Profile

CONNELL, John Walter
(Service number 51471)

Aliases John Patrick CONNELL on Archives
First Rank Private Last Rank

Birth

Date 02/11/1894 Place of Birth Westport, NZ

Enlistment Information

Date Age
Address at Enlistment Hotel, Tauranga
Occupation School teacher
Previous Military Experience High School Cadets Timaru
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin Mr P. CONNELL (father), Glenavy, South Canterbury
Religion Roman Catholic
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

Teacher; agricultural instructor; inspector

Death

Date 17 March 1961 Age 66 years
Place of Death New Plymouth
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Awanui Cemetery, New Plymouth
Memorial Reference Block 2, Plot 386
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

John Walter Connell was born on 2 November 1894 at Westport, the second son of Patrick and Alice (née Power) Connell. Patrick from Galway, Ireland, and Alice from Waterford, Ireland, married in 1890 at Westport, New Zealand.Two sisters and a brother of Patrick Connell also lived in South Canterbury John was born on 2 November 1894 at Buller, Westland. By 1902 the family was living at Glenavy. There John attended school before transferring to Tawai School in 1906, along with several of his siblings. After passing the Civil Service examinations in 1911 at Waimate, he trained as a teacher, he was a teacher in Christchurch when his name was drawn in the military ballot. He enlisted on 3 March 1917 at Tauranga, where he was a high school teacher. He had served in the High School Cadets at Timaru. His brother Stephen’s name was drawn in the fifth ballot in March 1917. Stephen Patrick Connell, of Glenavy, appealed, . He married Gertrude Hurley in 1920. John and Gertrude had three children. Later in life, John Walter Connell was an agricultural instructor with the Auckland Education Board. He died on 17 March 1961, at New Plymouth, aged 66 years and was buried in the Awanui Cemetery there. Gertrude lived on for nearly twenty years more. Two cousins of John Walter Connell - Owen James Kirk and Patrick Joseph Kirk - served in World War One. Another cousin was Patrick Francis Connell, a farmer of Waimate who was called up in 1916, his name being drawn in the second ballot. He appealed on the grounds of undue hardship. He had to support his mother; His father had died suddenly in 1913. He left Timaru on 11 April 1917, with a large group of men from the South Canterbury Military District.

Sources

NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [11 February 2021]; School Admission records (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [11 February 2021]; Awanui Cemeteryy headstone transcription [11 February 2021]; Awanui Cemetery burial records (New Plymouth District Council) [12 February 2021]

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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