Profile

MASON, Harry Stanley
(Service number 7/1390)

Aliases
First Rank	Trooper	Last Rank	Trooper

Birth

Date	15/06/1891	Place of Birth	Dunedin

Enlistment Information

Date	12 June 1915	Age	23 years 11 months
Address at Enlistment	32 Le Cren Street, Timaru
Occupation	Slaughterman (Christchurch Meat Company)
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Mrs Jeanie MASON (mother), 19 York Street, Timaru; then care of Post-office, Timaru; later still 144 Innes Road, St Albans
Religion	Church of England
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	6th Reinforcements
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	Canterbury Mounted Rifles
Date	14 August 1915
Transport	Tofua
Embarked From	Wellington	Destination	Suez, Egypt

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	8th Squadron Canterbury Mounted Rifles

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals	1914-1915 Star; British War Medal; Victory Medal
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	2 March 1919	Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	9 March 1976	Age	84 years
Place of Death	Auckland
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Purewa Crematorium, Auckland; ashes interred Timaru Cemetery
Memorial Reference	Timaru - General Section, Row 142, Plot 476
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Harry Stanley Mason was born on 15 June 1891 at Dunedin, the second son of John Philip Mason (Phil) and his second wife, Jane (Jeannie) née Mercer. Along with his siblings, he was educated at Mornington School, Dunedin, leaving in 1909 for the Normal School. His youngest sister, Lily, transferred to Timaru Main School in 1913. Their mother had moved to Timaru after their father died on 18 April 1912 at Dunedin. Jeannie Mason, who was about nineteen years younger that her husband, died on 19 November 1928 at her daughter Daisy’s (Mrs Scales) residence, Timaru.

When Harry enlisted on 12 June 1915, he named his mother as next-of-kin – Mrs Jeannie Mason, 19 York Street, Timaru, and later care of Post Office, Timaru. He was a slaughterman for the Christchurch Meat Company, single and residing at 32 Le Cren Street, Timaru. Trooper H. S. Mason embarked with the Canterbury Mounted Rifles of the 6th Reinforcements, departing from Wellington for Suez, Egypt, by the “Tofua” on 14 August 1915. He was discharged on 2 March 1919 and was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

On 8 January 1924 at the Riccarton Methodist Church, Harry married Sybil Allison Isabel Sutherland, a sister of Alex Roland Earl Sutherland, who also served with the New Zaland Forces. He died on 9 March 1976 at Auckland, aged 84 years, and was cremated at Purewa, his ashes being interred at Timaru Cemetery with Sybil who died in 1967 and marked by a services plaque. The ashes of their son, Roland StanleyMason, who served with J Force and died in 2000, are also interred there. Two brothers of Harry – Arthur and Charles – also served in World War One, while two half-brothers were listed on the Reserve Rolls.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museumm Cenotaph Database [17 July 2022]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [17 July 2022]; School Admission records (Dunedin Branch NZSG) [17 July 2022]; Purewa Cremation record [17 July 2022]; Timaru Cemetery headstone image (Timaru District Council) [17 July 2022]; Evening Star, 19 April 1912, Otago Daily Times, 19 April 1912, Timaru Herald, 20 November 1928 (Papers Past) [17 July 2022]

External Links

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, Teresa Scott, South Canterbury Genealogy Society

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.