Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Harry Wilkie Sinclair was born on 24 February 1892 at Waimate, the third son of James and Margaret McLaren (née Stewart) Sinclair. He was educated at the local Waimate School, where he received a prize for fourth place in Class V Boys in 1898 and an attendance prize for 1902. At the Knox Church Sunday School entertainment in mid-June 1900, Harry Sinclair and five mates “told us, in manly style, what they would do when they became men.” Mr and Mrs Sinclair had moved to Dunedin between 1908 and 1911. In March 1911, their son Lees who was on the staff of the Waimate Post Office was transferred to Dunedin in March 1911. On leaving school, Harry joned the staff of the Union Bank at Waimate. After a transfer to Christchurch, he went to Ohura. Back at Timaru in March 1912, he recounted that life at Ohura was a rare experience but he was not sorry to be at Timaru. “The Ohura branch of the Bank was only recently opened, but the staff consists of three persons, there being a good deal of business in paying out in connection with the opening up of the country. The Bank’s officials have to ride to work on horses, and always wear riding pants while at work. Mr Sinclair mentioned, as showing the primitive stage at which the settlement now is, that there is not even a cobbler in the place, and boots have to be sent long distances to be mended. Mr Sinclair sang at a public concert recently, when the whole community was represented, the audience numbering 35 persons.”

Harry was a bank clerk with the Union Bank in Dunedin when he enlisted (as Harry Sinclair) on 18 August 1914 at Dunedin. He was already a member of B battery. Gunner H. Sinclair embarked the New Zealand Field Artillery of the Main Body, departing from Wellington on 16 October 1914. He was sent to London in August 1915, suffering from dysentery. As of September, he was convalescent. On the hospital ship, Bombardier Harry Sinclair had met another New Zealand, and they kept together in London. In October 1915, when they went to the Empire Theatre for a performance in aid of the Red Cross Fund, they had the honour, quite by chance, of being presented to their Majesties Queens Mary and Alexandra. “Queen Marv told them she had heard of the terrible hardships which the soldiers out there had suffered, and she was glad to see that they had recovered from their illness.”

When his brother J. Lees Sinclair Sinclair died in Belgium in June 1917, Harry was attached to the permanent staff of the New Zealand Records Office, London. Their youngest brother, Jack Sinclair, was by then in France. In March 1919, Staff Sergeant-Majot H. W. Sinclair, 2/202, was “brought to the notice of the Secretary of State for services rendered in connection, with the war. He was awarded Meritorious Service Medal. W.O./1 H. Sinclair, 2/202, returned to New Zealand by the troopship “Rimutaka” (Draft No. 296), which was expected to arrive about 27 December 1919. It was actually early January when the ship reached New Zealand. He was discharged on 3 February 1920, after 5 years and 170 days of service, all but 87 days overseas. He was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

Harry married Wynie Lyle Story in 1925. They lived in various part of New Zealand, Harry continuing his work as a bank officer. He died on 26 November 1969 at Oamaru, aged 77 years, and was cremated at Salisbury Park Crematorium, Timaru. Wynie had died in January 1956 at Dunedin, of Oamaru, and was cremated at Andersons Bay.

His older brother, James Lees Sinclair who was known as Lees, enlisted in May 1915 and left for the front with the Signal Corps in August 1915. Corporal J. Lees Sinclair died of wounds on 9 June 1917 in Belgium. In France he had been “entrusted with work requiring courage and endurance.” The youngest brother, John Thomas Sinclair, known as Jack, was not eighteen when he enlisted. Three of the four sons of Mr and Mrs Sinclair served in the war, their eldest brother, William Alexander Sinclair, being a married man with a family. William lived for some years at Cricklewood and was listed on the Reserve Rolls. Jack died in 1961 at Pukeawa and William in 1957 at Timaru, where he was buried; and Ada Jessie Alexandrina Sinclair, their only sister and the first-born of the family, died in January 1948 at Dunedin. She was buried at Andersons Bay with her parents, James dying in 1923 and Margaret in 1930. Lees Sinclair is remembered on their headstone. The names of Harry Sinclair and J. (“Jack”) Sinclair appeared regularly on the Waimate Daily Advertiser Roll of Honour under the sub-title of Answered the Call, while that of Lees Sinclair appeared under the heading of The Supreme Sacrifice.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [28 June 2022]; Waimate Daily Advertiser, 17 December 1898, 16 June 1900, 25 March 1912, 19 May 1915, 27 July 1915, 9 December 1915, 30 May 1918, Timaru Herald, 7 February 1903, Otago Daily Times, 20 September 1915, 8 December 1915, 23 May 1919, Evening Star, 15 & 19 June 1917, NZ Times, 6 December 1919 (Papers Past) [18 September 2019; 29 June 2022]; Salisbury Park Crematorium record (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [29 June 2022]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file

Related Documents

• SINCLAIR Harry Wilkie & James Lees - newspaper clippings (pdf, 131.5 KB updated 03-Aug-2022)

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, South Canterbury Genealogy Society

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.