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Cenotaph record

Sydney George Stanfield

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  • Service number
    WWI 14692 AWMM
  • Also known as
  • Armed force / branch
    • Army AWMM
    • 1st NZEF - Wellington Infantry Btn Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - Military record
  • Last rank
  • War
    World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
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Nominal Roll Vol 2 (Roll 34), Page: 8 - No known copyright restrictions

Nominal Roll Vol 2 (Roll 34), Page: 8 - No known copyright restrictions

Identity

About

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  • Title
    Lance Corporal Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - Military Record
  • Forenames
    Sydney George AWMM
  • Surname
    Stanfield AWMM
  • Ingoa
  • Also known as
  • Service number
    WWI 14692 AWMM
  • Gender
    • Male AWMM
    • Male Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - Military Record
  • Iwi
  • Hapū
  • Waka
  • Rohe
  • Religion
    Church of England Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - Military Record

Civilian life

About birth

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  • Birth
    18 October 1900 In the Shadows of War
  • Date of birth
    8 October 1900 Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - Military Record & Research
  • Place of birth
  • Birth notes
    son of Thomas William & Mary Jane Stanfield Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - Military Record
  • Address before enlistment
    Te Rehunga Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - Military Record
  • Post war occupation
  • Next of kin on embarkation
    Mrs T.W. Stanfield (mother), Te Rehunga, Dannevirke, New Zealand AWMM
  • Relationship status
    single Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - Military Record

Service

Wars and conflicts

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  • War
    World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
  • Campaign
    Western European - France & Belgium Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - Military record
  • Armed force / branch
    • Army AWMM
    • 1st NZEF - Wellington Infantry Btn Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - Military record
  • Service number
    WWI 14692 AWMM
  • Military service
    1916-1919 Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - Military record
  • Promotions/ Postings/ Transfers

Military decorations

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Training and Enlistment

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  • Military training
  • Branch Trade Proficiency
  • Enlistment
  • Occupation before enlistment
  • Age on enlistment
    Actually 15 1/2 yrs old - said he was 20 yrs born in 1895 Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - Military Record

Embarkations

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Prisoner of war

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  • Capture details
  • Days interned
  • Liberation date
  • Liberation Repatriation
  • POW liberation details
  • POW serial number

Medical history

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  • Medical notes

Last known rank

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  • Last rank
    Lance Corporal Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - Military Record

Biographical information

Biographical information

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    • Transcripts
      Sidney George Stanfield (Stan) was born in Tinui, near Masterton, in 1900. He worked as a farmhand before sailing for war in 1916 with the Wellington Infantry Battalion. He saw action in France and Belgium and at the end of the war was still nearly two years under the age limit for service overseas.

      Hear Stan describe his experiences at Passchendaele at the time of the October 1917 offensive.

      On being a stretcher-bearer at Passchendaele 12–14 October 1917

      It rained and rained and bloody rained, and rained and rained, see. Just like here in the autumn time, when it comes to rain and it was cold. And we were picking them up from a gathering point as a regimental aid post. Well there were hundreds of men laying out, around. You couldn’t get them inside, it was an old German concrete emplacement and you couldn't get them all inside, but the doctors were working inside. And they were just laying around where they’d been dumped by the stretcher-bearers from off the field and at one period I believe there were 600 stretcher cases laying round the place in the wet and cold, just dying there where they were dumped off. They weren’t even laying on stretchers, just laying on the ground with an oil sheet tied over them if anyone thought to do that, or if one of their mates could do it. Just laying there, because the stretchers were used for picking up other men, you see, there couldn’t be a stretcher for every stretcher case. We just carried till you couldn’t carry more. You just went until you couldn’t walk really, you just went until you couldn’t walk.

      On how infantrymen saw themselves at Passchendaele

      An ordinary infantryman at Passchendaele was a pretty dumb beast. That’s how he’s treated, you see. He was only gun fodder and when all is said, and that’s what I feel. We were pretty dumb beasts you see, or we wouldn’t have been slapped, thrown into that sort of warfare, because it was hopeless before you started. We all knew that.

      How men died

      And poor Jim was laying there cuddled up in a heap as men die. Don’t forget we was all young, we didn’t die easy. You don’t die at once, you’re not shot and killed stone dead. You don’t die at once. We were all fit and highly trained and of course we didn’t die easy, you see. You were slow to die and you’d find them huddled up in a heap like kids gone to sleep, you know, cuddled up dead.

      Wounded men at Passchendaele

      There was one place at Passchendaele … where we heard a man crying at night out in front and went out and we couldn’t find him and we heard him crying part of the next day. Calling, you know, calling, sort of crying, not screaming or anything, crying out. We just knew there was a wounded man lying down under something you see. We never found that man. That's the only thing that's stuck in my memory. The others, I’ve seen them lay gasping and panting and scratching up the dirt with their fingernails on their face and all crawling around semi-delirious and all sorts of things.

      His feelings about the misery of the war

      I felt that the war was never going to end. It was going to go on forever. I felt that I would never see the end of the war, that it was not possible. I felt it was not possible that I would survive the war … I can remember feeling at times that I’d be quite happy to engage in any sort of slavery at all if I could be taken away from this, what, misery. Misery. Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/sound/sidney-stanfield-remembers-passchendaele
    • Private Sydney George Stanfield, son of Mr Thomas W. Stanfield, of Te Rehunga, reported recently as having been wounded, is not yet 17 years of age. He enlisted when 15 1/2, being a big, bulky lad—got through the tests and training, and celebrated his sixteenth birthday in France. He went away with the 14th Reinforcements Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - Otago Daily Times , Issue 17063, 23 July 1917, Page 8
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Death

About death

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  • Death
    1 November 1989 Public Source
  • Date of death
    1 November 19898 Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - the Mangatera Dannevirke cemetery records
  • Age at death
    89 yrs Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - the Mangatera Dannevirke cemetery records
  • Place of death
    Dannevirke, Southern HB Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - the Mangatera Dannevirke cemetery records
  • Cause of death
  • Death notes
  • Cemetery
  • Cemetery name
    Mangatera Cemetery Dannevirke Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - the Mangatera Dannevirke cemetery records
  • Grave reference
    Main Section - Block: Q; Plot: 11; ID #: 12961 Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 27 August 2015 - the Mangatera Dannevirke cemetery records
  • Obituary
  • Memorial name
  • Memorial reference

Memorials

Memorial

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  • Memorial name

Roll of Honour

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Sources

Sources

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  • External links
    Military personnel file
    https://collections.archives.govt.nz/en-NZ/web/arena/search#/entity/aims-archive/R7820620
    Further Reference
  • References
    • The kit-bag : the unofficial record of the following units of the Fourteenth Reinforcements on board the "Maunganui", Troopship 56. Printed by Cape Times : Cape Town. 1916. AWMM
      Military Service Record AWMM
    • New Zealand Army Expeditionary Force. (1917). Nominal Rolls of New Zealand Expeditionary Force Volume II. Wellington, N.Z.: Govt. Printer. AWMM
      34: 8 AWMM
    • Boyack, N., & Tolerton, J. (1980). In the shadow of war : New Zealand soldiers talk about World War One and their lives. Auckland, N.Z.: Penguin. AWMM

Contributors

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DateFirst namesLocationRelationshipContact
27 August 2015Lorraine MGisborne, NZ Researcher

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