Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Gerald Edgar Guilford was born on 22 September 1879 at Pleasant Valley near Geraldine, the fourth son of James and Catherine (Kate, née Lynch) Guilford. James who was born in Wales and Catherine who was born in Ireland married at Pleasant Valley in August 1874. They had seven sons and five daughters, the first seven born at Pleasant Valley or Geraldine, the family moving to Whanganui in 1882-1883. Catherine died in October 1889 at the birth of her youngest child. James married secondly at Wanganui in 1892 and had three or four more children. He died on 2 January 1898 and was buried at Halcombe. Gerald married Margaret Grace Thompson on 12 June 1913 at Te Kuiti. Their daughter Mona was born on 16 December 1909 at East Oxford, Canterbury (illegitimate child of soldier and wife).

A labourer at Te Kawa, Gerald Edgar Guildford [sic] enlisted at Trentham on 13 January 1915, naming his wife as next-of-kin – Mrs Margaret Grace Guildford, care of Henry Guildford, Waimiha. Private G. E. Guildford embarked on 17 April 1915 with the Auckland Infantry Battalion of the 4th Reinforcements. On his return to New Zealand just six months later, in October 1915, he was to go to an Auckland convalescent home.

In December 1924 Gerald Edgar Guilford applied for a divorce from his wife who had been in a mental asylum since 1914, the assistant medical superintendent of the Tokanui Mental Hospital saying that there was no chance of her recovery. A decree nisi was granted, petitioner being given the custody of the one child. Gerald Edgar Guilford died in Auckland Hospital on 28 August 1937, aged 57 years, and was buried in the Returned Servicemen’s Section of Waikumete Cemetery. Coroner’s verdict – Fracture of the skull caused by his accidentally falling from his bicycle in Campbell Road on 28th August 1937. He was at the time a gardener at the Ellerslie Convent (Institute of Notre Dame des Missions) and was buried Roman Catholic. Margaret Grace Guilford died at Tokanui in October 1967 and was buried at Kihikihi. Mona married Rawiri Wikaira in 1935 and died in 1998, she too buried at Kihikihi.

Three of Gerald’s brothers saw war service – Henry Tracey Guilford served in the South African War and enlisted again in World War One; Ernest Albert Guilford, who married his cousin Gertrude, was born at Geraldine and served in the South African War; and Leonard Seymour Guilford, who was born after the family moved to Wanganui and married his cousin Alice, served in World War One. Two half-brothers born of his father’s second marriage, also served in World War One – Wilfred James Guildford and Donald Bernard (Bernice) Guildford. Three cousins, all born in South Canterbury, also served in World War One – Robert Guilford, Walter Guilford and Cecil Guilford.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [25 June 2026]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [28 June 2026]; Waikumete Cemetery record [28 June 2026]; NZ Herald, 30 October 1915, 23 October 1937, Waikato Times, 9 December 1924 (Papers Past) [28 June 2026]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [28 June 2026]

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Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC Genealogy Society

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