Profile

FRASER, Geoffrey Erle
(Service number 11/254)

Lance Corporal Geoff E Fraser — From" "South Canterbury Roll of Honour", published 1916 by the South Canterbury Caledonian Society. (South Canterbury Museum 17/15)

Timaru Boys High School Memorial Library plaque (1914-1918), pictured in 2007 — (South Canterbury Museum )

St Mary's Church, Timaru, memorial plaque, circa 2010 — (South Canterbury Museum 2013/155.31)

Waimataitai School War Memorial, pictured in 2007 — (South Canterbury Museum )

Aliases
First Rank	Trooper	Last Rank	Trooper

Birth

Date	29/06/1891	Place of Birth	Timaru, South Canterbury, New Zealand

Enlistment Information

Date	17 August 1914	Age	24
Address at Enlistment	Takapuna Street, Waipiro Bay, New Zealand
Occupation	Shepherd
Previous Military Experience	Timaru High School Cadets
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	C.T Fraser (brother), Timaru, New Zealand
Religion	Church of England
Medical Information	5 foot 9 inches. 160 lbs in weight. Dark complexion. Brown eyes. Dark hair. Good physical development and good health.

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	Main Body
Date	16 October 1914
Transport	Orari or Arawa
Embarked From	Wellington, New Zealand	Destination	Suez, Egypt

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	Wellington Mounted Rifles

Military Awards

Campaigns	Egyptian 1914-15; Balkans (Gallipoli) 1915
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

Wounded at Dardanelles and died in Malta

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	20 September 1915	Age	26
Place of Death	Malta
Cause	Wounded at Anzac Cove. Died of gunshot wounds to the head.
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Pieta, Military Cemetery, Malta
Memorial Reference	B. XIII. 5
New Zealand Memorials	On Memorial wall, Timaru; Timaru Boys High School War Memorial (Library); Waimataitai School War Memorial?; Memorial plaque, St Mary's Church, Timaru

Biographical Notes

Geoffery Fraser was the son of Charlton S and Mary Anne (Minnie) Fraser of Selwyn Street,Timaru, New Zealand. His brother Douglas also fell during the war. Geoffrey's siblings were Hansome Home (b.1881), Elmira Lucy (b.1883), Winifred (b.1884), Eric John Freeland (b.1886), Doris Mary (b.1888), Douglas Playfair (b.1889), Eva Beryl (b.1892), and Gordon Lovat (b. 1893).

The Press of 22 September 1915 (p5) reported, in a "THE FALLEN AND WOUNDED." column:

"CORPORAL G. E. FRASER. Mr C. S. Fraser, of Timaru, has received a private cable message from Malta that his son, Geoffrey Earle Fraser (Wellington Mounted Regiment), who was wounded on August l0th, died on Saturday in hospital at Malta. The cable message was sent by a younger brother, who was also in hospital, having been wounded a second time. The deceased soldier was about 25 years of age. He was educated in Timaru, and went sheep-farming in the Gisborne district, and enlisted there as a trooper. He was promoted to be corporal on the field."

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Cenotaph Database (Sept 2013); Archives New Zealand (December 2014); SCroll web submission from L Seaton, 18 December 2015; Press, 22 September 1915

External Links

Researched and Written by

Janette Clarke, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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