George Frederick Masterman

Forenames

George Frederick AWMM

Surname

Masterman AWMM

Service number

WWI 12/2544 AWMM

Gender

Male AWMM

Birth

16 Aug 1886 Public Source

Date of birth

16 August 1886

Public - Briee - Direct descendant - 18 April 2020 - Family information

Place of birth

Wilmington, South Australia, Australia

Public - Briee - Direct descendant - 18 April 2020 - Family Information

Address before enlistment

Unknown AWMM Awamarino, New Zealand AWMM

Next of kin

• W.H. Masterman (father), Wilmington, South Australia AWMM
• Clara Masterman (mother), Wilmington, South Australia
  Public - Briee - Direct descendant - 18 April 2020 - Family information

Relationship status

Pre 13 Jun 1915 AWMM Single AWMM

War

World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM

Campaign

1915-1916 AWMM Gallipoli AWMM

Armed force / branch

Army AWMM

Service number

WWI 12/2544 AWMM

Enlistment

WW1 Unknown AWMM

Embarkation details

WW1 13 Jun 1915-24 Jul 1915 AWMM
HMNZT 24 AWMM Vessel was Maunganui AWMM Private AWMM Auckland Infantry Battalion AWMM 5th Reinforcements AWMM

Medical notes

Killed in Action, Cause of Death AWMM

Last rank

WW1 Private AWMM
Auckland Infantry Battalion AWMM

Son of William and Clara Masterman, of Little Spring Creek, Wilmington. South Australia

Next of Kin: Mr W. H. Masterman, Wilmington S. A. (Roll of Honour, Auckland Province 1914-1918 (Volume 2)) AWMM

Death

8 Aug 1915 AWMM
Age  28 AWMM

Age at death

28

Public - Briee - Direct descendant - 18 April 2020 - Family papers

Cause of death

Killed in Action AWMM

Death notes

PTE. G. F. MASTERMAN
The following extract from a letter written by a member of the 5th Reinforcements, who is now in hospital at Malta, relates how Pte. George Frederick Masterman met his death. Pte. Masterman belonged to the Wilmington district of South Australia, and until the letter was published in New Zealand his relatives and friends were not aware of how he died. “We landed on August 5 on the peninsula, and we were under heavy fire all the time. We were in the trenches a day and a night, and then we were relieved. That day George, being a good shot, was called to go after a Turkish sniper, who had been playing havoc with our men. He was not out more than three hours before he got his man. I think it was one of the pluckiest acts performed by any of our company. George would surely have been recommended for it had he lived to see it through. But bad luck seemed to be hanging round. George was killed next morning. I was standing near him when at about 6 o’clock the Turks began to get the range of our trench with big shells, which we call 75 high explosives, and also shrapnel. The first two shells they sent over blew the sides of the trench in and almost smothered us. George was buried in it up to his shoulders, and I was covered right over, but George got out quickly, and he was able to dig me out. We were shaken up, but had escaped again. An hour later, just as we were being relieved by the Otago Company, we were all crowded in the corner of the trench, and over came a shrapnel shell, which blew George out of the trench, killed the other man the other side of him, and wounded four others (George was shot to pieces about the chest and lower part of the body). We could not shift him until the shelling ceased. His grave is right near the road leading into the trenches. Not only did he give his life for his country, but he did a good deal towards lessening the Turks, for he was a wonderful shot, nearly every shot he fired telling its deadly tale.

Public - Briee - Direct descendant - 18 April 2020 - Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 - 1929), Wednesday 12 April 1916, page 8 - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/59633144

Memorial name

• Chunuk Bair (New Zealand) Memorial, Chunuk Bair Cemetery, Gallipoli, Turkey AWMM
• Auckland War Memorial Museum, World War 1 Hall of Memories AWMM

Related objects

External links

• Military personnel file
  https://collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search/#/entity/aims-archive/R21373543
  Further Reference
• A Street Near You record
  https://astreetnearyou.org/person/680204/-
  Further Reference
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission Casualty record
  https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/680204
  Further Reference

References

• HMNZT 24. Maunganuian : one of the many unofficial journals of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces. (1915). At sea: Fifth Reinforcements. Printe by W.F. Forster and Co., Albany.
• New Zealand Army Expeditionary Force. (1914-1919). Nominal Rolls of New Zealand Expeditionary Force, Volume I. Wellington, N.Z.: Govt. Printer.
  Page No: 491
• 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.