |||
| Memorial or Cemetery | |||
| New Zealand Memorials | |||
Biographical Notes
William George Geoffrey Dunsford, who was Geoffrey, was born on 14 May 1890 at Invercargill, the fourth son of William George and Fannie Elizabeth (née Fitt) Dunsford. William (senior) and Fannie, who both hailed from England, married in 1878 in Victoria, Australia. By 1879 they were in New Zealand where their first son was born. They had five sons and two daughters, all born at Invercargill. In 1892 the family moved to Timaru where Mr Dunsford was a bank accountant and later a commission agent. Geoffrey started at Timaru South School in July 1894 when he was not five years old. In 1897 he transferred to Waimataitai School, leaving there in 1904 for high school. On leaving school, he took up farm work, firstly at Mataura and then at Cape Runaway.
William George Geoffrey Dunsford was a self-employed fencing contractor at Opotiki when he enlisted there on 19 January 1917. Single and of Church of England affiliation, he named his mother as next-of-kin – Mrs Fanny Dunsford, Wai-iti Road, Timaru. Gunner W. G. G. Dunsford embarked with the New Zealand Field Artillery of the 26th Reinforcements, departing for Plymouth, England per the “Maunganui” on 12 June 1917.
He returned to New Zealand per the “Maunganui”, embarking at Liverpool on 17 May 1919 and disembarking on 23 June 1919, probably at Port Chalmers. William George Geoffrey Dunsford was discharged on 21 July 1919, on the termination of his period of engagement, and was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. His intended address was Wai-iti Road, Timaru, where his parents resided. He was there with his parents in 1922 and with his widowed mother in 1925, farming.
Beryl Gwendolyn Dunsford, the younger daughter of William and Fanny died at Timaru in 1900, aged 14; Edith Dorothy Dunsford, the elder daughter, died suddenly in 1907, aged 23. William George Dunsford died at his Wai-iti Road residence on 12 November 1922 and was buried with his daughters at Timaru Cemetery. The third son, Rupert John Cullum Dunsford, died at Timaru in January 1927 and was buried there too. Rupert was listed in the 1916 Reserves Roll. Also remembered on the Timaru headstone is Norman Guthrie Chalmers Dunsford, the youngest son of William and Fannie, who was killed in action at Gallipoli on 2 May 1915. In September 1927, Mrs F. A. Dunsford, Mr R. A. Dunsford (eldest son Reginald) and Mr W. W. G. Dunsford left New Zealand for Sydney. It appears that they went on from there to South Africa, where Fannie Elizabeth Dunsford died in 1935, and where William George Geoffrey is said to have died in 1975.
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [01 April 2025]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [05 April 2025]; School Admission records (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [05 April 2025]; Timaru Herald, 2 June 1900, 21 January 1907, 13 November 1922, 26 January 1927, Otago Daily Times, 24 January 1907, Southland Times, 26 January 1907, NZ Times, 14 June 1919 (Papers Past) [25 March 2025; 05 April 2025]; Timaru Cemetery headstone images (Timaru District Council) [05 April 2025]
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Researched and Written by
Teresa Scott, SC Genealogy Society
Currently Assigned to
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Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.
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