Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Percy Victor Segar was the tenth of the fourteen children of Arthur Edgar and Isabella (née Harkess) Segar, and their sixth son. He was born on 19 February 1895 at Timaru and baptised on 24 March 1895 at St Mary’s Anglican Church, his parents and his oldest sister the sponsors. Arthur and Isabella married in 1877. Two of their children died young. Percy started at Timaru South School a week after his fifth birthday. In 1901 he and his brother Albert transferred to Timaru Main School. Mr Arthur Segar, engineer on the Harbour Board’s dredge Taniwha, met with a nasty accident on Saturday, 13 June 1903. “A blowout occurred in one of the steam fittings, with the result that both his arms were severely scalded. The sufferer is, we learn, doing as well as can be expected.”

The annual distribution of prizes at St Mary’s Sunday School was held on 15 December 1907, and there among the recipients was P. Segar. Still at Timaru Main School in 1910, Percy gained his certificate of competency. At The Timaru Floral and Horticultural Society’s show in March 1909, Percy Segar was placed first for sweet peas in the children’s competitions. He was following his parents in taking an interest in flowers. In July 1909, P. Segar rendered a song when the St Mary’s Sunday School scholars gave the first performance of their two-night season. At year’s end, he was awarded a prize at St Mary’s Sunday School. In early May 1911, the Boy Scouts No. IV troop fired for their place in the teams match, which resulted in second placing in the whole brigade, Bugler P. Segar achieving the highest score. He was an emergency third cornet with the Regimental Band which left on 5 February 1914 for competition in Auckland. Arthur Edgar Segar, senior, husband of Isabella and father of a large family, died at his Craigie Avenue residence on 15 October 1915, after a long and painful illness. He had joined the Timaru Harbour Board’s staff in 1882 and was held in high esteem by the brethren of the Loyal Orange Institution. He was much loved and much mourned.

Percy Segar enlisted on 29 January 1917 at Timaru. He had been medically examined previously at Timaru in February 1916 and rejected as unfit on account of chest trouble, he declared. He was medically examined by the Travelling Medical Board at Timaru on 29 January 1917. He was 5 feet 8¼ inches, weighed 140 pounds, had a chest measurement of 31-35 inches and a fair complexion fair, with blue eyes and fair (light brown) hair. His sight, hearing, colour vision and lungs were all normal, but not his heart (murmur at apex). His limbs and chest were well formed. He had had pleurisy 3 years prior. He was free from most diseases but not varicocele, and he was vaccinated. He was, however, not in good bodily and mental health, having slight defects which were not sufficient to cause rejection and valvular disease of the heart. He was, thus assessed as fit for Class C2. He was an electrician with the Timaru Borough Council, single, Anglican and residing at home (Craigie Avenue, Timaru). He was serving with the 2nd South Canterbury Regiment Band. His next-of-kin was his mother – Isabella Segar, Craigie Avenue, Timaru. Come Anzac Day 1917, and he was one of the bandsmen who played the Dead March in Saul and the Last Post to close the Timaru proceedings. At the annual meeting of the Band of the 2nd (South Canterbury) Regiment the following month, he was elected librarian for the ensuing month. At the Timaru Borough Council meeting in early July 1917, a letter was received from Mr Segar advising that he would be ging into camp and applying for leave of absence during the war, which leave was granted without pay.

Having joined the Maintenance section on 29 June 1917, he experienced several transfers in 1917 and 1918. A Medical Board was assembled at Trentham on 15 January 1918, to examine and report on the state of health 60358 Pte P. V. Segar. His original disability was valvular disease of the heart which existed prior to enlistment. Consequently, he could not stand training and was unable to carry on; progress was stationary. He was classified C2. He was not fit for Active Service, permanently, but fit for Civil Employment. It was recommended that he be discharged from the Expeditionary Force, unfit for Service, and he was not recommended for a pension. As of 8 July 1918, Segar “looks strong & complains of nothing”, but the comment was added – “But watch for any sudden fatigue”. It was at Featherston that a Medical Board was assembled on 21 August 1918. This time there were no complaints about his progress. ‘Feels Fit A.’ He was assessed as fit for Active Service, but the Board recommended that he be discharged from the Expeditionary Force, Fit A. Private Percy Victor Segar, who had been transferred to the 47th Reinforcements, D Company, in September 1918, was granted leave without pay on demobilisation in lieu of discharge on 19 November 1918. He was of good character. He had, in fact, seen only four days of service (at the beginning of July 1918). When the matter of war allowances paid by the Timaru Borough Council was under discussion at the beginning of July 1918, it was noted that Mr Segar did not receive anything because he was not entitled to it under the resolution (dated September 1915). There was correspondence between Mr Segar and the council’s Electric Light Committee over war pay in August 1918. There was no recommendation in late October after Mr Segar had written renewing his application for war pay allowance.

