Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Malcolm Smith, known as Mac or Mack, was born on 10 February 1895 at Waimate, the third son of John and Mary Elizabeth (née Doel) Smith. John Smith, who came out from Scotand as a little boy with his family, married Mary Elizabeth Doel from Australia in 1887 at Waimate. Mac was educated at the Waimate District High School where he won a prize in the Infant Department in 1901. The following year he was rewarded for General Improvement. Defence Act prosecutions were pursued at the Waimate Court in mid-April 1913. The charge against Malcolm Smith ws withdrawn as he was medically unfit.

It was in July 1914 that Malcolm Smith’s problems seemed to begin. He was charged in the Waimate Magistrate’s Court for disorderly behaviour while drunk and fined. In June 1915 he and another young man were charged with having created a breach of the peace in Queen Street, Waimate, on 15 May. A fight broke out between the two and, when the police appeared, Smith decamped. He did not appear in court but was fined £1 or 7 days in gaol.

Mr John Smith, Lamsdowne Settlement, offered a lamb for auction in support of the Red Cross Fund, in May 1915. It added considerably to the fund. Malcolm Smith went to England, where he enlisted with the Imperial Forces in 1915. By his Medal card, he was assigned two service numbers – 2163 and 266240. Private M. Smith served with the Kent Cycle Battalion, for which he was awarded the British War Medal. From May 1916, the name Malcolm (“Mac”) Smith, in England, featured in the Roll of Honour, under Answered the Call, published regularly in the Waimate Daily Advertiser.

By 1919 he was back home with his parents at Lansdowne, Hook, near Waimate. Mr Mack Smith won a special prize at the 1924 Waimate Show for second best heifer calf. But Malcolm’s disorderly behaviour came back, his name featuring several times in the police gazettes. On a charge of being a rogue and a vagabond at Temuka in 1921, he was convicted and discharged. A warrant for false pretences on 16 April 1922 at Fairlie was issued for Malcolm or Mack Smith. He was arrested on 12 July 1922. In the same year, he was sentenced to 8 years reformative detention at Paparoa for breaking, entering and theft. On 25 February 1925, he was wanted for failing to comply with the conditions of his release upon probabtionary license. “His license has been cancelled, and his return to the nearest prison is desired.” [Police Gazette, 4 March 1925.]

In 1935, he married Mary Ellen Prenter (Nell, née Hathaway). Her first husband had died the year before. For some years Malcolm and Nell lived in central Dunedin. Malcolm Smith died on 10 November 1943 at Masterton, aged 48 years. A cleaner at Masterton, he was found dead in the Masterton Bank of New Zealand premises on the night of 10 November, with a gunshot wound in the chest. “Mr Smith, a returned soldier from the last war, leaves a widow and a married daughter.” [Evening Post, 12 November 1943.] The married daughter was Nell’s daughter from her former marriage, who was born at Timaru. Malcolm Smith was buried at Archer Street Cemetery, Masterton, a services plaque with the Imperial Forces Emblem marking his grave in the Returned Servicemen’s area.

John and Mary Smith, who died within a few days of each other in January 1941, are buried at Waimate. Malcolm’s brother, Duncan, who served with the New Zealand Forces, spent all his life at Waimate. In September 1918, John Smith, Hook said he was “farming 265 acres and was the only man on his farm.” His appeal was adjourned sine die. This was probably Robert John Smith, the eldest son of John and Mary.

Sources

NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [28 September 2021]; Waimate Daily Advertiser, 14 December 1901, 16 April 1913, 12 June 1914, 27 & 31 May 1915, 6 May 1916, 19 September 1918, Oamaru Mail, 6 February 1903, 15 July 1914, Press, 22 November 1926, Evening Post, 11 & 12 November 1943 (Papers Past) [28 & 29 September 2021]; NZ Electoral rolls (ancestry.com.au) [28 September 2021]; British Army World War I Medal Rolls Index Cards (ancestry.com.au) [28/09/2021]; Archer Sreet Cemetery, Masterton, headstone transcription [28 September 2021]; Police Gazettes (Papers Past; ancestry.com.au) [28 September 2021]

External Links

• Military personnel file

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.