Henry William Insley

Born 10 Mar 1896 - Died 1977

Service number: WWI 23705 AWMM
Also known as: Henry Bill AWMM
Bill
Public - Victoria - Other relative - 27 September 2026 - Family knowledge
Armed force / branch: Army AWMM
Merchant Navy AWMM
Last rank: WW1 Corporal/Military AWMM New Zealand Engineers AWMM
War: World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
World War II, 1939-1945 AWMM

Head and shoulders portrait of Henry William Insley in uniform. Image kindly provided by whānau (March 2026). No Known Copyright Restrictions

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Biographical information

Henry William Insley went to the First World War with his brother Allan Edward Insley (23704), who pretended to be his twin.

Panora Ltd. (1916) 13th Reinforcement, New Zealand Engineers. Christchurch, England, July, 1916. Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tamaki Paenga Hira. PH-TECH-661-18 (Backrow 16th from the left).

31 embarkations between 1941 and 1952.

Henry William “Henry Bill” Insley (23705) was born in Dunedin on 10 March 1896 and grew up at Cowes Bay, Waiheke Island, where his family operated a boarding house and farm.
In 1916 he enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force alongside his younger brother, Allan Edward Insley (23704). Allan, still underage, altered his age so the brothers could serve together and they became known as the “Insley twins”. In the accompanying photograph, Allan stands on the left and Henry Bill on the right. Both joined the 13th Reinforcements, New Zealand Field Engineers. Henry Bill served on the Western Front as a sapper, was promoted to Corporal, and returned to New Zealand in 1919.

After the war he went to sea with the Union Steamship Company, rising to Chief Engineer and travelling widely through the Pacific, South – East Asia and to India. In 1936 he built a small cottage at Cowes Bay, which remains in family ownership.

During World War II he served with the Merchant Navy, completing 18 embarkations between 1941 and 1945 on coastal and Pacific routes. Merchant seamen were civilians without combat training who nevertheless faced mines, enemy attack, and shipwreck. Their work sustained vital supply lines and connected New Zealand to the wider war effort.

Henry Bill died in 1977. His granddaughter Libby remembers him as steady, generous and deeply committed to family, teaching them resilience, independence and the importance of kindness to others (Profile written for “A Flight to Remember”, an Anzac Day 2026 initiative by Online Cenotaph and Air New Zealand). AWMM

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Henry William Insley