Profile

JOHNS, Graham
(Service number 23/1082)

Aliases
First Rank Rifleman Last Rank Private

Birth

Date 24/12/1888 Place of Birth Waimate

Enlistment Information

Date Age
Address at Enlistment Beach Road, Ashburton
Occupation Plumber
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin Frederick JOHNS (father), 54 Beach Road, Ashburton
Religion Church of Christ
Medical Information Height 5 feet 5 inches. Weight 129 lbs.

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation New Zealand Rifle Brigade, 1st Battalion
Unit, Squadron, or Ship D Company
Date 9 October 1915
Transport Maunganui or Tahiti or Aparima or Navua or Warrim00
Embarked From Wellington Destination
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With Machine Gun Corps

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

Plumber

Death

Date 24 April 1966 Age 77 years
Place of Death Mangere
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Papatoetoe Cemetery, Auckland
Memorial Reference Block A, Row 8
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Graham Johns was born on 24 December 1888 at Waimate, the fifth son of Frederick and Elizabeth Anne Thomas (née Hosking) Johns. Frederick and Elizabeth had married in Cornwall, England, in 1875. Shortly afterwards they emigrated with Elizabeth’s widowed mother. They landed at Timaru and travelled to Waimate, South Canterbury, where they spent some years. Graham was educated at Hampstead School, the family having moved to Ashburton in the mid 1890s. He received a prize for Standard II proficiency and for Standard the following year for proficiency and attendance. In Standard VI he received proficiency and special mention. Graham was also one to give recitations. . Graham Johns was a plumber, residing at home in Ashburton, when he enlisted. Rifleman G. Johns embarked at Wellington with the New Zealand Rifle Brigade on 9 October 1915. He served as a rifleman in Egypt until 21 February 1916, when he was transferred to a private with the New Zealand Machine Gun Corps, serving in Egypt, France and England until November 1916, when he was classified as unfit. He embarked at Avonmouth on 14 July 1917 to be invalided home by the “Marama. [See Cenotaph Database for more detail.] . Graham married Elizabeth Eleanor Knox in February 1918. Sadly, Eleanor died on 4 December 1918 at Ashburton, of pneumonia. Graham married secondly Lillian Catherine Donn in March 1920 at Ashburton. Lillian died in 1951 and was buried at Christchurch. Graham Johns died on 24 April 1964 at Mangere and was buried in the Papatoetoe Old Cemetery. His brother Harvey Johns also served in World War One and also came home by hospital ship. Another brother, Newman Johns, enlisted in 1918.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [05 March 2021]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [17 February 2021]; Papatoetoe Cemetery headstone transcription [05 March 2021]; Ashburton Guardian, 24 December 1897, 1898, 1901 (Papers Past) [05 March 2021]

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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