Back home, Bandsman P. Segar sounded the “Last Post” at a military funeral on 29 November 1918 for a soldier who died at the Timaru Hospital from wounds received in France. In May 1919 he was present at the annual meeting of the Band of the 2nd (South Canterbury) Regiment. He was the electrician in August following for the operatic revue staged by local talent in aid of the South Canterbury Battalion Band. When the Loyal Timaru Lodge of Oddfellows memorial tablet was unveiled in July 1920, Bro. P. Segar sounded the “Last Post”, and all the brethren present deposited a sprig of wild thyme at the foot of the tablet as a token of respect to the dead. The “Reveille” was presented in Waimate on 27 October 1919, in aid of the funds of the South Canterbury Battalion Band, with great success. The electrician (Mr P. Segar) enhanced the many charming spectacles with his streams of coloured light.

“A quiet but pretty wedding was solemnised at St Mary’s Church, Timaru, on March 28th [1921], when Miss Elsie Perkins, third daughter of Mr and Mrs Samuel Perkins, late of England, was married to Mr Percy V. Segar, son of Mrs Segar, Craigie Avenue, Timaru.” Percy’s sister Ivy was one of the bridesmaids. Both bridesmaids wore single pearl rings, the gift of the bridegroom, and the little wore a gold bangle, the gift of the bridegroom. Percy’s brother, Albert Edward Segar, acted as best man. After the ceremony guests were enjoyed a sumptuous wedding breakfast at the Bay tea rooms, and later the happy couple left by car for the north. In August 1919, Percy had been a witness to his sister Myrtle’s wedding to a returned soldier at St Mary’s. And his sister Ivy married another returned soldier in September 1921 at St Mary’s.

Percy Segar was elected to the committee of the Timaru Borough Council Sick Benefit Society at the annual meeting in April 1921. He was present at the annual meeting of the Timaru Regimental Band in May 1922. It was the annual meeting of the Timaru Municipal Band in August 1927 that Bandsman Segar apologised for absence. P. Segar was, however, elected an officer – Corporal, a position he was elected to again in 1928, 1930 and 1931. In addition, in 1931, he was elected to the control board, and with others thanked for their good work and assistance during the year, especially with the renovation of the band Room. In June 1930, Mr P. Segar had donated to the Cancer Campaign Fund. At the Timaru Horticultural Society’s spring show in October 1931, P. V. Segar was placed first with his hyacinths, three varieties, one bloom of each, and Mrs P. V. Segar was placed first for her hyacinths, one bloom in a vase. Surely a last memory of togetherness for Elsie. Their only child, Harold Vernon Segar, was born on 30 January 1922 at Timaru, when Percy and Elsie were living in Matilda Street. Before long they had moved to 29 Wai-iti Road.

Percy Victor Segar collapsed and died suddenly at band practice on 25 January 1932, aged 36 years. A most faithful and devoted husband and father, Percy Victor Segar was buried at Timaru Cemetery, with Elsie’s sister and parents. Members of the Loyal Timaru Lodge attended the funeral service at his late residence. An impressive cortege followed his remains to the Timaru Cemetery. A fitting tribute to their late colleague was offered by the bandsmen, a full muster of whom headed the funeral procession, some carrying instruments. At the graveside, the bands played “Lead, Kindly Light”. An accomplished player of the flugel horn, Percy played at every contest attended by the Timaru Band since 1913 and was also a prominent member of the Orchestral Society. At the graveside the coffin was borne by the six brothers of deceased, Messrs Arthur, Hector, Thomas, Herbert, Albert and George Segar. Mrs Segar thanked all who had sent tributes and messages, especially members and ex-members of the Band. His mother, brothers and sisters inserted an In Memoriam notice in 1933 – “As we loved him, so we miss him.” Percy had had heart trouble and had pleurisy about two years before his death.

