Profile

CRAIG, James
(Service number 10186)

Aliases
First Rank Private Last Rank Private

Birth

Date 15/05/1893 Place of Birth Colinton, Midlothian, Scotland

Enlistment Information

Date 15 December 1915 Age 22 years
Address at Enlistment Timaru
Occupation Farm hand
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin John CRAIG (father), 12 Dalkeith Road, Edinburgh, Scotland. Also H. BENGES (friend), Springbank, North Canterbury
Religion Presbyterian
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Unit, Squadron, or Ship 11th Reinforcements, K Company
Date 1 April 1916
Transport Tahiti or Maunganui
Embarked From Wellington Destination Suez, Egypt
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With Wellington Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion

Military Awards

Campaigns Western European
Service Medals 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 Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date 30 September 1916 Age 23 years
Place of Death Somme, France
Cause Killed in action
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Caterpillar Valley (New Zealand) Memorial, Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval, Somme, France
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

James Craig was born on 15 May 1893 at Colinton, Midlothian, Scotland, the first-born of John and Agnes (née Noble) Craig. In 1901 James was a scholar at home in Edinburgh, with his parents and brother John and sister Marion. James Craig was one of the South Canterbury recruits for the eleventh reinforcements (Mounted Rifles), who left Timaru for Trentham on 15 December 1915. Like many in this large group, he enlisted on 15 December 1915 at Trentham. His address was Timaru. A farm hand, single, and Presbyterian, he named his father as next-of-kin – John Craig, 12 Dalkeith Road, Edinburgh, Scotland. He also named a friend for whom he had been working – H. Benges, Springbank, North Canterbury.

Private J. Craig embarked with the 11th Reinforcements, departing from Wellington for Suez, Egypt, on 1 April 1916. The 428th casualty list, issued on 13 October 1916, carried the name of 10186 James Craig, then with the Wellington Battalion. He was one of 156 ‘New Zealand’ servicemen killed at the Somme on 30 September 1916. His name is inscribed on the Caterpillar Valley (New Zealand) Memorial, Longueval, Somme, France. Private James Craig is lso remembered on a family headstone in the Colinton Parish Churchyard, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [01 August 2022]; Timaru Herald, 9 December 1915, 14 October 1916, NZ Herald, 14 October 1916 (Papers Past) [01 August 2022]; 1901 Scotland census return (ancestry.co.nz) [01 August 2022]; Colinton Churchyard headstone image (Find A Grave) [01 August 2022]

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC Genealogy Society

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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