BIRT, John
(Service number 7/1960)
| First Rank | Trooper | Last Rank | Gunner |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 15/07/1892 | Place of Birth | County Derry, Ireland |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | Age | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | Winchester, South Canterbury | ||
| Occupation | Labourer | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | |||
| Next of Kin | Mrs Mary BIRT (mother), County Derry, Ireland | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | New Zealand Expeditionary Force | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | 9th Reinforcements, Canterbury Mounted Rifles, C Squadron | ||
| Date | 8 January 1916 | ||
| Transport | Maunganui | ||
| Embarked From | Destination | Suez, Egypt | |
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | Field Artillery | ||
Military Awards
| Campaigns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Medals | |||
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 |
Death
| Date | 16 July 1957 | Age | 65 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | Gore | ||
| Cause | |||
| Memorial or Cemetery | Gore Cemetery | ||
| New Zealand Memorials | |||
Biographical Notes
John Birt was born on 15 July 1892 in County Derry, Ireland, the son of Charles and Mary (née Henry) Birt. In 1901, John is the sixth of ten children at home at Ballynease Strain, Bellaghy, Londonderry, with their widowed mother, a farmer, their ages ranging from 20 to one year old. Their father, Charles had died on 26 May 1899 at Magherafelt and was buried in Bellaghy Cemetery, Mary joining him when she died on 23 March 1925, their son George in 1957 and son Edward (Ned) in 1982. John was not with the family in 1911. He may have been a barman in Belfast. John Birt was a labourer at Winchester, South Canterbury, when he left for Trentham on 18 October 1915 with South Canterbury’s quota for the Ninth Reinforcements. He died on 16 July 1957 at Gore and was buried in the Gore Cemetery.
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [13 June 2020]; Ireland 1901 & 1911 census returns (per ancestry.com.au) [14 June 2002]; Gore Cemetery headstone image & burial record (Gore District Council) [13 June 2020]; Find A Grave, Ireland (per ancestry.com.au) [14 June 2020]; Timaru Herald, 18 October 1915 (Papers Past) 10 January 2016]
External Links
Related Documents
No documents available.
Researched and Written by
Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG
Currently Assigned to
Not assigned.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.