Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

John Richard Whitticase was the eldest of the family of John William Whitticase and Ann Elizabeth née Phillips. Born on 17 August 1883 at Aerhafesp, Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales, he was at home with his family at Glascoed, Aberhafesp, Newtown, Montgomeryshire, a scholar in 1891 and a farmer son in 1901. Where did young John get to after 1901 and before 1915, by which date he was in South Canterbury, New Zealand? John William Whitticase died in August 1908 at Aberhafesp. The funeral director’s record indicates that John Richard came to New Zealand about 1908.

John Richard Whitticase enlisted on 27 January 1915 at Timaru., and again on 12 February 1915 at Trentham, naming his mother as next-of-kin – Mrs A. E. Whitticase, Glascoed, Aberhafesp, Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales. Single and of Congregational affiliation, he gave his address as D. Priest, Cave, Timaru, for whom he was farming. He had served with the Montgomeryshire Imperial Yeomanry for three years until he resigned. He had been medically examined on 18 December 1914. He was 5 feet 5½ inches tall, weighed 154 pounds, had a chest measurement of 33-35½ inches, a fair complexion, and brown eyes hair. His sight, hearing, colour vision and teeth were all good, his limbs and chest well formed, his heart and lungs normal. He was free from diseases, vaccinated, and in good bodily and mental health.

Trooper J. R. Whitticase embarked on 11 June 1915 with the Canterbury Mounted Rifles of the 5th Reinforcements, leaving from Wellington for Suez, Egypt. He arrived and was posted to the 8th Mounted Rifles at Mudros on 3 October 1915. After disembarking at Alexandria on 26 December 1915, he left for Canal on 23 January 1916. As of 1 August 1916, he was in Egypt with the Canterbury Mounted Rifles, and was still there on 29 October 1916, and again on 31 July 1917. He was wounded in Action on 19 July 1917 at (Alexandria) and admitted to a succession of hospitals. Admitted to the New Zealand Convalescent Home at Heliopolis on 4 August 1917, having suffered a bomb wound to his right foot, he was satisfactory. Discharged to duty on 22 August, he was again admitted to hospital at Ismailia the next day, because of his old bomb wound. He was discharged to duty again on 25 August.

Appointed Lance-Corporal on 7 September 1917, he was posted from the Training Regiment on 16 September. Sent to the School of Instruction at Zeitoun on 22 September 1917, he rejoined from the School of Instruction on 4 October, having qualified as an Instructor at the 31st Gun Course. Having gone to hospital, sick, on 7 December 1917, he was admitted to the 24th Stationary Hospital at Kantara from the 35th Casualty Clearing Station on 11 December, his condition “not yet diagnosed”. A few days later he was admitted at Albassia. Lance-Corporal Whitticase was discharged to duty from hospital and posted to the New Zealand Mounted Rifles on 18 January 1918. He went on detachment to Gas School on 12 May 1918. Transferred to the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade on 27 July 1918, he was posted from the Training Regiment on 29 July 1918. Appointed Temporary Corporal on 15 August 1918, he relinquished that rank two months later, on 15 October, when he was sent to hospital at Cairo, sick, and reverted to the rank of lance-corporal. On 20 October 1918 he was admitted to the 47th Stationary Hospital at Gaza from the Casualty Clearing Station – Pyrexia not yet diagnosed, but slight. After moving from there to Kantara on 31 October, he was admitted to the 27th General Hospital at Cairo on 2 November 1918. He was transferred to the Aotea Convalescent Home at Heliopolis on 11 November 1918 – Pyrexia (fever) of unknown origin – improved. On 26 November he was posted from Hospital.

The Medical Report compiled at Ismailia on 3 December 1918, proposed the invaliding to New Zealand of 7/1155 L/Corporal J. R. Whitticase on account of debility. His disability – pneumonia - originated on 15 October 1918 and he had been hospitalized at Aotea. It was attributable to infection on active service during the present war. His heart sounded weak and his right lung had not quite cleared up. He had also suffered the bomb wound to his right foot in 1917. Lance-Corporal J. R. Whitticase, 7/1155, embarked at Suez at 26 December 1918 for the return to New Zealand per the “Wiltshire” (Return Draft 210), which arrived on 2 February 1919. He headed for Pareora. He was discharged on 2 March 1919, no longer physically fit for War Service (Debility). He had given close to four years of service overseas at Mudros in the Balkans and in Egypt, for which he was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. His address was Pareora, Timaru, when he applied for the Overseas War-Service Gratuity on 30 September 1919. John lived at Pareora until his death in 1961.

