Profile

COLLINS, Patrick
(Service number 10/676)

Aliases
First Rank		Last Rank

Birth

Date	15 March 1885	Place of Birth	County Kerry, Ireland

Enlistment Information

Date	29 January 1917	Age	31 yrs 10 mths
Address at Enlistment	C/o M. COLLINS, Pleasant Point
Occupation	Farm labourer
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin
Religion	Roman Catholic
Medical Information	Height 5 feet 10 inches. Weight 147 lbs. Chest measurement 35-37 inches. Complexion fair. Eyes blue. Hair fair. Eyes both 6/9. Hearing and colour vision normal. Limbs and chest well formed. Full movement of joints. Heart and lungs normal. Illnesses - rheumatism. Free from hernia, varicocele, varicose veins, haemorrhoids, inveterate or contagious skin disease. Vaccinated (right arm). Good bodily and mental health. Some slight defect(s), not sufficient to cause rejection. No fits. Fit. Class A. States he gets muscular rheumatism.

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation
Unit, Squadron, or Ship
Date
Transport
Embarked From		Destination

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals
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

Farm labourer, farmer

Death

Date	25 August 1944	Age	60 years
Place of Death	Sutherlands, South Canterbury (at his residence)
Cause	Shotgun
Notices	Timaru Herald, 28 August 1944
Memorial or Cemetery	Pleasant Point Cemetery
Memorial Reference	General Section, Row 16, Plot 319
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Patrick COLLINS was born in 1885 in County Kerry, Ireland, the son of Patrick and Hannah (Johannah, nee O'DONNELL) COLLINS of Ireland. Patrick had been living in New Zealand for seven years when he attested in January 1917. His last residence was with M. COLLINS at Pleasant Point and he was working as a farm labourer for D. Williams at Cannington, Fairlie. He had been medically examined for service with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force at Temuka in August 1916, which is when he was called up. He did, in fact, enlist on 30 August 1916 at Timaru. He was drawn in the first military service ballaot for No. 10 (South Canterbury) recruiting district in November 1916. Next Patrick appealed his call up, stating that he was a farm labourer at Levels; that he had enlisted in August and had been rejected; that after his rejection he had invested his money in land, which he and a partner were working. He stated that he had been previously rejected as un fit for the Military Services of the Crown, but the grounds for rejection were unknown, and he was re-examined on 29 January 1917. At the beginning of March 1917 he did not appear before the Military Appeal Board. Since he had been passed as fit, his appeal was dismissed, but he was allowed till the end of March. Was he the P. Collins listed from the South Canterbury Military District as leaving Timaru on 11 April 1917 for the Front (Timaru Herald of 10 April 1917)? In the New Zealand Gazette of 14 May 1919 Patrick was listed as a WWI Military Defaulter (Section 8 of the Expeditionary Forces Amendment Act, 1918). He was subject to certain disqualifications and penalties. Patrick may have been the good, courteous and efficient M.C. who was prominent at some functions in the Cave area in 1917-1918 - at a military dance in early September 1917, at a grand fabcy dress ball on 23 August 1918. Mr P. Collins and Miss R. Gardner were placed first in the Highland schottische at the Redcross ball at Cave in October 1918, where he was again M.C. And P. Collins was elected to the committee of the Cave branch of the Labour Party in August 1919. Patrick was living at Pleasant Point in 1911 and had moved to Sutherlands by 1935. At his death in 1944 he had a brother living in Christchurch (M. COLLINS?). An inquest was held into his death.

Sources

N Z Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ Ref. AABK 18805 W5530 0027112 [21 October 2014]; Timaru Herald, 31 August 1916, 25 November 1916, 30 December 1916, 6 March 1917, 10 April 1917, 7 September 1917, 31 August 1918, 16 October 1918, 27 May 1919, 26 August 1919, Otago Daily Times, 26 May 1919 (Papers Past) [15 & 22 October 2014]; Pleasant Point Cemetery headstone image (Timaru District Council) [22 October 2014]; NZ Death Index (Department of Internal Affairs) [October 2014]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [October 2014]; Timaru Herald, 28 August 1944 (Timaru District Library) [24 October 2014]; Paul McNichol file (death certificate sighting; South Canterbury Museum) [24 October 2014]; WWI Military Defaulters 1919 (NZ Gazette, ancestry.com.au) [25 October 2014]

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