CONNELL, John Walter
(Service number 51471)
| First Rank | Private | Last Rank |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 02/11/1894 | Place of Birth | Westport, NZ |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | Age | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | Hotel, Tauranga | ||
| Occupation | School teacher | ||
| Previous Military Experience | High School Cadets Timaru | ||
| Marital Status | Single | ||
| Next of Kin | Mr P. CONNELL (father), Glenavy, South Canterbury | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | |||
| Date | |||
| Transport | |||
| 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 | 17 March 1961 | Age | 66 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | New Plymouth | ||
| Cause | |||
| Memorial or Cemetery | Awanui Cemetery, New Plymouth | ||
| New Zealand Memorials | |||
Biographical Notes
John Walter Connell was born on 2 November 1894 at Westport, the second son of Patrick and Alice (née Power) Connell. Patrick from Galway, Ireland, and Alice from Waterford, Ireland, married in 1890 at Westport, New Zealand.Two sisters and a brother of Patrick Connell also lived in South Canterbury John was born on 2 November 1894 at Buller, Westland. By 1902 the family was living at Glenavy. There John attended school before transferring to Tawai School in 1906, along with several of his siblings. After passing the Civil Service examinations in 1911 at Waimate, he trained as a teacher, he was a teacher in Christchurch when his name was drawn in the military ballot. He enlisted on 3 March 1917 at Tauranga, where he was a high school teacher. He had served in the High School Cadets at Timaru. His brother Stephen’s name was drawn in the fifth ballot in March 1917. Stephen Patrick Connell, of Glenavy, appealed, . He married Gertrude Hurley in 1920. John and Gertrude had three children. Later in life, John Walter Connell was an agricultural instructor with the Auckland Education Board. He died on 17 March 1961, at New Plymouth, aged 66 years and was buried in the Awanui Cemetery there. Gertrude lived on for nearly twenty years more. Two cousins of John Walter Connell - Owen James Kirk and Patrick Joseph Kirk - served in World War One. Another cousin was Patrick Francis Connell, a farmer of Waimate who was called up in 1916, his name being drawn in the second ballot. He appealed on the grounds of undue hardship. He had to support his mother; His father had died suddenly in 1913. He left Timaru on 11 April 1917, with a large group of men from the South Canterbury Military District.
Sources
NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [11 February 2021]; School Admission records (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [11 February 2021]; Awanui Cemeteryy headstone transcription [11 February 2021]; Awanui Cemetery burial records (New Plymouth District Council) [12 February 2021]
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.