Profile

PARSONS, William James
(Service number 15959)

Aliases
First Rank Rifleman Last Rank Rifleman

Birth

Date 14/10/1895 Place of Birth Stansted, Kent, England

Enlistment Information

Date 6 April 1916 Age 20 years
Address at Enlistment C/o W. H. Tubb, Victoria Street, Timaru
Occupation Farm hand
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin James PARSONS (father), Stansted, Wrotham, Kent, England; Mr William TUBB, Senr (friend), Victoria Street, Timaru, Canterbury
Religion Baptist
Medical Information Height 5 feet 11¾ inches. Complexion fair. Eyes grey. Hair brown

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation New Zealand Rifle Brigade
Unit, Squadron, or Ship 6th Reinforcements, 3rd Battalion, G Company
Date 26 July 1916
Transport Waitemata or Ulimaroa
Embarked From Destination
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With 3rd New Zealand Rifle Brigade

Military Awards

Campaigns
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 5 April 1918 Reason No longer physically fit for war service on account of illness contracted on active service.

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

September 1917 to hospital at Weybridge, England - poison gas?

Post-war Occupations

Farm hand, farmer

Death

Date 7 September 1966 Age 70 years
Place of Death Budgewoi, New South Wales, Australia
Cause Disease - cancer
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Point Clare General Cemetery, Point Clare, New South Wales, Australia
Memorial Reference Lawn 2, Row 3 (Services plaque)
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

William James Parsons was the son of James and Edith Martine (née Dunmall) Parsons, of Wrotham, Kent, England. William was at home with his family at Ash, Kent in 1901 and at Stanstead, Kent, England. In 1911 he was working on his father’s farm. Rifleman W. J. Parsons returned to New Zealand per the “Ruahine”, embarking on 4 January 1918 and arriving on 5 April. He resumed his work in farming. William Parsons married Gladys Mary Cross in 1921. They lived for a time at Hunter, and in the 1930s William was in Timaru and Christchurch. Gladys died in 1941 and was buried with her parents in the Timaru Cemetery. It is said that William returned to England after her death, married again and migrated to Australia in 1961. Parsons died on 7 September 1966 at Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [12 December 2016]; 1901, 1911 census returns England (ancestry.com.au) [24 March 2020; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [22 March 2020]

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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