Profile

McCLEERY, Thomas George Alley
(Service number 8/2670)

Aliases Known as George. Enlisted as George Thomas McCLEERY.
First Rank Private Last Rank Lance corporal

Birth

Date 22/11/1889 Place of Birth Outram, Otago

Enlistment Information

Date 17 April 1915 Age 25 years
Address at Enlistment 1 St Andrew Street, dunedin
Occupation Labourer
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin Hugh McCLEERY (father), 1 St Andrew Street, Dunedin. Mrs L. B. McCLEERY, 7 Belmont Road, Torquay, England; P.O. Otipua, Timaru
Religion Presbyterian
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation 6th Reinforcements
Unit, Squadron, or Ship Otago Infantry Battalion
Date 14 August 1915
Transport Willochra or Tofua
Embarked From Destination
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With Otago Regiment

Military Awards

Campaigns Balkans (Gallipoli); Egyptian; Western European
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

28 July 1916 severely wounded; to England. November/December 1916 discharged from Brockenhurst Hospital.

Post-war Occupations

Returned soldier

Death

Date 28 July 1919 Age 29 years
Place of Death Upper Junction, near Dunedin
Cause Syncope caused by exertion on enlarged heart
Notices Evening Star, 29 July 1919
Memorial or Cemetery Andersons Bay Cemetery, Dunedin
Memorial Reference Services Block 71, Plot 20
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Thomas George Alley McCleery was born on 22 November 1889 at Outram, Otago, the younger son of Hugh and Mary Murdoch (Minnie, née Alley) McCleery. He was likely known as George, his name at school, and he enlisted as George Thomas McCleery. George was educated at Outram School, going on to the Dunedin High School at the age of fourteen. By 1905 the family had moved to Pleasant Point, South Canterbury. George, a labourer, was there with the family in 1911. His early working life was with a grocery business in Dunedin. He preferred the outdoor life, however, and worked at Outram before spending time in South Canterbury. He was at Kurow when he enlisted in April 1915. During the war years his parents were in Dunedin, moving to Otipua, near Timaru, in about 1919. Private George Thomas McCleery embarked with the Otago Infantry on 14 August 1915. He was to serve at the Balkans, in Egypt and on the Western Front. Lance-corporal McCleery was severely wounded on 28 July 1916 and left for England. He was discharged from Brockenhurst Hospital in November/December 1916 and went back to Command Depot at Codford. He embarked for home at London on 15 May 1919 per the “Prinzession”, arriving in early July after close to four years of service. George died suddenly three weeks later, on 28 July 1918, at Upper Junction near Dunedin, aged 29 years. Having taken the tram to Normanby, he and a companion were only 200 yards on their walk over the hill to Port Chalmers, when he collapsed and died immediately. He had complained of pain in the left side both before leaving England and after returning home. He had written home saying he had been gassed, and said he had been wounded in the right side. The coroner’s opinion was that“the cause of death was syncope caused by exertion on an enlarged heart. The ascent of the hill would be the immediate cause of cardiac failure.” Lance-corporal McCleery was accorded a military funeral, the service at his parents’ house and the graveside in Andersons Bay Cemetery being conducted by chaplains, and the “Last Post” being sounded. George Alley McCleery married Letitia Bertha Hawkes in early 1919 in Hampshire, England. His widow lived for some time at Otipua, where his parents resided, later moving into Timaru, and more than twenty years after George’s death she married Gordon Toneycliffe. George and Letitia had a son, George Frederick Charles McCleery, born on 17 October 1919, nearly three months after George’s death. George, junior, was educated at Pareora West and Kingsdown schools, and Timaru Boys’ High School. That son was drawn in the ballot for World War II. Letitia died in 1956, aged 64 years. “For the Empire’s Cause” memorials were inserted in the Timaru Herald on 28 July 1920 by his parents and by his wife who remembered thus – “In a hero’s grave he lies. But the days are long without him.” Roll of Honour notices were inserted on 28 July 1921, his parents recording “When his duty was done he fell.” His older brother, Samuel Aird McCleery, also served in World War I.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [23 July 2002]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [23 July 2002]; School Admission record [24 July 2020]; Andersons Bay Cemetery headstone image & burial record (Dunedin City Council) [24 July 2020]; Otago Witness, 16 August 1916, Otago Daily Times, 21 June 1919, 31 July 1919, 1 August 1919, NZ Times, 16 June 1919, 29 July 1919, 22 August 1918, Evening Star, 29 July 1919 [x 2], 30 & 31 July 1919, Timaru Herald, 28 July 1920, 28 July 1921 (Papers Past) [26 July 2020]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [24 July 2020]; Free BMD [25 July 2020]

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