Profile

MacKAY, Leslie Donald
(Service number 67917)

Aliases
First Rank Corporal Last Rank

Birth

Date 01/06/1883 Place of Birth Waikiwi, Southland

Enlistment Information

Date 11 September 1917 Age 34 years
Address at Enlistment Longbush, Southland
Occupation Schoolteacher
Previous Military Experience Oreti Rifles - left Invercargill
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin Miss Mary MacKAY (sister), Hospital, Timaru
Religion Presbyterian
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Unit, Squadron, or Ship 41st Reinforcements, E Company
Date 27 July 1918
Transport Ulimaroa
Embarked From Destination London, England
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals British War Medal
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 21 October 1919 Reason On termination of period of engagement.

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Schoolteacher

Death

Date 1 May 1955 Age 71 years
Place of Death Riverton
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Eastern Cemetery, Invercargill
Memorial Reference General Section, Block 15, Plot 16
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Leslie Donald Mackay was born on 18 June 1883 at Waikiwi, Southland, the third son of Eric Kenneth Findlater and Mary Stewart (née Cameron) Mackay. His mother died in 1893 not long after the birth of ninth child. His father, a schoolteacher, died in 1906.

Leslie enlisted at Invercargill on 11 September 1917, volunteering for the 35th Reinforcements. He was a schoolteacher at Longbush, Southland. Single and Presbyterian, he named his youngest sister as next-of-kin – Miss Mary Mackay, Hospital, Timaru. Now, when his oldest sister, Annie Johanna Mackay, registered for service with the New Zealand Army Nursing Service Corps in 1915, she named her brother Leslie D. Mackay, Schoolhouse, Longbush, as next-of-kin. After Leslie left on active service, her sister Miss Mary Mackay, The Hospital, Timaru, became her next-of-kin as well. Mary Lucy Mackay was doing her nursing training at Timaru Hospital where she passed the State examinations in December 1920. Leslie had served with the Oreti Rifles. He was in a batch of men for the “C1” camp who assembled at the Invercargill railway station on 22 October 1917 and, under Sergt.-Major Ivemey (his brother-in-law), entrained for their special camp, “unattended by beating drums and accompanied by no cheering crowd”. Corporal L. D. Mackay embarked with the 41st Reinforcements, departing for London, England, on 27 July 1918 per the “Ulimaroa”. The Hororata’s draft which was due at Wellington on or about 20 September 1919, brought home Lance-Corporal L. D. Mackay, 67917, of Timaru. He was discharged on 21 October 1919, on the termination of his period of engagement and received the British War Medal.

Leslie Mackay returned to his teaching profession, living in Southland, at various times with his unmarried sisters – Annie Johanna, Emily May and Mary Lucy. His brother Eric Victor Mackay, also a teacher, was killed in action in 1918 in France and is remembered on the Chatham Islands Memorial. Annie served and survived the Maquette sinking. John Mitchell Mackay, a sheep farmer in the Chatham Islands, was called up. Leslie Donald Mackay died on 1 May 1955 at Riverton, aged 71 years. He was buried at the Eastern Cemetery, Invercargill, with his parents and three sisters, his brother Eric also remembered on the stone.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [26 June 2023]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [26 June 2023]; Eastern Cemetery, Invercargill headstone image & burial records (Invercargill City Council) [27 June 2023]; Star, 26 August 1919, NZ Times, 27 August 1919, Southland Times, 23 October 1917 (Papers Past) [26 & 27 June 2023]

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, South Canterbruy Genealogy Society

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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