Profile

PYE, William Webber
(Service number 4/267)

Aliases
First Rank Sapper Last Rank Corporal

Birth

Date 14/04/1893 Place of Birth Geraldine

Enlistment Information

Date 11 August 1914 Age 21
Address at Enlistment 137 Hanson St, Auckland
Occupation Clerk, Railways goods office
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin William Wilcox Pye (father), Raincliff, Pleasant Point
Religion Presbyterian
Medical Information 5ft 9in, 147lbs, fair complexion, blue eyes, black hair

Military Service

Served with New Zealand Armed Forces (?) Served in Samoan Relief Force/Signalling Corps
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation Samoan Advance Party
Unit, Squadron, or Ship
Date 12 August 1914
Transport Moeraki or Monowai
Embarked From Wellington Destination Samoa
Other Units Served With Signalling Corps
Last Unit Served With Otago Regiment

Military Awards

Campaigns Samoan, Western Front
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 21 May 1919 Reason Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Block L Row 11 Plot 99

Post-war Occupations

Clerk

Death

Date 13 April 1957 Age
Place of Death
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Waikumete Cemetery
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

William Webber Pye was born in Geraldine on 14 April 1893, one of five children born to Elizabeth (nee Harvey) and William Wilcox Pye of Raincliff. William Pye (service no. 4/267) enlisted twice for the First World War. The first time was on 11 August 1914 when he was working as a clerk in the Railways goods office in Auckland. He was 21 years old, Presbyterian, 5ft 9in, 147lbs, of fair complexion, with blue eyes, and black hair. He named his father as next of kin. He returned to New Zealand in April 1915 and was discharged. Pye enlisted again in October 1916, at that time working as a Railways clerk at Ohakune. He was promoted to corporal in December of that year and lance corporal in June 1917 when he arrived in the UK, but then went to France in December with the Otago Regiment and reverted to the ranks at his own request. Pye was in the UK in September 1918 suffering from dysentery then he returned to France and rejoined his unit in the field on 14 October. He was wounded by shrapnel on 5 November 1918, receiving a penetrating wound to the abdomen and chest. He was transferred to England and then treated at a hospital in Birmingham, and later transferred to the convalescent hospital in Hornchurch in London. He embarked for NZ on the Corinthic at Tilbury Docks, London on 12 March 1919 and was discharged on 21 May. After the war he married Emily Walden at Pokeno on 25 October 1921 and returned to his work as a Railways clerk, serving in various areas around the country. He died in Auckland on 13 April 1957 and is buried at Waikumete Cemetery.

Sources

NZ Defence Force Personnel Records, Archives NZ; NZ BMD Online at https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/Home/; Assorted articles courtesy of Papers Past at https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/; Assorted records at Ancestry.com; Auckland City Council cemetery records

External Links

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