FIFIELD, Joseph
(Service number 7/1228)
| First Rank | Trooper | Last Rank | Lance Corporal |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 04/11/1889 | Place of Birth | Woodbury, South Canterbury, New Zealand |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | 17 April 1915 | Age | 25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | Woodbury, New Zealand | ||
| Occupation | Butcher | ||
| Previous Military Experience | Reserve 8th (South Canterbury) Mounted Rifles | ||
| Marital Status | Single | ||
| Next of Kin | Mrs J. Fifield (Mother), Woodbury, Geraldine,New Zealand | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | 6th Reinforcements | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | Canterbury Mounted Rifles | ||
| Date | 14 August 1915 | ||
| Transport | Willochra Or Tofua | ||
| Embarked From | Wellington | Destination | Suez, Egypt |
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | Canterbury Mounted Rifles | ||
Military Awards
| Campaigns | Balkans (Gallipoli) 1915 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Medals | 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal | ||
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 |
Death
| Date | 20 December 1918 | Age | 30 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | Gallipoli, Dardenelles | ||
| Cause | Died of Disease (Influenza) | ||
| Memorial or Cemetery | Chanak Consular Cemetery, Turkey | ||
| New Zealand Memorials | On Memorial wall, Timaru; Geraldine Church Memorial; Geraldine War Memorial; Woodbury War Memorial | ||
Biographical Notes
Son of Sarah Ann Evans Fifield and Joseph Fifield of Woodbury, South Canterbury, New Zealand.
James Stuart Whyte, of Oamaru, who served with the Canterbuiry Mounted Rifles mentions Fifield in his detailed daily diary. He offers a glimpse of a moment of daily life when, on 7 February 1918 at Richon-Le-Sion, he noted "Had a bridge party in the evening. Sgt. Fifield & Cpl. Estcourt played Robbie & I. We played fair cobbers and they won three and scored 2880 points above us but nevertheless we had an enjoyable evening and the last play lasted till I went on piquet at 23.50".
D Jennings recounts: "Joseph Fifield served twice at Gallipoli during the 1915 campaign, and was one of 489 soldiers of the CMR [Canterbury Mounted Rifles] who returned to Gallipoli after the war to ensure the Turks complied with the terms of the peace agreement. Unfortunately, an outbreak of influenza killed 11 of our soldiers, one of whom was Joseph Fifield - the only one from South Canterbury." Jennings wrote a play about Gallipli and the men from Geraldine which was performed several times and was to be repeated in April 2015.
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [27/08/2013]; NZ Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ Ref. AABK 18805 W5537 0039 808 [29 August 2013] CWGC [02 September 2013]; SCRoll submission (recieved via Carol Bell at the Timaru Herald), 11 March 2015; SCRoll web submission by A Polson-Genge, 25 May 2021
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Researched and Written by
Patrina Buchanan
Currently Assigned to
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Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.
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