Profile

CLEMENT, Sydney George
(Service number 10/977)

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank	Private

Birth

Date	07/02/1892	Place of Birth	Waddington, Nth Canterbury, New Zealand

Enlistment Information

Date	14 August 1914	Age	22
Address at Enlistment	672 Gladstone Road, Gisborne, New Zealand
Occupation	Traveller
Previous Military Experience	South Canterbury Regiment
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Rev George Clement (father) Parsonage, Elles Rod Invercargill, New Zealand
Religion	Wesleyan
Medical Information	Height 5 foot 10 inches, weight 145 lbs, chest 35 inches, fair complexion, blue eyes, dk brown hair, teeth fair/artificial

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	Main Body
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	Wellington Infantry Battalion, 9th Hawkes Bay Company
Date	16 October 1914
Transport	Limerick or Arawa
Embarked From	Wellington, New Zealand	Destination	Suez, Egypt (3 December 1914)

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	Wellington Infantry Battalion

Military Awards

Campaigns	Egyptian & Gallipoli
Service Medals	1914-1915 Star, 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		Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

14 June 1915: No.2 Australian Stationary Hospital Lemnon - bronchitis; 3 July 1915: admitted 17th General Hospital Alexandra ex Hospital Ship Dunluce Castle with "bronchitis slight".

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	8 August 1915	Age	23
Place of Death	Gallipoli, Turkey
Cause	Killed in action
Notices	Otago Daily Times, 10 September 1915, Page 6
Memorial or Cemetery	Chunuk Bair (NZ) Memorial, Chunuk Bair Cemetery, Gallipoli, Turkey
Memorial Reference	Panel 19
New Zealand Memorials	On Memorial wall, Timaru; Geraldine War Memorial; Geraldine High School Roll of Honour, Auckland Grammar School Memorial

Biographical Notes

Born at Waddington, North Canterbury, on 7 February 1892, Sydney was the only son of The Reverend George and Elizabeth Agnes (nee Eskett) Clement. He was educated at Geraldine, Stratford and Auckland and was regarded as a good all-round athlete involved in swimming, cricket, tennis and football. For a time he was with the firm of Baxter & Peacock Solicitors, Auckland, and later, with Hopkins & Twyneham Solicitors, Christchurch.

At the time of his enlisting in Gisborne, on 14 August 1914, Sydney's address was 672 Gladstone Road, Gisborne, and his occupation as a Traveller for Cowlan’s. He had had previous military service in the Territorial’s with C Company, South Canterbury Regiment and was described as being aged 22, single, of the Wesleyan faith, 5 foot 10 inches tall, weighing 145 lbs, chest measuring 35 inches, of fair complexion, blue eyes, dark brown hair, with both fair and artificial teeth. Private Clement, Wellington Infantry Battalion, 9th Hawkes Bay Company, left Wellington on 16 October 1914, with the Main Body, aboard the Limerick or Arawa, bound for Suez, Egypt, arriving at Alexandria on 3 December. Sydney embarked from Alexandria for the Dardanelles on 12 April 1915. On 14 June he was admitted to No 2 Australian Stationary Hospital, Lemnos, suffering from bronchitis. He was again taken aboard the Hospital Ship Dunluce Castle on 3 July, and transported to the 17th General Hospital at Alexandria, again with "bronchitis slight". He was discharged from hospital on 16 July, and attached to NZ Army Base Mustapha, until he re-embarked at Alexandria 28 July, for the Dardanelles, rejoining his unit 3 August. On 8 August, he was reported as missing. The finding of a Board of Enquiry, held at Moascar Camp, Ismailia, on 16 January 1916, found he was “Now believed to be dead at the Dardanelles 8 August 1915”. There being no body found for burial, Sydney is commemorated at the Chunuk Bair Cemetery on the NZ Memorial, Panel 19.

At war’s end, his medals, the 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal plus a scroll and plaque, were forwarded to his father, then at Scotia Street, Port Chalmers.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph database (July 2015); Archives NZ (Personnel File); "Soldiers of Selwyn", Selwyn Times, 17 March 2015 via http://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/selwyn-times/20150317/281608123913620/TextView

External Links

Researched and Written by

Liz Shea, SC branch NZSG; Ted Hansen, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.