Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Henry Charles Doyle was born on 11 November 1899 at Dunedin, the fourth son of Michael John and Ellen (Helen, née Duggan) Doyle. Michael and Helen who both hailed from Ireland, married in 1885 in New Zealand. In the early days Michael was a miner. Three of their 13 children died in infancy. Henry’s mother died 13 June 1912 at their South Dunedin residence, just before the fourth birthday of the youngest child.

Private H. C. Doyle was in a batch of South Canterbury men who flocked to the colours in May 1915 and were accepted in Timaru for service at the Front. T. H. Davy was one of those who had passed the medical test and had signed on to leave Timaru for Trentham by special train on 29 May. Before leaving they were to be entertained at afternoon tea in the Drill Hall and then played to the railway Station by the Regimental Band. On enlisting on 29 May 1915, he gave a birth date of 12 June 1895, as he was obviously well under-age. A labourer and Roman Catholic, he named his father as next-of-kin – M. J. Doyle, 99 Athol Place, Dunedin. Henry was a labourer for H. Hayman, Willowbridge. Rifleman H. C. Doyle embarked with the 2nd Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade per the “Tahiti”, leaving from Wellington on 9 October 1915 and reaching suez, Egypt on 18 November. Just a month later came his first hospitalisation. By August 1916 he was at Walton-on-Thames Hospital. He returned to New Zealand by the “Rotorua”, arriving home in early January 1917, and was discharged on 5 February 1917 as “no longer fit for war service on account of occurrence of pre-enlistment disability aggravated by war service”. Come mid April 1917, and Henry Charles Doyle, labourer, St Kilda (returned soldier) presented himself voluntarily for examination and was passed fit by the Medical Board. A few weeks later he left for Trentham with the 30th Reinforcements. He named his sister Annie sas next-of-kin – Mrs R. McKenzie, St Kilda, Dunedin. Private H. C. Boyle embarked with the 28th Reinforcements per the “Waitemata”, leaving on 24 July 1917 for Plymouth, England. A few months after proceeding to France, he was admitted to hospital. He returned to New Zealand per the “Ajana”, arriving in late March 1919. When he was discharged on 25 April 1919, he was still not twenty years old. Henry Charles Doyle was registered on the 1919 supplementary electoral roll as a soldier at Taiaroa Heads and in 1922 as a labourer at Awatere. His father died on 25 November 1930 at Dunedin. His brother, Alfred James Doyle, ho was born in 1898, must also have put his age up to enlist. He fought through the Gallipoli campaign and by August 1916 had been wounded for the second time. Alfred died in 1935 at Montecillo Home, Dunedin. Henry Charles Doyle died on 24 August 1953 at Cromwell, aged 52 years, and was buried in the Cromwell Cemetery. In 1950 the Vice-President of the Cromwells RSA had contacted Base Records for information to claim a War Pension for H. C. Doyle, 24/1029.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [13 May 2022]; Evening Star, 4 January 1901, 14 June 1912, 21 October 1935, Otago Daily Times, 26 November 1930, Timaru Herald, 15 & 26 May 1915, Lyttelton Times, 17 August 1916, Otago Daily Times, 29 December 1916, 2 January 1917, 12 March 1919, Evening Star, 19 April 1917, 29 May 1917 (Papers Past) [13, 14 & 15 May 2022]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [14 May 2022]; Cromwell Cemetery burial record (Central Otago District Council) [14 May 2022]; Find A Grave [14 May 2022]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [15 May 2022]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.