Profile

FINDLAY, John
(Service number 8/205)

Aliases Birth registered as John FINDLEY
First Rank Private Last Rank Private

Birth

Date 22/10/1875 Place of Birth Waimate

Enlistment Information

Date Age
Address at Enlistment Church Street, Mosgiel
Occupation Platelayer
Previous Military Experience South Africa War - 18 months
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin Robert FINDLAY, Church Street, Mosgiel
Religion Presbyterian
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation Main Body
Unit, Squadron, or Ship Otago Infantry Battalion
Date 16 October 1914
Transport Ruapehu or Hawkes Bay
Embarked From Port Chalmers, Dunedin Destination Suez, Egypt
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With Otago Infantry Battalion

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals
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 26 April 1915 Age 39 years
Place of Death Gallipoli, Turkey
Cause Killed in action
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Lone Pine Memorial, Lone Pine Cemetery, Anzac, Turkey; East Taieri Cemetery, Mosgiel - memorial on parents' headstone
Memorial Reference Block A, Plot 231
New Zealand Memorials Dunedin Railway Station Roll of Honour; Railways Roll of Honour board, Wellington Railway Station

Biographical Notes

John Findlay was born on 22 October 1875 (not 1877 as recorded in his military file) at Waimate, the eldest of the ten children of Robert and Margaret (née Steel) Findlay. John and his sister Helen were born at Waimate before the family moved to the Taieri. John was educated at North Taieri School. He had served for 18 months with the 5th and 8th contingents in the South African War, earning the Queen’s South African Medal and Clasps for 1901, 1902, Rhodesia, Transvaal and Orange Free State. At the time of enlisting, he was a platelayer for New Zealand Railways. Private John Findlay was killed in action on 26 April 1915 at Gallipoli, aged 39 years. He is remembered on the Lone Pine Memorial, and in New Zealand on the Dunedin Railway Station Roll of Honour and the Railways Roll of Honour board at Wellington Railway Station. His brother Walter Findlay was skilled in action at Gallipoli on 27 August 1915, There is a memorial to the brothers on their parents’ headstone in the East Taieri Cemetery. Their youngest brother, Duncan Findlay, served in both World War I and World War II.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [16 May 2020]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal affairs) [16 May 2020]; Evening Star, 15 June 1915, Otago Daily Times, 15 June 1915, Otago Witness, 16 June 1915 (Papers Past) [16 May 2020]

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC brnach NZSG

Currently Assigned to

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