John Richard Whitticase married widow Laura Nellie Macphail née Munro, on 22 April 1922 at Timaru, and gained three step-children (Ewan Donald Stuart MacPhail, Mary Ann Munro MacPhail, Kenneth Ross MacPhail; Charles George MacPhail died in 1919, aged two years, and was buried at Timaru with his maternal grandparents), before his own five children were born – Gwyneth Rachel (Gwen, 1922), Janet Annie Laura (1924), Alexander Cyril (Sandy, 1925), Heather Margaret (1926) and John Phillips (Jock, 1928).

There was a record attendance at the Pareora Presbyterian Church on Sunday evening, 28 May 1935, when ex-soldiers of the Pareora and St. Andrews district attended a special Anzac service. The service commenced with the reading of His Majesty’s message’ to all ex-soldiers, followed by a most inspiring address, the reading of a lesson, the calling of the roll by Mr R. Whitticase and the placing of a wreath on the memorial. At the close of the service all stood while Piper Don Munro (perhaps Laura’s brother) played a lament, “Flowers of the Forest”. A very pretty wedding took place at the Presbyterian Church at Pareora in early May 1935, when Mary Ann Munro MacPhail, daughter of Mrs J. R. Whitticase of Pareora, and the late J. S. MacPhail of Oamaru, was married to Cyril Robert Patterson. The bride who entered the church on the arm of Mr J. R. Whitticase, was attended by her cousin, Miss Jean Munro, as bridesmaid and her sister, Miss Gwenyth Whitticase as flower girl, while Mr Ewan Macphail was best man, and Mr Ken Macphail usher. John Whittaker excelled in vegetable gardening. At the St Andrews Floral Society’s annual show in March 1937, J. R. Whitticase won a special prize for most points, the judge stating that it was the best collection he had judged and making special mention of the high standard in the potato classes. He was placed first for carrots, radish, silver beet, red beet, leeks and distinct varieties of potatoes, first equal for collection of vegetables and second for onions and coloured potatoes.

The Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) toured South Canterbury in July-August 1938. At Pareora on 2 August, the public hall was unable to accommodate and attendance of about 270. Mr J. R. Whitticase, chairman of the local branch of the Labour Party, was in the reception party, when brief reference was made to the history of Pareora. At the sixtieth annual gathering of members of the Pareora Burns Club in January 1939, the birth of Robert Burns was celebrated in a typical “Scot’s nicht”. It fell to Mr J. R. Whitticase, who had attended the 16 anniversaries of the club, to propose the toast of “Absent Friends”. He made special mention of past members who had passed on, extended best wishes to others who were unable to be present, and conveyed sympathy to two gentlemen in their recent bereavements. Later that year he was chairman of the Pareora East School Committee, his children and step-children attending the school.

John Whitticase served with the New Zealand Territorial Service in World War Two. He was examined by the Medical Board at Timaru on 7 August 1940, by which date he was 56 years 300 days old. Attesting at Timaru on that same date for temporary service he named his wife as next-of-kin – Laura Nellie Whitticase, C/o P. O. Pareora, South Canterbury. He was a labourer (unemployed), his address the same as his wife’s. Entering Burnham Camp on 10 August, he was posted to Camp Staff (Kitchen C Block). As of 12 August 1940, he was supporting his wife and two children under the age of 16 – Heather Margaret born in February 1926 and John Phillips born on 13 September 1928. T.E.S. 10/29 J. R. Whitticase, who was posted to the Temporary Employment Section, Burnham Camp, on 9 August [1940], was discharged on 30 November 1940 at his own request. In February 1941, the Camp Quarter Master arranged for him to resume his camp duties. He was awarded the War Medal 1939-45 and the N.Z. War Service Medal, which were sent to his son – A.C. Whitticase, 44 Cornwall St, Timaru. Still at Pareora East, Timaru, on 7 January 1946 he applied for War Service Gratuity, which was assessed at £3.15.4.

