Profile

MYER, Henry John
(Service number 23/1744)

Aliases
First Rank Rifleman Last Rank Lance Corporal

Birth

Date 27 December 1896 Place of Birth Waimate

Enlistment Information

Date 18 October 1915 Age 18
Address at Enlistment 65 Regent St, Timaru
Occupation Upholsterer
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin H. Myer (father), 65 Regent Street, Timaru, New Zealand
Religion Roman Catholic
Medical Information 5ft 9in, 140lbs, fair complexion, grey eyes, brown hair

Military Service

Served with New Zealand Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation New Zealand Rifle Brigade
Unit, Squadron, or Ship 3rd Reinforcements 1st Battalion, E Company
Date 8 January 1916
Transport HMNZT 38 Tahiti or HMNZT 39 Warrimoo
Embarked From Wellington, New Zealand Destination Suez, Egypt
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With Canterbury 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 12 October 1917 Age 20
Place of Death Bellevue Spur, Passchendaele
Cause Killed in action
Notices Timaru Herald 30 Jan 1918 P4
Memorial or Cemetery Tyne Cot Memorial, Tyne Cot Cemetery, Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Memorial Reference N.Z. Apse, Panel 2.
New Zealand Memorials On Memorial wall, Timaru

Biographical Notes

Henry John Myer was the son of Henry Herman Myer and Catherine Theresa Myer (nee McCabe) of 139 Springfield Road, Christchurch, New Zealand. He was the loved brother of William, Catherine, Mary, Agnes, Josephina, Bernard, and Christina. Henry (junior) attended the Sacred Heart School in Timaru from 1903, before graduating to the neighbouring Marist Brothers School.

Henry enlisted on 18 October 1915 at Trentham and departed for service with the 3rd Reinforcements of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. On 10 March 1916, soon after arrival in Egypt, he was transferred to the 2nd Battalion Canterbruy Infantry Regiment, which was soon transported to France to serve on the Western Front. On 31 August 1917 Henry was promoted to Lance Corporal, but was killed in action six weeks later at Passchendaele. The Timaru Herald of 30 January 1918 reported that Mr HH Meyer of Sefton St, Timaru had received the following letter from Company Sergt-Major V. Loomes informing him of the circumstances of the death of his son:

"I feel it my duty to write to you telling you how your son Harry met his death. He and I were mates in the Lewis Gun Section for a long time, and before going into the last attack we exchanged addresses and promised each other that should either of us fail to get through we should write home to each other's people. I must offer you my most sincere sympathy in having lost such a boy as Harry. He was a man right through, and had played the game at everything. He led his section of Lewis gunners into thre attack and it was unfortunate that we were put to take a very stiff position, which was dotted with 'pill boxes'. These were well manned by machine guns and snipers, and to make matters worse the wire around them was uncut. We had a very poor chance of taking it, but no one said no, or faltered. A sniper was responsible for Harry's death. He was shot in the head and killed instantly ... He had no pain. He was buried where he fell. He was a game boy and is mourned by all his mates."

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database (August 2013); Commonwealth War Graves Commission at http://www.cwgc.org/; Family records contributed via SCRoll submission from L Sangster, 6 April & 11 August 2016; NZ Defence Force Personnel Records [June 2021]; NZ BMDs 1897/14795; Timaru Herald 30 January 1918, courtesy of Papers Past at https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Maree Bowen, SC branch NZSG; Carol Bell, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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

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