I don’t often feature named families but this headstone in the first Anglican section of Karori Cemetery has recently been revealed and caught my attention. Why, I wondered, would a 46 year old family man have been killed on the WW1 battlefields of France in 1916? And were there any children other than the four infants named? Being curious (nosey), I started to investigate.
Donald McGillivray and his wife Susan Emma seem to have had at least 11 children. I can find the births of only seven of them on the Births Deaths and Marriages (BDM) database of the Department of Internal Affairs. Two older children may not have been born in New Zealand. The deaths of only two of the infants named on the grave are registered on BDM - Gordon and Laura.
Some information about the children was recorded when Donald enlisted in 1915, including the names and ages of the two oldest – Roderick Nelson, and Annie McDonald. Three of the four who died as infants – Mary, Gordon and Laura - are not noted on his Military Personnel file, presumably because they had died some years earlier. However, the fourth – Ian -who was, according to his father, 9 months old at the time of enlistment, was clearly still alive and therefore included in the list.
Most perplexing, though, is why Donald enlisted on 19 October 1915. He was a married man with 9 dependent children, and he was at least 38 years old (though his death record suggests he was actually 45 when he enlisted). His oldest son, Roderick Nelson, had enlisted in June 1915 and left NZ on 9 October – did Donald think he could somehow protect his son by joining him at the Front? Or did he want to escape from the domestic maelstrom that was family life for the McGillivrays? Maybe he had no work at the time and thought at least he would get regular pay as a soldier, which would be available to his wife for maintenance of the family. Maybe he was one of those who had been inspired to “do their bit” when news of the casualty rate from Gallipoli had started to filter through. Whatever his reasons, by 8 January 1916 he too was on his way to France via Egypt, and nine months later he was dead, killed in action on the Somme.
Roderick meanwhile was also doing his bit on the Somme, where he was first of all gassed, and then, on 15 June 1916, shot in the knees and ankles, presumably by a machine gun. He was in hospital in England at the time his father was killed. Donald’s body was never found, so his name is amongst those inscribed on the New Zealand Memorial in Caterpillar Valley.
“On the east side of the cemetery is the CATERPILLAR VALLEY (NEW ZEALAND) MEMORIAL, commemorating more than 1,200 officers and men of the New Zealand Division who died in the Battles of the Somme in 1916, and whose graves are not known.” (http://www.cwgc.org).
Roderick was repatriated to NZ in the middle of 1917 after being deemed no longer physically fit for active service. He lived a long life, dying finally in 1974, aged 77.
Someone has visited and tidied the McGillivray family grave recently. If any of them happen upon this blog maybe they could enlighten us further as to the events in their family at the time, and how Susan (Donald’s wife) coped after Donald signed up. Let’s hope she had support from a wider family, and the older children were able to find work and contribute to the support of the family.
All the above information has been gleaned from publicly available information online –
http://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/
https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/search/
http://www.cwgc.org
Donald McGillivray and his wife Susan Emma seem to have had at least 11 children. I can find the births of only seven of them on the Births Deaths and Marriages (BDM) database of the Department of Internal Affairs. Two older children may not have been born in New Zealand. The deaths of only two of the infants named on the grave are registered on BDM - Gordon and Laura.
Some information about the children was recorded when Donald enlisted in 1915, including the names and ages of the two oldest – Roderick Nelson, and Annie McDonald. Three of the four who died as infants – Mary, Gordon and Laura - are not noted on his Military Personnel file, presumably because they had died some years earlier. However, the fourth – Ian -who was, according to his father, 9 months old at the time of enlistment, was clearly still alive and therefore included in the list.
Most perplexing, though, is why Donald enlisted on 19 October 1915. He was a married man with 9 dependent children, and he was at least 38 years old (though his death record suggests he was actually 45 when he enlisted). His oldest son, Roderick Nelson, had enlisted in June 1915 and left NZ on 9 October – did Donald think he could somehow protect his son by joining him at the Front? Or did he want to escape from the domestic maelstrom that was family life for the McGillivrays? Maybe he had no work at the time and thought at least he would get regular pay as a soldier, which would be available to his wife for maintenance of the family. Maybe he was one of those who had been inspired to “do their bit” when news of the casualty rate from Gallipoli had started to filter through. Whatever his reasons, by 8 January 1916 he too was on his way to France via Egypt, and nine months later he was dead, killed in action on the Somme.
Roderick meanwhile was also doing his bit on the Somme, where he was first of all gassed, and then, on 15 June 1916, shot in the knees and ankles, presumably by a machine gun. He was in hospital in England at the time his father was killed. Donald’s body was never found, so his name is amongst those inscribed on the New Zealand Memorial in Caterpillar Valley.
“On the east side of the cemetery is the CATERPILLAR VALLEY (NEW ZEALAND) MEMORIAL, commemorating more than 1,200 officers and men of the New Zealand Division who died in the Battles of the Somme in 1916, and whose graves are not known.” (http://www.cwgc.org).
Roderick was repatriated to NZ in the middle of 1917 after being deemed no longer physically fit for active service. He lived a long life, dying finally in 1974, aged 77.
Someone has visited and tidied the McGillivray family grave recently. If any of them happen upon this blog maybe they could enlighten us further as to the events in their family at the time, and how Susan (Donald’s wife) coped after Donald signed up. Let’s hope she had support from a wider family, and the older children were able to find work and contribute to the support of the family.
All the above information has been gleaned from publicly available information online –
http://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/
https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/search/
http://www.cwgc.org