Laura Nellie Ida Elizabeth Whitticase died at Pareora on 7 June 1960. She was survived by her husband, the five children of their marriage and her three children from her first marriage. John Richard Whitticase died at the Timaru Public Hospital on 13 April 1961, aged 77 years. He was buried with Laura in the Timaru Cemetery, where members of the Pareora – St Andrews R.S.A. attended his funeral. He was survived by his five children and three step-children. His next-of-kin was his daughter, Mrs W. Tutty, 109 Otipua Road, Timaru. As of 24 July 1918, 7/1155, L/Col John Richard Whitticase did not desire to make a Will. Just over a week after Laura’s death, he signed his last Will, appointing his son-in-law William Charles Sutton Tutty and his son Alexander Cyril Whitticase as Executors and Trustees. He made two monetary bequests to his daughter Heather Margaret Rouse and his stepdaughter Mary Patterson. Otherwise, his estate was left to his children and stepchildren in equal shares.

The Cave, Cannington, Motukaika War Memorial was officially unveiled on Sunday afternoon, 29 April 1928, on the summit of Cave Hill. Proceedings opened with the “Dead March” in Saul, played by the Temuka Municipal Band, after which a Scripture reading was given and the Lord’s Prayer was recited, followed by the hymn “O Valiant Hearts”, a prayer and another Scripture reading. The ceremony was held to show “appreciation of those who left the shop, forge, plough, shearing sheds, musterers’ camps, or the harvest field, offering their all so that justice and right may be preserved on the earth.” The memorial was then unveiled by a very old resident of the district, and the school children laid floral tributes at the base. One minute’s silence was reverently kept, this being followed by Kipling’s “Recessional”. “The Last Post” was played by the Temuka Municipal Band, the Benediction pronounced, and the National Anthem concluded a very impressive ceremony. The very fine memorial which is in the form of a huge rough block of Timaru bluestone, honours the men who went out from the district to fight in the Great War and is symbolic of the rugged and heroic nature of those men. The stone bears the following inscription: — “So long as the rocks endure, and grass grows, and water runs, so long will this stone hear witness that through this low pass in the hills, men from the Cave, Cannington, and Motukaika districts rode and walked on their way to the Great European War, 1914-1918. Some of them have not returned, but have left their mortal remains in foreign lands and strange seas, that our British way of living may continue, but their immortal souls have risen from the Grave.” The names of those who gave their lives are inscribed first, followed by the names of those who offered their lives by serving overseas, among them J. Whiticase [sic].

Cyril Benjamin Whitticase, a younger brother of John, died on 8 September 1916 in France. Gwyneth Rachel Whitticase (Gwen) served in World War Two with the Royal New Zealand Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Gwen married Don Johns, a returned serviceman, on 16 February 1946 at Chalmers Church, Timaru. Donald Ivan Johns died at Waimate in 2021, a week before his 100th birthday; Gwen who celebrated her 75th wedding anniversary, and is still living in 2024, in her 102nd year, visited her father’s childhood home in Wales. Alexander Cyril Whitticase (Sandy) who trained with the Royal Canadian Air Force, also served in World War Two. Kenneth Ross MacPhail, son of Laura and step-son of John Whitticase, also served in World War Two, and was a prisoner of war in both Germany and Italy.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [14 February 2017; 13 June 2024]; NZ Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ Ref. AABK18805 W5922 0121887) [17 February 2017]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [14 February 2017; 12 June 2024]; Timaru Cemetery headstone image (Timaru District Council) [15 February 2017]; 1891 & 1901 census returns for Newtown, Wales (ancestry.com.au) [15 February 2017]; Timaru Herald, 14 April 1961 (Timaru District Library) [17 February 2017]; Probate record (Archives NZ/FamilySearch) [11 March 2017]; New Zealand Herald, 24 July 1917, Press, 24 July 1917, 4 March 1946, Gisborne Times, 24 July 1917, Otago Witness, 8 August 1917, New Zealand Times, 22 January 1919, Timaru Herald, 30 April 1928, 1 & 10 May 1935, 16 March 1937, 3 August 1938, 25 January 1939, 11 December 1939, Temuka Leader, 1 May 1928 (Papers Past) [17 February 2017; 09 February 2018; 30 January 2020; 12 & 14 June 2024]; Probate record (Archives NZ/Family Search) [11 March 2017]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file

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