Profile

HOOPER, Reginald Charles
(Service number 62569)

Aliases
First Rank Private Last Rank Private

Birth

Date 5 June 1890 Place of Birth Timaru

Enlistment Information

Date 27 June 1917 Age 27 years
Address at Enlistment 16 Herne Bay Road, Ponsonby, Auckland
Occupation Agent (C. Hooper, Auckland)
Previous Military Experience 3rd Auckland Regiment
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin Mr C. H. HOOPER (father), 16 Herne Bay Road, Ponsonby, Auckland
Religion Roman Catholic or Church of England
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 31st Reinforcements, Canterbury Infantr Regiment, C Company
Date 16 November 1917
Transport Tahiti
Embarked From Wellington Destination Liverpool, Merseyside, England
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With Auckland Infantry Regiment

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 2 March 1919 Reason On termination of period of engagement.

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Clerk; PWD employee

Death

Date 14 May 1965 Age 74 years
Place of Death Auckland
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Waimumete Cemetery, Auckland
Memorial Reference Row 3, Plot 132
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Reginald Charles Hooper was born on 5 June 1890 at Timaru, the eldest son of Charles Horace and Jane Rule (née Tonkin) Hooper. Charles and Jane who were both from England married in 1889 in New Zealand. A second child was born at Timaru – Essie Emma Hooper in 1891. The family then moved to Auckland where two more sons were born.

Reginald was an agent for his father when he enlisted on 27 June 1917. He had served with the 3rd Auckland Regiment. Single and either Roman Catholic or Anglican, he named his father as next-of-kin – Mr C. H. Hooper, 16 Herne Bay Road, Ponsonby, Auckland. On 24 September 1917 at Trentham, he stated to the medical authorities that he had injured his left should two years prior, and his medical adviser told him that his left clavicle had been broken and united in a faulty position. Since then he had done no heavy work. There was severe pain in the left shoulder when he carried a heavy load, and he found it impossible on account of the pain to carry his rifle at the slope. The examining medic noted that his left shoulder was lower than the right and there was a slight irregularity of the clavicle, but the muscles of his left arm were well developed. Private R. C. Hooper embarked with the Canterbury Infantry Regiment of the 31st Reinforcements, leaving Wellington for Liverpool, England per the “Tahiti” on 16 November 1917. Private Hooper embarked at Liverpool on 19 December 1918 per the “Oxfordshire” to return to New Zealand. He was discharged on 2 March 1919 and awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

He married Mary Maud Watkins in 1920. They had one daughter before divorcing in 1938. He next married Doris Catherine Bint in 1939. They had two daughters and a son, and also a stillborn child. Reginald Charles Hooper died on 14 May 1965 at Auckland, aged 74 years. He was buried in Waikumete Cemetery with Doris who had died in June 1964. His father had died in 1926 and his mother in 1945. His brother Albert Horace Hooper also served in World War One.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [31 August 2024]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [31 August 2024]; Ruru Lawn Cemetery burial record (Christchurch City Council) [24 October 2020]; Waikumete Cemetery burial records [31 August 2024]; Waikumete Cemetery headstone image (Find A Grave) [31 August 2024]

External Links

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