Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Thomas Duncan Gordon Dougas was born on 13 May 1888 at Springfield, Canterbury, the son and oldest child of Thomas Douglas and his second wife, Johanna (Hannah) née McRae. Thomas’ first wife, Agnes, died in 1885, leaving him with five young children. In 1887 he married Johanna.and they were to have five children. Some time after the turn of the century, Thomas and Hannah and their family moved to the Pleasant Point district. It was in June 1904 that young Thomas entered Pleasant Point School, leaving in September of that year. His Australian-born mother died in 1909 and his father, who hailed from the Scottish Borders and was farming Rathmore Farm at Rosewill near Pleasant Point, died when his trap capsized on 30 April 1914. A half-sister, Margaret, died in 1911, and a half-brother, John, died on 7 October 1916, just three days before Thomas left New Zealand for the Front. In 1911 Thomas D. G. Douglas was a farm assistant at the home farm. Single and Presbyterian, he named his sister, Eunice Jessie Lawrenson, as next-of-kin. Private T. D. G. Douglas embarked with the Canterbury Infantry Battalion of the 18th Reinforcements, leaving for Plymouth, England, by the “Tofua” on 11 October 1916. One of 968 men in Returning Draft No. 273, T. G. D. Douglas, of Geraldine, returned to New Zealand by the “Somerset” which was due at Lyttelton on or about 12 August 1919. He married Edith Hastngs in 1923. Thomas Duncan Gordon Douglas, a union secretary and organiser, died on 10 June 1945 at Dunedin Hospital, aged 57. He was buried in Andersons Bay Cemetery, where a services stone marks his grave. He was survived by his wife, a son who was serving overseas, and four daughters. Edith died in 1982. His half-brother, James Baird Douglas, also served in World War One.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [09 August 2021]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [12 August 2021]; School Admission record (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [01 June 2022]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [01 June 2022]; Timaru Herald, 9 June 1911, 2 May 1914 [x 2], 4 May 1914, 9 October 1916, Otago Daily Times, 6 August 1919, 11 June 1945, Evening Star, 11 June 1945 (Papers Past) [08 August 2021; 01 June 2022]; Andersons Bay Cemetery headstone image & burial record (Dunedin City Council) [12 August 2021]; Pleasant Point Cemetery records (Timaru Distrct Council) [01 June 2022]

External Links

• Military personnel file

Related Documents

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TS