Profile

NELSON, Thomas
(Service number 49647)

Cave District War Memorial, ANZAC Day 2015 — (Courtesy of J Sutherland )

Jock, Robert (Bob), Thomas (Tom), and Dick Nelson — (Courtesy of P Nelson )

Cave War Memorial unveiling — Mrs Nelson, Thomas and Robert's mother, had the honour of unveiling the Cave War Memorial in 1928. While the quality of this amatuer image is unfortunately fairly poor, it does show Mrs Nelson at the unveiling (on the right), and she is believed to be accompanied by Robert (on the left). (Courtesy of P Nelson )

Mackenzie County soldiers, 1917 — This group all embarked in 1917 and all come from the Cave - Albury - Cricklewood area of the MacKenzie County. All were 2nd South Canterbury Infantry, except Casey, who was NZ Rifle Brigade. Most embarked in June 1917, except Robert Nelson who didn’t leave until October, meaning the image was probably taken in England.

Pictured are:
BACK ROW: L/Cpl Arthur George Curtis, Pte William Maylen (DOD), Pte Robert Nelson, Pte William Hugh Corbett, Pte Adam Corbett (KIA).
FRONT ROW: Rfm Richard Casey & Pte Thomas Nelson (DOW)

The Nelsons were brothers, as were the Corbetts. (Courtesy of P Bishop )

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank	Private

Birth

Date	08/07/1891	Place of Birth	Cave, N.Z.

Enlistment Information

Date	11 May 1917	Age	25
Address at Enlistment	C/ John Bray, Cricklewood
Occupation	Teamster
Previous Military Experience	2nd SC Regiment
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	John Nelson (father), Cave
Religion	Presbyterian
Medical Information	5ft 5in, 152lbs, sallow complexion, brown hair, brown eyes

Military Service

Served with	New Zealand Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	27th Reinforcements, Canterbury Infantry Regiment, C Company
Date	13 June 1917
Transport	HMNZT 87 Tahiti
Embarked From	Wellington, New Zealand	Destination	Devonport, England

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	Canterbury Infantry Regiment

Military Awards

Campaigns	Western European
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		Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	10 January 1918	Age	26
Place of Death	France
Cause	Died of wounds
Notices	Timaru Herald 24 Jan 1918
Memorial or Cemetery	Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Poperinge, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Memorial Reference	XXXVI C 12
New Zealand Memorials	On Memorial wall, Timaru; Albury War Memorial; Cave First World War Memorial; Albury Football Club Roll of Honour; Fairlie War Memorial

Biographical Notes

Thomas Nelson was born at Cave on 8 July 1891 to John and Selina Nelson. He enlisted on 11 May 1917 when he was 25 – at that time he was a teamster working for John Bray at Cricklewood. He was described as being 5ft 5in, 152lbs, of sallow complexion, with brown hair, and brown eyes, single, and Presbyterian. He gave his next of kin as his father, John Nelson of Cave.

Thomas became a private with the 27th Reinforcements, Canterbury Infantry Regiment, C Coy. He embarked at Wellington on 13 June 1917 on the troopship Tahiti sailing for Devonport, England. Therehe proceeded to Sling Camp, leaving for France and the Western Front on 6 October. Thomas Nelson received multiple shell wounds while in action on 9 January 1918. He was taken to a field hospital where he died the following day. He was buried in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Poperinge, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. His will named his mother, Mrs J Nelson of Cave.

The Timaru Herald of 31 January 1918 reported: "Private T Nelson, whose death was recorded last week, was the second son of J. and S. Nelson, Ma Waro. Private Nelson was born at Ma Waro, and was educated at the Cave School. After leaving school he worked for six years with Messrs Auston Bros, Albury. He left with the 27th Reinforcements. He was 26 years of age when he died." A memoriam notice in The Timaru Herald of 10 January 1920 reads:" In loving memory of Private Tom Nelson, died of wounds somewhere in France, 10th January, aged 21 years. Somewhere abroad in a soldier’s grave Lies my dear son amongst the brave, Unknown to the world he stands by my side And whispers Dear Mother death cannot divide. Inserted by his loving father, mother, sisters and brothers (Ma Waro)."

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph [June 2021]; SCRoll web submission by M Mowatt, 4 March & 2 April 2018; NZ Defence Force Personnel Records [June 2021]

External Links

Researched and Written by

Maree Bowen, SC branch NZSG; Carol Bell, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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