TURFUS, James
(Service number 47098)
| First Rank | Rifleman | Last Rank |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 31 May 1889 | Place of Birth | Beist, Netherbrough, Harray, Orkney, Scotland |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | 16 January 1917 | Age | 27 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | Morven, South Canterbury | ||
| Occupation | Ploughman | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | Single | ||
| Next of Kin | Mr W. TURFUS (father), C/o Mrs Sinclair, Firth, Orkney, Scotland; Miss M. TURFUS (sister), Waitaki Boys' Higb School, Oamaru | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | New Zealand Rifle Brigade | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | 25th Reinforcements, J Company | ||
| Date | 26 April 1917 | ||
| Transport | Tofua | ||
| Embarked From | Destination | Plymouth, Devon, England | |
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | Infantry | ||
Military Awards
| Campaigns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Medals | British War Medal; Victory Medal | ||
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 |
Death
| Date | 3 March 1975 | Age | 85 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | Burwood, Christchurch | ||
| Cause | |||
| Memorial or Cemetery | Waimairi Cemetery, Christchurch | ||
| New Zealand Memorials | |||
Biographical Notes
James Turfus, known as Jim, was born on 31 May 1889 at Beist, Netherbrough, Orkney, Scotland, the second of the three sons of William and Margaret Jane (Jane, née Spence) Turfus. William and Margaret who married in 1882, had ten children all born in the Orkney Islands, three sets of twins among them, though the twin sister of James died before her third birthday. Mrs Jane Turfus died in May 1897 when the youngest twins were not four months old. James was at home - Workwell, Orphir, Orkney - with his parents and siblings in 1891, and again in 1901 at Holland, Firth, Orkney, when he was a scholar. Their father William was a farmer. All three sons and three of the daughters emigrated to New Zealand. Jas. Turfus, 25 years, farmer, left his native Scotland in 1914, embarking at London for New Zealand on 3 April per the “Tainui”. His brother Peter and sisters Mary and Helen had emigrated in August 1913 per the “Athenic”, and his older brother William had been in New Zealand since 1908 at least.
James was called up in 1916. He was a ploughman at Morven, South Canterbury when he enlisted on 19 January 1917, but at Balclutha, near where possibly one of his siblings was living. Single and Presbyterian, he named his father as next-of-kin – Mr W. Turfus, C/o Mrs Sinclair, Firth, Orkney, Scotland; and his sister – Miss M. Turfus, Waitaki Boys’ High School, Oamaru. J. Turfus was one of the men who left Waimate by the first express, en route for Trentham, on 13 February 1917. Rifleman J. Turfus embarked with the New Zealand Rifle Brigade of the 25th Reinforcements, departing for Plymouth, England on 26 April 1917 per the “Tofua”. He was discharged on 18 January 1918, no longer physically fit for War Service on account of illness contracted on Active Service.
As of 27 August 1919, James was at Gladbrook Settlement, Middlemarch. One of the original settlers on the Gladbrook settlement, he sold his farm of 80 acres in June 1932. Leaving the district, he carried with him the best wishes of a very large circle of friends. James married Ivy Elizabeth Jennison, of Middlemarch, in 1933. Their daughter Elizabeth June (June) was born the next year. James and Ivy farmed at Maungatua on the Taieri for some years before moving in the mid-1940s to Christchurch where he took up market gardening. James Turfus died on 3 March 1975 at Burwood, Christchurch, aged 85 years, and was buried at Waimairi Cemetery. He was survived by his wife Ivy, daughter June and nine grandchildren. Ivy died in 1991 and was buried with him. William Spence Turfus, the older brother of James, served with the New Zealand Forces and was killed in action on 2 August 1917 in Belgium. Peter Turfus, the youngest of the three brothers, also served with the New Zealand Forces in World War One. He died unmarried in 1979, his ashes interred in his twin sister’s plot at Crookston Cemetery with a services plaque.
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [15 December 2024]; Scotland 1891 & 1901 Census returns (ancestry.com.au) [16 December 2024]; Passenger Lists (ancestry.com.au) [16 December 2024]; Waimairi Cemetery records [16 December 2024]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [16 December 2024]; Scottish Birth registrations 1889 (per family tree, ancestry.com.au) [16 December 2024]; Waimate Daily Advertiser, 12 February 1917, Otago Daily Times, 14 June 1932, 7 February 1933, Press, 4 March 1975 (Papers Past) [04 March 2021; 16 December 2024]
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Researched and Written by
Teresa Scott, SC Genealogy Society
Currently Assigned to
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Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.
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