McCLEERY, Samuel Aird
(Service number 6/512)
| First Rank | Private | Last Rank |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 14/12/1886 | Place of Birth | Outram, Otago |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | Age | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | 7 Grey Street, Timaru | ||
| Occupation | Grocer's assistant | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | Single | ||
| Next of Kin | Hugh McCLEERY (father), 1 St Andrew Street, Dunedin | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | Main Body | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | Canterbury Infantry Battalion | ||
| Date | 16 October 1914 | ||
| Transport | Tahiti or Athenic | ||
| Embarked From | Destination | ||
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | |||
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 | 19 January 1940 | Age | 53 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | Timaru | ||
| Cause | |||
| Memorial or Cemetery | Timaru Cemetery | ||
| New Zealand Memorials | |||
Biographical Notes
Samuel Aird McCleery was born on 14 December 1886 at Outram, Otago, the elder son of Hugh and Mary Murdoch (Minnie, née Alley) McCleery. He was known as Aird and enlisted with this name only. Aird was educated at Outram School, leaving at the age of fifteen. By 1905 the family had moved to Pleasant Point, South Canterbury, where Aird worked as a baker’s assistant, after a stint as a butcher in Otago. By 1914 he was a grocer’s assistant, living in Timaru. During the war years his parents were in Dunedin, moving to Otipua, near Timaru, in about 1919. Aird was called up in 1916 but had already left with the Main Body in 1914 and had been wounded at the Dardanelles in 1915. He was for some time with the Timaru Volunteers. “Private McCleery was four days in the trenches at a stretch, and he had one bag of biscuits and one bottle of water for three days.” He suffered a bullet wound in the head and, after time in hospital, was invalided home. In November 1915 he announced his engagement to Margaret Harrison. They married in June 1916 and had a son was born on 21 November 1918 at Timaru. That son, Robert (Bob) Aird McCleery, was drawn in the ballot for World War II. Samuel Aird mcCleery, a war pensioner, died on 19 January 1940 and was buried at Timaru. His younger brother, Thomas George McCleery, also served in World War I for close on four years, only to die unexpectedly in July 1919, three weeks after his return home.
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [23 July 2002]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [23 July 2002]; School Admission record [24 July 2020]; Timaru Cemetery headstone image (Timaru District Council) [24 July 2020]; Otago Daily Times, 21 June 1915, 4 December 1918, Otago Witness, 23 June 1915, Timaru Herald, 16 & 20 July 1915, 13 November 1915, Evening Star, 19 July 1915 (Papers Past) [2015; 07 April 2020; 26 July 2020]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [24 July 2020]
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