Profile

BIRT, John
(Service number 7/1960)

Aliases
First Rank Trooper Last Rank Gunner

Birth

Date 15 July 1892 Place of Birth County Derry, Ireland

Enlistment Information

Date Age
Address at Enlistment Winchester, South Canterbury
Occupation Labourer
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status
Next of Kin Mrs Mary BIRT (mother), County Derry, Ireland
Religion Roman Catholic
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Unit, Squadron, or Ship 9th Reinforcements, Canterbury Mounted Rifles, C Squadron
Date 8 January 1916
Transport Maunganui
Embarked From Destination Suez, Egypt
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With Field Artillery

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

Labourer

Death

Date 16 July 1957 Age 65 years
Place of Death Gore
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Gore Cemetery
Memorial Reference Block 102, Plot 11
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

John Birt was born on 15 July 1892 in County Derry, Ireland, the son of Charles and Mary (née Henry) Birt. In 1901, John is the sixth of ten children at home at Ballynease Strain, Bellaghy, Londonderry, with their widowed mother, a farmer, their ages ranging from 20 to one year old. Their father, Charles had died on 26 May 1899 at Magherafelt and was buried in Bellaghy Cemetery, Mary joining him when she died on 23 March 1925, their son George in 1957 and son Edward (Ned) in 1982. John was not with the family in 1911. He may have been a barman in Belfast.

John Birt was a labourer at Winchester, South Canterbury, when he left for Trentham on 18 October 1915 with South Canterbury’s quota for the Ninth Reinforcements. He died on 16 July 1957 at Gore and was buried in the Gore Cemetery.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [13 June 2020]; Ireland 1901 & 1911 census returns (per ancestry.com.au) [14 June 2002]; Gore Cemetery headstone image & burial record (Gore District Council) [13 June 2020]; Find A Grave, Ireland (per ancestry.com.au) [14 June 2020]; Timaru Herald, 18 October 1915 (Papers Past) 10 January 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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