Profile

LINDSAY, William Alexander
(Service number 6/493)

Pte W A Lindsay — (Otago Witness, 9 June 1915, p48 )

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank	2nd Lieutenant

Birth

Date	26/09/1890	Place of Birth	Waimate, New Zealand

Enlistment Information

Date	14 August 1914	Age	23
Address at Enlistment	C.F.C. Assn, Waimate, New Zealand
Occupation	Hardware Salesman
Previous Military Experience	3 1/2 years with 2nd (South Canterbury) Regiment
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Mr James Lindsay (father), Smith Street, Waimate
Religion	Presbyterian
Medical Information	5 foot 7 inches tall, weight 134 lbs, chest 33 inches, medium complexion, grey eyes, brown hair, good teeth

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	Main Body
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	Canterbury Infantry Battalion
Date	16 October 1914
Transport	Tahiti or Athenic
Embarked From	Lyttelton, New Zealand	Destination	Suez, Egypt

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	Canterbury Infantry Battalion

Military Awards

Campaigns	Egyptian, Gallipoli, & Western Europe
Service Medals	1914-1915 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	29 July 1919	Reason	End of war

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

2/3 May 1915, Dardanelles: Gn shot wound to right arm - 2 Gen Hospital England, Dardanells; 10 October 1915 admitted to Mudros Hospital with dysentery, evacuated 5 December 1915 to No 2 Gen Hospital London with dysentry & asthma; 17 June 1916 France minor wound.

Post-war Occupations

Salesman & warehouse manager

Death

Date	27 July 1964	Age	73
Place of Death	Greymouth, New Zealand
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

William was born at Studholme Junction, on 26 September 1890, to James & Mary Jane Lindsay of Waimate. He was educated at the Waimate District High School where he had an excellent record. On leaving school he was employed by the Canterbury Farmers Co-operative as a hardware salesman, and enlisted for war service on 14 August 1914.

Prior to war service William had served 3½ years as a territorial soldier with the 2nd South Canterbury Regiment, and left Timaru for camp, on 17 August 1914, with the 3rd contingent. William was described as being aged 23, 5 foot 7 inches tall, weighing 134 lbs, chest measuring 33 inches, having a medium complexion, grey eyes, brown hair and with good teeth. Training with the 1st Battalion, Canterbury Infantry Battalion, he embarked with the Main Body at Lyttelton on 16 October 1914, for Suez, Egypt, aboard the SS Tahiti or Athenic. After Egyptian service he embarked for the Dardanelles on 12 April 1915, where, on 2/3 May, he was wounded in the right arm. After evacuation to England on 30 May for treatment, he returned to Alexandra on 23 July 1915, before returning to the Dardanelles for further service on 10 August. Coming down with dysentery, he was sent to Mudros on 10 October, and evacuated back to No 2 London General Hospital on 5 December 1915, where he was recorded as suffering from dysentery and asthma. In June 1916, he landed in France, where he was soon wounded again in action on 17 June 1916, but fortunately, minor this time. During this time he had been promoted to Sergeant and was recommended for a commission. Attending an officer’s course in England, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on 18 December 1918. William returned to NZ on the ex German ship “Prinzessin” on 16 May 1919, and was finally discharged on 29 July 1919. For his services to the Empire he received the 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.

After the war William settled in Hokitika and was involved in the RSA, musical and community affairs, while being employed as a salesman and warehouse manager. He died in Greymouth on 27 July 1964, aged 73.

Sources

Auckland Museum Cenotaph database (June 2015); Archives NZ (Personal File); ancestry.com.au; Papers Past; NZSG Index V5

External Links

Military personnel file

Researched and Written by

Ted Hansen (SC branch NZSG)

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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

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