Joined Territorial army 1935. HQ 1 Battalion, Countess of Ranfurly's Own. Rank of corporal. Attended various training camps.

Called up for NCO training 7 June 1940 for 1 month. 1 Battalion had 3 months' training. Serial number 1/1/118

Transferred to Base workshops Papakura Miltiary Camp. Promoted to Sergeant. Serial Number 5/4/473 (20 November 1940). Promted to Staff Sergeant (10 October 1941).

24 June 1942 transferred to Whangarei to form advanced Base workshops when Papakura Camp was used for Americans. Serial number became 136939 (22 August 1940). Was senior NCO at Advanced Base Workshops.

Called for overseas service 1943.

Dropped rank to Corporal at Overseas Training Camp Trentham 15 March 1943.

Promoted to Staff Sergeant Quartermaster for voyage 12 May 1943. Reverted to corporal at Maadi Reinforcement Training Camp [Egypt] 10 July 1943.

Posted to 8 Field Company NZ Engineers as Platoon Corporal.

Transferred to HQ Platoon as Corporal Mechanic at Cassino.

9 May 1944 promoted to Temporary Lance Sergeant.

19 July 1945 promoted to Sergeant as Company Transport Sergeant. Remained in that position and rank until returned to New Zealand.

Service Within NZ 2 years 292 days; Beyond NZ 2 years 221 days; Total 5 years approximately.

The "Dominion Monarch" was launched on 27 July 1938 and was a Shaw Savill liner displacing 36,000 tonnes, the largest vessel regularly employed on the Britain-New Zealand run. She could accommodate 517 first-class passengers and large volumes of cargo. Four diesel engines gave her a maxium speed of 21 knots and a cruising speed of 19 knots.

Commissioned as a troop ship in August 1940, by 1945 she had travelled 560,000 kilometres and carried nearly 90,000 service personnel. She was being refitted at Singapore in 1941 when the Japanese invaded, and escaped capture only through efforts of her engineering staff. She was broken up in Japan in 1962.


(Taken from Scars in the Heart exhibition, Auckland War Memorial Museum) AWMM