Victor Andrew Falkner
Born 21 Sept 1893 - Died 28 Aug 1915
- Service number
- WWI 13/903 AWMM
- Also known as
- —
- Armed force / branch
- Army AWMM
- Last rank
- WW1 Trooper AWMM Auckland Mounted Rifles AWMM
- War
- World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
About
- Title
- —
- Forenames
- Victor Andrew AWMM
- Surname
- Falkner AWMM
- Ingoa
- —
- Also known as
- —
- Service number
- WWI 13/903 AWMM
- Gender
- Male AWMM
- Iwi / Hapū / Waka / Rohe
- —
- Religion
- Church of England, Christian AWMM
Images
Documents
About birth
- Birth
- 21 Sept 1893 Peter Dennis, UNSW Canberra
- Date of birth
- —
- Place of birth
- —
- Birth notes
- —
- Address before enlistment
- Unknown AWMM Opotiki, New Zealand AWMM
- Post war occupation
- —
- Next of kin
- Alfred Falkner (father), Kaiparoro, Eketahuna, New Zealand AWMM
- Relationship status
- Pre 17 Apr 1915 AWMM Single AWMM
Wars and conflicts
- War
- World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
- Campaign
- 1915-1916 AWMM Gallipoli AWMM
- Armed force / branch
- Army AWMM
- Service number
- WWI 13/903 AWMM
- Military service
- —
- Promotions/ Postings/ Transfers
- —
Military decorations
- Medals and Awards
- —
Training and Enlistment
- Military training
- —
- Branch Trade Proficiency
- —
- Enlistment
- WW1 Unknown AWMM
- Age on enlistment
- —
- Occupation before enlistment
- —
Embarkations
- Embarkation details
- WW1 17 Apr 1915 AWMM
HMNZT 21 or HMNZT 22 or HMNZT 23 AWMM Vessel was Willochra or Knight Templar or Waitomo AWMM Trooper AWMM Auckland Mounted Rifles AWMM 4th Reinforcements AWMM
Prisoner of war
- Capture details
- —
- Days interned
- —
- Liberation date
- —
- POW liberation details
- —
- Liberation Repatriation
- —
- POW serial number
- —
Medical history
- Medical notes
- Killed in Action, Cause of Death AWMM
- Height, WWI AWMM
5' 11" AWMM - Weight, WWI AWMM
161 lb AWMM
Last known rank
- Last rank
- WW1 Trooper AWMM
Auckland Mounted Rifles AWMM - Last rank
- —
Biographical information
- Son of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Falkner, of Kaiparoro, Eketahuna, Wellington.
Trooper Falkner was killed in the second assault on Hill 60.
Posted to unit, Gallipoli, 16 August 1915.
Reported missing, 28 August 1915.
Board of Enquiry, held at Sarpi Camp, Lemnos, 31 October 1915, concluded 'Reasonable to suppose dead'.
Commemorated on the Anzac Memorial Bridge (built 1922; designed by Alfred Falkner), Kaiparoro. Parents: Mr & Mrs Alfred Falkner, Kaiparoro, Eketahuna, Wellington
Next of Kin: Mr A. Falkner, Kaiparora, Eketahuna (Roll of Honour, Auckland Province 1914-1918 (Volume 1)) AWMM - I am a descendant of Victor Andrew Falkner to honour his memory, as his Father Alfred Falkner, my great, great grandfather did by immortalizing his name on this bridge, along with those names from this district ,who died carrying out their duties during both World Wars. My Grandfather, as were other nephews of his, was named Victor after him.
Victor was the youngest son of Alfred and Eliza Falkner, born 21st September 1893 and one of 12 siblings. He grew up less than 2 kilometres from Mt Bruce and the Falkner homestead was on the corner of Morgans road. He attended the local primary school at Kaiparoro and after leaving , worked in his father’s Timber Mill. At the time he enlisted, on 15th December 1914 for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, he was working as a farm labourer for a Fritz Wilson in Opotiki.
His medical fitness sheet, states he was ‘5’11inches tall and 161lb, has fair hair and grey eyes and a fair complexion and is in good bodily and mental health , free from any physical defects’
He joined as a trooper in the Auckland Mounted Rifles, 4th reinforcement and after spending 4 months at training camp, he embarked from New Zealand on the vessel ‘The Knight Templar’ on 17th April , 1915 bound for Suez, Egypt arriving there on May 25th, just over a month later.
From this point in time, it is a little unclear as to what his duties were after landing, presumably some further training at Zeitoun Camp near Cairo and then later being transported by boat to the Gallipoli peninsula, arriving at Anzac cove. The terrain was bleak, rough, steep ,unrelenting and ugly. Anzac cove itself was small with the thousands of men crammed in only a little area , troopers noticing in dairies – so many freshly dug graves and the smell of the ‘bad air’ and the sounds of a whole new world. Many on arriving thought there was a major fight in progress, but it was actually a quiet night by Anzac standards. The horror of what lay ahead for these men was yet to unfold and the innocence of that time, before their first engagement in fighting, was never to be able to be returned to in many minds after the experiences that lay ahead.
