Profile

MARCHANT, Eric Lachlan
(Service number 3/601)

Aliases
First Rank Captain Last Rank Major

Birth

Date 13/12/1881 Place of Birth Timaru

Enlistment Information

Date Age
Address at Enlistment 18 Boulcott Street, Wellington
Occupation Surgeon
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin Miss R. MARCHANT (sister), Timaru
Religion Anglican
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation No. 1 Stationary Hospital
Unit, Squadron, or Ship New Zealand Medical Corps
Date 21 May 1915
Transport Marama, then transferred to Moldavia
Embarked From Destination
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals
Military Awards Mentioned in Despatches; Order of the British Empire (O.B.E. Military), London Gazette 3 June 1919

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

Medical practitioner

Death

Date 3 February 1976 Age 94 years
Place of Death Upper Hutt
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Karori Crematorium, Wellington
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Eric Lachlan Marchant was the older son of Frederick William and Sarah (née King) Marchant. His father had come from England and married in New Zealand. He later returned to England for his health and died there. His mother, a sister of Truby King, died in Dunedin in 1927. Major E. L. Marchant was in the Marquette disaster. He was mentioned in Despatches and awarded the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E. Military) (London Gazette, 3 June 1919]). Eric returned to New Zealand aboard the “Chupra”, one of 732 soldiers who arrived at Lyttelton on 28 July 1919. The “Chupra” left Tilbury on 8 June, and went by Port Said and Colombo. About half way across the Indian Ocean the transport ran into a monsoon, all on board having a fairly bad time for three days. “They are the most contented and best behaved lot of men I ever had anything to do with,” said the officer commanding the troops on board. . . . The vessel is most unsuited for a troopship as there is practically no deck, but-the men made the most of their time and contrived to get a good deal of pleasure out of the voyage." There was no sickness on board;and the food was stated to have been good from London to Port Said, and from Colombo:to New Zealand, but between Port Said and Colombo the meat was affected by the heat, and the men could not eat it. Apart from this the men had no complaints to make except that they did not like the way they were cooped up, witli practically no opportunity of getting any exercise.

Eric’s younger brother, Captain Frederic Norman Marchant, died of wounds in Egypt in 1916. Eric married Kathleen Maud Lucas on 20 July 1921 at Auckland. Kathleen died in 1935, and Eric married Estelle Mary Hooper in 1936.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [18 March 2020]; NZBDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [22 March 2020]; Karori Crematorium record (Wellington City Council) [25 March 2020]; New Zealand Times, 4 July 1919, Evening Post, 29 July 1919, Timaru Herald, 29 July 1919 (Papers Past) [March 2020]

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Logo. 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!

Your Details
Veteran Details
- you may attach an image or document up to 10MB