COLE, Roy
(Service number 24139)
| First Rank | Private | Last Rank | Sergeant |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 30 January 1898 | Place of Birth | Timaru |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | 8 February 1916 | Age | 18 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | 276 Colombo Street, Christchurch | ||
| Occupation | Salesman | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | Single | ||
| Next of Kin | Martin COLE (father), 5 Roslyn Terrace, Timaru | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | New Zealand Expeditionary Force | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | 13th Reinforcements, Canterbury Infantry Battalion, C Company | ||
| Date | 27 May 1916 | ||
| Transport | Willochra or Tofua | ||
| Embarked From | Destination | ||
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | Canterbury Regiment | ||
Military Awards
| Campaigns | Western European | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 4 June 1973 | Age | 75 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | Auckland | ||
| Cause | |||
| Memorial or Cemetery | Purewa Cemetery (ashes?) | ||
| New Zealand Memorials | |||
Biographical Notes
Roy Cole was born at Timaru on 30 January 1898, the seventh son of Martin Thomas Downing and Ada (née Shortland) Cole. Martin and Ada who married in 1886 had a family of eight sons and one daughter. Their second son Henry Martin Cole died in October 1900 at the age of twelve. Roy was educated at Waimataitai School, admitted there in 1904 and returning in 1910 after spending 1909 at Chamberlain School (although there is no record). It was on 8 November 1908 that his mother Ada died at her Timaru home after a long and painful illness, the youngest child not then of school age. Roy had two years of secondary education.
Roy Cole was a salesman in Christchurch when he enlisted at Trentham on 8 February 1916, putting his age up a couple of years to do so. He had been medically examined at Kaiapoi on 2 February. Single and of Church of England affiliation, he named his father as next-of-kin – Martin Cole, 5 Roslyn Terrace, Timaru. His two immediately older brothers had already enlisted – Bertie Leonard Gordon Cole doing so on 30 December 1914 and Rex Cole doing so just a month before Roy. Rex was killed in action I Belgium on 7 February 1918. Private Roy Cole embarked with the Canterbury Infantry Battalion of the 13th Reinforcements, departing on 27 May 1916.
21 years old and a Corporal with the NZEF, Roy Cole married Mabel Welch Gummer on 19 March 1919 in the church of her home parish, Puckington, Somerset, England. Mabel was a shirt machinist. Corporal R. Cole returned to New Zealand per the “Ionic”, embarking at Plymouth on 8 September 1919 and disembarking at Wellington on 25 October. Two children were born to Roy and Mabel, probably at Timaru – George Raymond Cole in 1920 and Elaine Cole in 1922. George served in World War Two as did his father Roy, who was by then a hardware manager in Hamilton. Roy Cole died at Auckland on 4 June 1973, aged 75 years and was buried at Purewa Cemetery, Auckland (ashes?). Mabel died at Christchurch on 4 August 1974, her ashes interred with Roy in 2001.
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [02 July 2026]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [02 July 2026]; School Admission records [03 July 2026]; Press, 25 September 1919 (Papers Past) [20 October 2015]; Marriage certificate (ancestry.com,au) [03 July 2026]; Purewa Cemetery records [03 July 2026]
External Links
Related Documents
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Researched and Written by
Teresa Scott, SC Genealogy Society
Currently Assigned to
Not assigned.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.
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