War Memorial Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, dawn, Sunday 11 November 2018
Collection of trench memorabilia collected by my grandfather, Robert Adam Barrowman
Officers Field Service Pocket Book and my grandfathers medals
Inside cover of the Field Service Pocket Book with my grandfather's name, rank and regiment
Title page of the Field Service Pocket Book
Commonwealth War Grave at Tyne Cot, Ypres Salient Belgium
And not to forget my wife's family, here is the information available on her grandfather:
FORENAMES Alfred
John
SURNAME Fulljames
ALSO KNOWN AS
Jack
SERVICE
NUMBER 56270
GENDER Male
RELIGION Church
of England, Christian
Civilian life
BIRTH 22
April 1893 Whangarei, Northland
ADDRESS
BEFORE ENLISTMENT Pre 2 March 1917 9
Beach Road, Auckland, New Zealand
POST WAR OCCUPATION
Tram Driver/Civilian
NEXT OF KIN
ON EMBARKATION John Moore Fulljames (father), Kamo, Whangarei, North Auckland,
New Zealand
RELATIONSHIP
STATUS Pre 13 November 1917 Single
Service
WAR World War
I, 1914-1918 AWMM
CAMPAIGN Sinai
& Palestine AWMM
ARMED FORCE /
BRANCHArmy
SERVICE
NUMBER 56270
MEDALS AND
AWARDS
British War
Medal (1914-1920)
Victory Medal
MILITARY
TRAINING Featherston
ENLISTMENT
WW1 2 March 1917
Age 24
Driver/Military
EMBARKATION
DETAILS WW1 13 Nov 1917-21 December 1917 to Suez, Egypt
HMNZT 98 Vessel was Tofua Trooper 30th Reinforcements, Mounted Rifles Brigade New
Zealand Expeditionary Force
MEDICAL NOTES
Height, 5 feet 2 inches
Weight, 9 stone 7
pounds
Complexion,
Dark
Eye colour, Brown
Hair colour, Brown
Cause of
Death Accidental death
LAST RANK
Inter War 9 October 1919 Trooper Auckland
Mounted Rifles
Biographical
information
56270 Trooper
John Fulljames
Employer: J
Chevis Beach Road
Next of kin:
Father: Mr John Moore Fulljames, Kamo; Place of Birth: England.
Mother: Mary
Ann Fulljames, Place of birth: Ireland
Service
Record: War Time Service: Attested at: Auckland on 2 March 1917; Marched into:
Trentham Camp on 31 May 1917; Rank: Trooper, Unit: Auckland Mounted Rifles
Chronological
sequences of postings, hospitalisations and promotions:
Embarked from
New Zealand on His Majesty's New Zealand Troop Ship
Number: 98 SS
Tofua; From: Wellington on 13 November 1917; Disembarked at: Suez on 21
December 1917
Posted to: NZ
Mounted Rifles Trg Regt 21 Dec 1917
Posted to:
Auckland Mounted Rifles Sqn 13 Jan 1918
Transferred
to: NZ Mounted Rifles Bde 11 Apr 1918
Posted to:
Auckland Mounted Rifles 14 Apr 1918
Posted to:
Training Regiment 26 Jan 1919
Embarked for
New Zealand on His Majesty's New Zealand Troop Ship
Number: 279
SS Ellenga; From: Suez on 23 July 1919; Disembarked on: 11 September 1919
Posted to:
Leave
Discharged
on: 9 October 1919
At his death,
from drowning and during the depression of the 1920s and 1930s Mr Fulljames was
a tram driver. His funeral in 1941 was one of the largest seen in Auckland.
Letters of condolence arrived from an earlier Governor General, High
Commissioners for NZ, including the British and from the Australian Returned
Services League. At his death he was a member of the Mt Roskill Road Board
(later the Mt. Roskill Borough Council). Fulljames Avenue in Auckland is named as a tribute
to him
Nice and moving post rross!
ReplyDeleteThank you Phil - your Armistice post was the catalyst for me to do this
DeleteA splendid post Kieth...
ReplyDeleteIt is humbling to see how young these soldiers were...
I fret about my 26 year old child going home in the dark... I can’t imagine the anxiety if she went off to war...
All the best. Aly
Thanks Aly - I wish the info available on Alfred Fulljames was also available for my grandfather - although I think a great deal of it was contributed by my wife's uncle, who was a great genealogist and wrote an enormous tome tracing the family (originally Fuljambe) back to the Norman Conquest - I kid you not! My wife thought at one point my 17 year old son should join the army to get a trade so I said to her "Well don't complain when he is servicing vehicles or building bridges under fire in the Middle East - he has ended up an apprentice builder in rural New Zealand!
DeleteGreat post Keith. I was too lazy to get up too early on Sunday. My two great uncles, Douglas and Edward Blundell, served in Palestine from 1917 -1919, the former in the infantry and the latter as RHA driver. They went right through from Cairo to Jerusalem to Damascus and onto Baghdad. They both had served on the Western Front as well. What a mixture of Hell and adventure they must have had. Douglas died in 1974 aged 89. I did meet him when I was a child and we travelled from Canada to the UK, but I don't really remember him. I still have a number of trinkets that the brothers picked up in the Cairo bazzars.
ReplyDeleteSame Mark - Ruth had mentioned going into Auckland or even the local Puke parade but we didn't do either in the end..never mind, its the thought that counts, and Phil's post is what made me think about it!
Delete