NEYLON, Norman
(Service number 4/1533)
| First Rank | Sapper | Last Rank | Sapper |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 27/06/1893 | Place of Birth | Arrowtown |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | 7 October 1915 | Age | 22 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | Waiuta, Westland | ||
| Occupation | Miner | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | Single | ||
| Next of Kin | Mrs Alice NEYLON (mother), Waimate, South Canterbury | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | New Zealand Engineers, Tunnelling Company | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | Headquarters, No 3 Relief | ||
| Date | 18 December 1915 | ||
| Transport | Ruapehu | ||
| Embarked From | Auckland | Destination | Plymouth, Devon, England |
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | New Zealand Engineers | ||
Military Awards
| Campaigns | Western Front | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Medals | British War Medal, Victory Medal | ||
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 |
Death
| Date | 6 July 1962 | Age | 69 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | Christchurch | ||
| Cause | |||
| Memorial or Cemetery | |||
| New Zealand Memorials | |||
Biographical Notes
Norman Neylon was born at Arrowtown, Otago on 14 June 1893, the son of William John and Alice (nee Grigg) Neylon. He attended Arrowtown School. Norman was a miner at the time of his enlistment, working for Mr Morrison of Waiuta, Westland. He was described as single, aged 22, 5ft 6in, 130lbs, of dark complexion, with grey eyes, and dark hair, and a Presbyterian. His next of kin was his mother, Mrs Alice Neylon of Waimate. He was attached to the NZ Engineers Tunnelling Company. Norman embarked on 18 December 1915 and sailed on the Ruapehu for Plymouth, leaving for France 9 March 1916. The New Zealand Tunnelling Company formed in October 1915 was made up mainly of experienced miners. It worked exclusively on the Western Front from March 1916 until the end of the war, serving separately from the rest of the New Zealand Division. It conducted mine warfare in 1916 before switching to preparing underground caverns around Arras. Norman was briefly wounded on 5 June 1916 with a shrapnel wound to the head, but returned to the front line two days later. Later that year he was also treated for appendicitis. Neylon served out the rest of the war on the Western Front, embarking for New Zealand on the SS Hororata 1 February 1919. He was discharged on 13 April 1919. After the war Norman married Marjorie Elizabeth Purkiss in 1921 and worked as a butcher in Christchurch. He died in Christchurch in 1962.
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [14 December 2018]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [14 December 2018]; Timaru Herald, 5 March 1919 (Papers Past) [14 December 2018]; Assorted records at Ancestry.com [August 2021]; "Specialist Units of the NZEF", New Zealand History at https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/specialist-units/tunnelling-company
External Links
Related Documents
No documents available.
Researched and Written by
Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG; Sahiban Kanwal; Carol Bell, SC branch NZSG
Currently Assigned to
Not assigned.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.
Tell us more
Do you have information that could be added to this story? Or related images that you are happy to share? Submit them here!