Profile

RUSSELL, Leonard Isitt
(Service number 8/2721)

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank	Private

Birth

Date	26/08/1892	Place of Birth	Waimate, New Zealand

Enlistment Information

Date	18 April 1915	Age	22
Address at Enlistment	McMaster Street, Invercargill, New Zealand
Occupation	Plumber
Previous Military Experience	A Coy, 8th Southland Regiment
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Mr Phillip Russell (father), Waimate, New Zealand
Religion	Baptist
Medical Information	5 foot 11 inches, weight 155 lbs, chest 33 1/2 - 37 inches, fresh complexion, grey eyes, brown hair, good artificial teeth

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	6th Reinforcements
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	Otago Infantry Battalion
Date	14 August 1915
Transport	Willochra
Embarked From	Wellington, New Zealand	Destination	Suez, Egypt

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	Otago Infantry Battalion

Military Awards

Campaigns	Egyptian, Balkans (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	28 March 1918	Reason	Physicallyunfit due to wounds received in action

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

1 Nov 1915 - ANZAC - sick; 4 Dec 1915 - 27th Gen Hosp - septic finger; 27 Sep 1916 - 15th CMDS/38th CCS - wounded in action; 29 Sep 1916 - transferred to 1st Canadian Gen Hosp; 17 Oct 1916 - transferred to 5 Convalescent Depot; 30 Sep 1917 - admitted Australian Fd Amb/No 17 CCS - wounded in axction; 2 Oct 1917 - transferred to No 5 Gen Hosp Rouen; 14 Oct 1917 - transferred to No1 Gen Hosp Brockenhurst.

Post-war Occupations

Plumber, gas fitter, inspector, & sanitory inspector

Death

Date	30 June 1964	Age	71
Place of Death	Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Cause
Notices	Internal Affairs 28 July 1964
Memorial or Cemetery	Karori Crematorium, Wellington, New Zealand, 3 July 1964
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

The youngest son of a family of seven boys and three girls, Leonard was born at Waimate on 26 August 1892. His parents were Philip & Susan (nee Stout) Russell of Waimate.

Employed as plumber by Mr W. Sherriffs of Tay Street, Invercargill, Leonard gave his address as McMaster Street, Invercargill when he enlisted for service with the Otago Infantry Battalion on 18 April 1915. He gave his father, Mr Phillip Russell of Waimate as his next of kin, and was to serve in the 1st Battalion, 8 Company, having had some previous military experience with A Company, 8th Southland Regiment. Described as being aged 22, single, Baptist, 5 foot 11 inches tall, weighing 155 lbs, chest measuring 33 ½ to 37 inches, of fresh complexion, grey eyes, brown hair and having good artificial teeth. He embarked with the 6th Reinforcements for Suez, Egypt, from Wellington on 14 August 1915, aboard the SS Willochra. On 1 October 1915, he joined his unit at Sarfia Camp, Mudros, and on 1 November was admitted to hospital as sick. On 4 December he was again admitted to the 27th General Hospital, Mudros, with a septic finger and discharged back to ANZAC Base on 16 December.

Embarkation for France ex-Egypt followed on 6 April 1916. On 27 September 1916, he was wounded in action and admitted to the 15th CMDS/38th Casualty Clearance Station and on 29 September was transferred to the 1st Canadian General Hospital. On 17 October he was sent to No 5 Convalescent Depot until re-joining his unit on 26 April 1917. Again wounded in action on 30 September 1917, he was admitted to the Australian Field Ambulance/17th Casualty Clearance Station and transferred to No 5 General Hospital at Rouen. On 13 October 1917, he embarked on the Hospital Ship Western Australia for England and was admitted to No 1 NZ General Hospital at Brockenhurst on 14 October. Classified as unfit by a medical board on 19 November, he embarked from Avonmouth on the Hospital Ship Marama on 28 November bound for New Zealand, arriving home on 31 December 1917. Discharge from the army followed on 28 March 1918, being no longer physically fit for military duties due to wounds received in action. Having served a total of 2 years and 345 days in the Egyptian, Gallipoli and Western Europe campaigns, he was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.

On 23 December 1918, Leonard married Ruby Wooldridge Revell. In 1919, he was on the electoral roll as residing in Invercargill and back to his old trade of plumber. From 1919 to his death in 1964, he was living in the Wellington area and employed as a gas fitter, inspector and sanitary inspector. Leonard died at Lower Hutt, aged 71 years, on 30 June 1964, and was cremated at the Karori Crematorium on 3 July 1964.

Sources

University of New South Wales, Canberra NZEF Project "New Zeland Anzacs in ther Great War 1914-1918" at http://nzef.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=224100; Birth, Death and Marriage Historical Records at https://bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz; Wellington City Council Cemetery records at http://wellington.govt.nz/services/community-and-culture/cemeteries (accessed 16 February 2016); Ancestry.co.au at http://search.ancestry.com.au/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gl=allgs&gss=sfs63_home&new=1&rank=1&msT=1&gsfn=leonard%20isitt&gsfn_x=1&gsln=russell&gsln_x=1&MSAV=1&cpxt=1&cp=14&catbucket=rstp; Timaru Herald 18 February 1913 p3, New Zealand Herald 17 October 1916 p9, & Press 29 December 1917 p5 via Papres Past at http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz

External Links

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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