Elsie remained in Timaru until she married Gordon John Brophy in 1940. Elsie, Gordon and her son Harold lived in Dunedin in the 1940s, Harold a naval rating then an electrician. Harold Vernon Segar and Jane Jewett MacFarland, of Belmont, Massachusetts, U.S.A. were engaged in February 1947 and married at All Saints Church, Dunedin, on 4 October 1947. Harold died on 5 July 1968 in Massachusetts, survived by Jane and their two daughters, and was buried at Belmont. Elsie (Segar) Brophy died on 12 February 1994 on the North Shore and was cremated. Percy’s mother, Isabella Segar who had lived on in Timaru died on 11 July 1940. She was predeceased by six of her family (including the two who died in infancy). The eldest daughter, Elizabeth Ann Segar, had married in 1901 and died in January 1906, probably in childbirth. Her third daughter (Anne) Louisa Segar, who had married in 1910 and had a young family, died in March 1924 at Christchurch Hospital; her husband Harry Leicester Roberts died in 1931. While Percy had died in January 1932, the youngest son, George White Segar, died in July 1935 at Timaru.

Albert Edward Segar served overseas with the New Zealand Forces in the war. Tom Segar, a flour miller of Timaru, was drawn in the Eighth Ballot for service with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in June 1917. Herbert Goliath Segar, a lock and gunsmith of Timaru was called up from Class B of the Second Division for the South Canterbury Recruiting District by ballot in April 1918; an ambulance officer, he lost his wife to influenza in November 1918, he himself also being down with influenza. Arthur Edgar Segar, a baker of Waimate, was drawn by ballot from the members of Class C, Second Division in June 1918; a married man with two children, he was classed C2 in late August. Hector Segar (i.e. Hercules Segar), a factory manager at Opunake and married with one child, who was also listed on the Reserve Rolls, attested on 8 June 1918 at Hawera. Harold Vernon Segar, who was the only son of Percy Victor and Elsie Segar (later Brophy), served with the Royal New Zealand Navy in World War Two. Several nephews and one niece also saw service in World War Two – Arthur White, the son of Eleanor Eliza Segar and Arthur Bennett White; Ivan Hector Segar, the son of Hercules and Lizzie Neilson Segar; Walter Schofield Roberts, who was the son of (Anne) Louisa Segar and Herry Leicester Roberts, was taken prisoner of war; Ida Isabella Segar, who was the daughter of Tom and Nellie Segar, served with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force; and Noel Keith Whitehead, who was the son of Myrtle Evelyn Segar and Walter Joseph Whitehead (a returned serviceman), also served with the Royal New Zealand Navy.

Sources

NZ Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives New Zealand Collections Record number 0103077) [02 April 2024]; Timaru Cemetery headstone image & burial record (Timaru District Council) [02 April 2024]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [01 April 2024]; St Mary’s Timaru baptism record (South Canterbury Genealogy Society records) [02 April 2024]; School Admission records (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [02 April 2024]; Timaru Herald, 16 June 1903, 16 December 1907, 4 March 1909, 23 June 1909, 6 December 1909, 21 January 1911, 5 May 1911, 5 February 1914, 26 April 1917, 23 May 1917, 10 July 1917, 2 July 1918, 27 August 1918, 30 October 1918, 19, 21, 22 & 30 November 1918, 21 May 1919, 20 August 1919, 8 April 1921, 21 May 1921, 30 May 1922, 13 August 1927, 10 July 1928, 24 May 1930, 13 June 1930, 20 May 1931, 8 October 1931, 26, 27, 28, 29 & 30 January 1932, 25 January 1933, Waimate Daily Advertiser, 28 October 1919, Otago Daily Times, 1 March 1947 (Papers Past) [01, 02 & 15 April 2024]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [15 & 16 April 2024]; St Mary’s marriage records [16 April 2024]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record

Related Documents

• SEGAR Percy Victor - newspaper clippings (pdf, 128.8 KB updated 16-May-2024)

Researched and Written by

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.