From the war Dairies of Lieutenant W T Palmer of the Auckland mounted rifles, we know that Victor was recorded as arriving with a group of 35 reinforcements at a place call Old No. 3 Outpost on August the 16th. Entries describe earlier that men dug to deepen trenches and make bivouacs. Water was rather scarce, and they were under constant fire from shells and explosives. The day was extremely hot and again, much digging to improve the communications trenches.
Over the next 6 days they remain at this Post. Many of the men are sick and are suffering from Diarrhea and dysentery and it is noted, most of the men are ‘Far from well’. Stretcher bearers were sent out to look for wounded at night. Some 15 were sent to hospital with severe dysentery.
On August the 23rd Major McKesky arrives to inform them that they will be moving out to take up position for the attack on Hill 60. A further 13 and then 10 the next day all sent away to the hospital, unfit to fight, some having taken part in the horrors of the Chunik bair disaster in previous weeks. Hill 60 attack, ordered by Lieutenant-General Hamilton was described by some as, wasteful actions, with no military purpose.
The trench lines here were the furthest northern point occupied by the Anzacs. The attack was badly planned, with very little knowledge of the enemy’s position and trench details. Over the next few days the losses were high and in the second attack on 27th August , for the first time on Gallipoli , the 4 Regiments of the New Zealand Mounted rifles, fought side by side , they totalled just over 300 men , one of which was Trooper Victor Falkner , he was a bomber, his job was throwing bombs into enemy trenches and attacking along the flanks. Victor was reported missing in Action on the 28th August and the New Zealanders lost about 150 that day, others dPublic - Hayley - Other Relative - 23 March 2015 - others died of wounds over the 2 days and many were wounded and others evacuated as sick.
The hostility pressure eased off and fighting all but ceased. The very next day, on 29th August, the operation for Hill 60 was called off. In one Diary from that time it was, written – ‘We are a sorry broken up looking crowd now, it is hard to think of our mates who have gone’. Another recorded – Men are looking for their friends for days for those who are still missing. Our faces wear a gloomy expression at the loss of our chums – but I am proud to be one of them.
Trooper Victor A Falkner serial no. 13/903 is remembered and is on the monument at Hill 60, The New Zealand memorial, bears more than 180 names. Most of them were never found for burial.
Sergent C. g Nicol wrote ‘ ‘....“Let us remember that the men who died on those bullet-swept ridges in a vain effort, did not die in vain. They passed in their greatest hour, and they left an example that will never die. For many a hearth-side there
- Son of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Falkner, of Kaiparoro, Eketahuna, Wellington.
About death
- Death
- 28 Aug 1915 AWMM
- Date of death
- —
- Age at death
- —
- Place of death
- —
- Cause of death
- Killed in Action AWMM
- Death notes
- —
- Cemetery
- —
- Cemetery name
- —
- Grave reference
- —
- Obituary
- —
- Memorial name
- —
- Memorial reference
- —
Memorial
- Memorial name
- Hill 60 (New Zealand) Memorial, Hill 60 Cemetery, Turkey AWMM
- Kaiporoporo Bridge, Wairarapa, New Zealand. AWMM
- Auckland War Memorial Museum, World War 1 Hall of Memories AWMM
Related objects
Sources
- External links
- Military personnel file
https://collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search/#/entity/aims-archive/R21001966
Further Reference - A Street Near You record
https://astreetnearyou.org/person/1739228/-
Further Reference - Commonwealth War Graves Commission Casualty record
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1739228
Further Reference
- Military personnel file
- References
- Information kindly provided by family
- New Zealand Army Expeditionary Force. (1914-1919). Nominal Rolls of New Zealand Expeditionary Force, Volume I. Wellington, N.Z.: Govt. Printer.
Page No: 221 - NZEF Peter Dennis, UNSW Canberra
- Beattie, P.J. & Pomeroy, M. (2013-2020). Onward : portraits of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (vols 1-5). Auckland, New Zealand: Fair Dinkum Publications
Vol. 5: Includes portrait - Roll of Honour, Auckland Province (digital copy), 1914 - 1919. Auckland War Memorial Museum Library. MS-2016-2.
- Waite, F. (1919). The New Zealanders at Gallipoli. Auckland, N.Z.: Printed and published under Authority of the New Zealand Government by Whitcombe & Tombs.
- Nicol, C.G. (1921). The story of two campaigns: Official war history of the Auckland Mounted Rifles Regiment 1914-1919. Auckland, N.Z.: Wilson & Horton.
The development of the Online Cenotaph is an ongoing process; updates, new images and records are added weekly. In some cases, records have yet to be confirmed by Museum staff, and there could be mistakes or omissions in the information provided.
Online Cenotaph Data by Auckland War Memorial Museum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.