COSKERIE, John Elmslie
(Service number 36413)
| First Rank | Rifleman | Last Rank |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 25 January 1878 | Place of Birth | Christchurch |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | Age | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | Glenavy, Canterbury | ||
| Occupation | Labourer | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | |||
| Next of Kin | James COSKERIE (father), Meadowbank, Glenavy, Canterbury | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | New Zealand Rifle Brigade | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | Reinforcements, G Company | ||
| Date | 19 January 1917 | ||
| Transport | Waitemata | ||
| Embarked From | Destination | Plymouth, Devon, England | |
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | |||
Military Awards
| Campaigns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Medals | |||
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 | 9 November 1953 | Age | 75 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | Waimate | ||
| Cause | |||
| Memorial or Cemetery | Waimate Lawn Cemetery | ||
| New Zealand Memorials | |||
Biographical Notes
John Elmslie Coskerie was the son of James and Grace (née Henderson) Coskerie. He was educated at Mayfield and Westerfield schools. In 1930 John married Annie Christina Dickson who survived him by more than 16 years.
The Tawai War Memorial was unveiled in August 1923 at the Tawai School. The proceedings opened with the singing of the National Anthem, followed by various speakers.
It was proposed to place a sheet containing the military history of all those on the Roll of Honour, including the place of death and burial, in a drawer of the memorial, so that in the years to come it would be a permanent record of service of all those who had made the supreme sacrifice.The Rev. J. D. Wilson said he was glad of the opportunity to speak on behalf of the men who came not back to tell the message of those fields on the other side of the world, and also on behalf of the men who came back, but were too diffident to tell of the things they had seen enacted in the world tragedy. He never lost an opportunity to tell of the men and women, their brothers and sisters, who played such heroic parts in the western world and the middle of the Far East. Those men and women gave their very best in the harrowing days of 1914-18. “We forgot our little class distinctions, our political and religious differences, and remembered only that we were all equal sons and daughters of the Empire.” He then unveiled the memorial, “To the glory of God, and in memory of the men from Tawai District who made the great sacrifice.” The prayer of dedication was said, the Benediction was pronounced, and the singing of Rule Britannia and the National Anthem concluded the ceremony. The memorial, which is a very beautiful piece of work, contains twenty-two names, including Cosker [Coskerie] J. In the centre is the inscription: “The supreme sacrifice,” and under an emblem of laurel leaves five names, and the inscription: “They died that we might live.”
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [09 February 2020); NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [11 February 2020]; School Admission record [10 February 2020]; Waimate Lawn Cemetery headstone transcription [11 February 2020]; Timaru Herald, 24 August 1923 (Papers Past) [09 February 2020]
External Links
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Researched and Written by
Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG
Currently Assigned to
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Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.
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