Profile

FITZGERALD, Thomas Aloysius
(Service number 6/1843)

Private Thos A Fitzgerald — From" "South Canterbury Roll of Honour", published 1916 by the South Canterbury Caledonian Society. (South Canterbury Museum 17/15)

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank

Birth

Date	11/06/1891	Place of Birth	Timaru

Enlistment Information

Date	6 January 1915	Age	23 yrs 7 mths
Address at Enlistment	Timaru
Occupation	Labourer (Timaru Harbour Bd)
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	William FITZGERALD (father), 3 Wellington Street, Timaru
Religion	Roman Catholic
Medical Information	Height 5 feet 11 inches. Complexion fair. Eyes grey. Hair brown.

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	4th Reinforcements
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	Canterbury Infantry Battalion
Date	17 April 1915
Transport	Willochra
Embarked From	Wellington	Destination	Suez, Egypt

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	Canterbury Infantry Battalion

Military Awards

Campaigns	Gallipoli
Service Medals	1914-15 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	6 June 1916	Reason	Medically unfit for active service, although partially fit for employment in civil life.

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

8 August 1915 wounded in the foot; 12 August 1915 admitted to Hospital Ship, with gun shot wound to left foot and left arm. Disembarked at Alexandria and 17 August admitted No. 2 Australian General Hospital, Ghezirch, Cairo. 23 September transferred to N.Z. General Hospital at Cairo. 25 September 1915 invalided to N.Z.

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	26 June 1954	Age	60 yrs
Place of Death	Christchurch
Cause	Sickness
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Timaru Cemetery
Memorial Reference	General Section, Row 99, Plot 495
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Son of William (Bill) & Mary Ann (nee MADDEN) FITZGERALD, Timaru. Thomas Aloysius was baptized Catholic on 28 June 1891 at Timaru. Brother Patrick Gregory FITZGERALD killed in action; brothers John Leo (wounded) & William also served WWI. Thomas probably played in the Celtic football team for the President's Trophy in the Seven-a-Side Tournament on 24 May 1907. One of the first to go to the Front. Invalided to New Zealand per Willochra on 21 September 1915, just five months after embarkation. Gave a total of 1 year and 151 days of service (197 days abroad, 320 days at home). Saw service in Egypt and the Balkans.

Sources

Cenotaph Database [21 June 2013]; NZ Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ Ref. AABK 18805 W5537 0040383) [17 April 2014]; TDC Headstone image Timaru Cemetery [06 August 2013]; Timaru Herald, 24 May 1907, 20 August 1915, 1 November 1915 (Papers Past) [03 April 2014; 06 May 2014]; Catholic Diocese of Christchurch - Baptism index V.1.2 (South Canterbury Branch NZSG Computer Resources) [27 April 2014]

External Links

Researched and Written by

Currently Assigned to

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

Tell us more

Do you have information that could be added to this story? Or related images that you are happy to share? Submit them here!