Profile

JOHNS, Harvey
(Service number 10/1076)

Aliases
First Rank Corporal Last Rank Sergeant

Birth

Date 13 September 1892 Place of Birth Waimate, Canterbury

Enlistment Information

Date 14 August 1914 Age 21 years 11 months
Address at Enlistment 108 Derby Street, Gisborne
Occupation Carpenter
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin Mrs JOHNS (mother), Beach Road, Ashburton
Religion Wesleyan
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation Main Body
Unit, Squadron, or Ship Wellington Infantry Battalion
Date 16 October 1914
Transport Arawa or Limerick
Embarked From Wellington Destination
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With Wellington Regiment

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

Death

Date 3 April 1990 Age 97 years
Place of Death War Veterans Home, Levin
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Avenue Cemetery, Levin
Memorial Reference Block RSA, Row 18, Plot 402
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Harvey Johns was born on 13 September 1892 at Waimate, the youngest son of Frederick and Elizabeth Anne Thomas (née Hosking) Johns. Frederick and Elizabeth had married in Cornwall, England, in 1875. Shortly afterwards they emigrated with Elizabeth’s widowed mother. They landed at Timaru and travelled to Waimate, South Canterbury, where they spent some years. Harvey was educated at Hampstead Public School, the family having moved to Ashburton in the mid 1890s. Harvey did well at school, receiving prizes in 1904 (Standard III), 1905 (Standard IV), and 1906 (Gardens). He was a member of the Ashburton Football Club. He served his apprenticeship as a carpenter and moved to Gisborne, where, on the outbreak of war, he enlisted in the Wellington Battalion. He had been a sergeant in the Territorials. He named his mother as next-of-kin – Mrs Johns, Beach Road, Ashburton.

Corporal H. Johns embarked at Wellington with the Wellington Infantry Battalion of the Main Body, on 16 October 1914. He was promoted to sergeant on the battlefield at Gallipoli. On 7 or 8 August 1915 at Chunuk Bair he was wounded in the foot. This gunshot wound was serious. Sergeant Harvey Johns returned home by the hospital ship “Athenic”, arriving at Lyttelton in June 1916.

Harvey married Ruth Jean Clark on 15 April 1931 at Gisborne. He died at the grand age of 97, on the 3 April 1990 at the Levin War Veterans Home. He was interred in the RSA section of Avenue Cemetery, Levin. His wife had died almost ten years prior. His brother Graham Johns also served in World War One and also came home by hospital ship. Another brother, Newman Johns, enlisted in 1918.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [17 February 2021]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [17 February 2021]; Avenue Cemetery, Levin, headstone transcription & burial record (Horowhenua Family History Group) [18 February 2021]; Ashburton Guardian, 23 December 1904, 22 December 1905, 22 December 1906, Evening Star, 25 August 1915 (Papers Past) [17 February 2021; 05 March 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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