Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

William Fergus Paterson was born on 21 December 1876, at Cromwell, where his father was teaching. He was the son of William Aird Paterson and Martha Grange Paterson. William married in Dunedin to Caroline Henrietta Raymond on 7 December 1907. The couple had one child, Jura Isabel Paterson (1913-1980). William had been schooled at Wakari School, Dunedin, and Otago Boys High School before training as a doctor at Otago University. He went on to further training in London, before returning to New Zealand, beginning his practise in Temuka in 1903, before establishing a practise in Geraldine in 1906. Prior to the war Paterson had also served in the Volunteer Force (a part-time role) since 1903, when he had been appointed as a Captain with the Temuka Rifles. He transferred to the Geraldine volunteers in 1906, then to the active (unattached) list in 1908, before being added to the Reserve Officers list in 1910. With the establishment of the Teritorial Force in 1911 he was transferred to the NZ Medical Corps, with the rank of captain, in 1912. William was active in local affairs, serving as chairman of various organisations including school committees, Geraldine Home & Empire League, Croquet Club, and had become the Geraldine Mayor in 1917. He had begun his second term as mayor when he was balloted for service (17th ballot) in May 1918. Posted to the NZ Ambulance and Medical Corp camp in early May, he then left for England on 1 June 1918, travelling on the ‘Marama’ Hospital Ship (his posting). After reaching the UK he was posted on 7 September 1918 to No.2 Hospital at Walton-on-Thames, London. Two months later he became ill, dying of disease (influenza and bronco-pneumonia) on 14 November 1918 in England. He was 41 years old and was buried in Brookwood Military Cemetery. After news of his death reached home, an obituary appearing in the Timaru Herald: “The late Captain Paterson’s life was a very valuable one to the people of Geraldine, for apart from his consummate skill as a surgeon and his work as a doctor-in which latter capacity he was a friend as well as a physician to his patients- he took an active interest in the advancement of the town, and was the inaugurator of the advancement scheme and one of its most enthusiastic workers.” William was one of seven brothers who served in the First World War: Thomas Paterson (1878-1956), No. 49309, Warrant Officer, Otago Infantry Regiment; John Gladstone Paterson (1881-1947), No. 2/2943, Lieutenant, NZ Divisional Ammunition Column; Reginald Paterson (1887-1969), No. 36250, Lieutenant, New Zealand Field Artillery; Archibald (Archie) Aird Paterson (1888-1967), No. 36783, Sergeant, 3rd New Zealand Rifle Brigade; Stanley Gordon Paterson (1891-1971), No. 41216, Lieutenant, New Zealand Rifle Brigade and Leslie Mackay Paterson (1893)-1940, No 18088, Lieutenant Auckland Mounted Rifles. William was the only one out of the 7 brothers to not return.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [28 Dec 2013]; Military Record - Archives New Zealand, Wellington Office Item ID R20810351; SCRoll web submission by K Close, supported by reseacrh by C & M Thomson, 15 November 2023; Portrait announcing Patching was KIA published in Otago Witness, 30 June 1915, p42 (Supplement)

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Related Documents

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Researched and Written by

John Sutherland, SC branch NZSG; Tony Rippin, SC Museum

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