Profile

DEMPSEY, John
(Service number 77542)

Aliases
First Rank Private Last Rank

Birth

Date 30 July 1884 Place of Birth Waikouaiti, Otago

Enlistment Information

Date Age
Address at Enlistment Hook, Waimate
Occupation Farmer
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status
Next of Kin Mr William DEMPSEY (father), Hook, Waimate
Religion Presbyterian
Medical Information

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

Farmer

Death

Date 4 September 1954 Age 70 years
Place of Death Waimate
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Waimate Cemetery
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

John Dempsey was probably the only child born to William Dempsey and his wife, Isabella (Bella) née McNeill, who had married in Ireland. John had a much younger adopted brother, William Allen Dempsey, who served in World War II. John was educated at Hook and Pleasant Point schools, leaving at 14 years of age to go home. In his last year at Pleasant Point School (1898), John won the dux medal. He was called up in 1916 when he was farming with his father at Hook. John married Jean Linton in 1918. William and Bella Dempsey took a trip home in 1919, and while there Mrs Dempsey died. John and Jean, his father (memorial to his mother) and his adopted brother are buried in three adjoining plots in the Waimate Cemetery.

Sources

NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [25 October 2019]; Waimate Cemetery headstone transcription (South Canterbury Branch NZSG cemetery records) [24 October 2019]; Timaru Herald, 24 December 1898 (Papers Past) [09 September 2016]

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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