For sometime I have being trying to sort out details of an ancestor and his descendants who sailed from England as part of a young persons sponsorship passage to New Zealand. My Ancestor was aged about 10 when as a boy collier in the Forest Of Dean (abt 1872) , with the permission of his Uncle sailed for a better life. His Mother was in the Workhouse having had two boys out of wedlock and was deemed "unfit", therefore the boy was living with his Uncle.
He arrived in New Zealand as planned and worked as a Collier (place unknown), got married in 1883 and had at least 8 children all born Annat/ Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand. However he had changed the spelling of his surname from Poyner to Piner as his schooling wasn't the best, so he always wrote name how he thought it sounded. Via a distant cousin in New Zealand, it is known he returned to England and the Forest of Dean with one of his daughters, and a diary survives from the late 1920's recording his visit and meeting of people he knew as a child before sailing.
Two of his son's appear on the Commonwealth War Graves. One died in 1916 in France as part of the New Zealand Field Artillery. This brings me to my question -
The second son died 13th August 1921 - Richard Piner Corporal 63039 Reinforcements N.Z.E.F and buried at Sydenham Cemetery, Christchurch, New Zealand.
What were the Reinforcements N.Z.E.F., and why would he be buried under the Commonwealth War Graves notation 3 years after the first world war had finished. Was there another campaign in the south pacific at the time?
Sorry to be so long winded.
He arrived in New Zealand as planned and worked as a Collier (place unknown), got married in 1883 and had at least 8 children all born Annat/ Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand. However he had changed the spelling of his surname from Poyner to Piner as his schooling wasn't the best, so he always wrote name how he thought it sounded. Via a distant cousin in New Zealand, it is known he returned to England and the Forest of Dean with one of his daughters, and a diary survives from the late 1920's recording his visit and meeting of people he knew as a child before sailing.
Two of his son's appear on the Commonwealth War Graves. One died in 1916 in France as part of the New Zealand Field Artillery. This brings me to my question -
The second son died 13th August 1921 - Richard Piner Corporal 63039 Reinforcements N.Z.E.F and buried at Sydenham Cemetery, Christchurch, New Zealand.
What were the Reinforcements N.Z.E.F., and why would he be buried under the Commonwealth War Graves notation 3 years after the first world war had finished. Was there another campaign in the south pacific at the time?
Sorry to be so long winded.
Comment