Format: Person

Linked To

Place of Birth

Southbridge

Collection

Person

Rifleman George Duncan Abbott

Image

Leeston and Ellesmere County War Memorial

Collection

Person

Recollections

Add

no stories yet

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 New Zealand License

This licence lets you remix, tweak, and build upon our work noncommercially and although your new works must also acknowledge us and be noncommercial, you do not have to license the derivative works on the same terms.

Tools

Download Add to Collection Contact us about this Citation for this item

Corporal Ameral Christopher Abbott

Description

TitleCorporal Ameral Christopher AbbottSummaryA soldier in World War One. DescriptionAmeral was born on 11 June 1893 at Southbridge, the youngest son of William and Isabella Abbott. He was 5ft 11 inches tall, of fair complexion with grey eyes and brown hair. He was a farm hand on the family farm when he enlisted on 20th August 1914 at the Addington Military Camp. He had served in the Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry, so was assigned to the Canterbury Mounted Rifles. He embarked on 16 October with the Main Body and was waiting in Cairo for deployment. He died of inflammation of the spine, diagnosed as anterior poliomyelitis, in Cairo. He is buried in the War Memorial Cemetery there. is remembered on the Southbridge Plaque of the Ellesmere County War Memorial.

Along with William Garforth, he was the first of the young men of the district to die and his death had a strong effect. A paper of the day commented that the news has served to bring home more forcibly to the people here a realisation of the dangers and risks our soldiers are undergoing. The Southbridge Tennis Club, of which he had been a member, expressed their sympathy to his family. Likewise the Vicar of St. John's Church, Rev. G. Lindsay, spoke of his manliness, the esteem in which he was held by all and his care for his mother and sisters. The Ellesmere Guardian quoted a popular poem "For how can man die better, Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temple of his gods.”

At the outbreak of the First World War, Cairo was headquarters to the United Kingdom garrison in Egypt. With Alexandria, it became the main hospital centre for Gallipoli in 1915 and later dealt with the sick and wounded from operations in Egypt and Palestine. Cairo War Memorial Cemetery was formerly part of the New British Protestant Cemetery, but plots B, D, F, H, K, M, O, P and Q were ceded to the Commission in 1920. Some graves were brought into these plots from elsewhere in the Protestant cemetery and later, 85 First World War graves were concentrated from Minia War Cemetery, 200 km south of Cairo, where maintenance could not be assured. There are now 2,057 Commonwealth casualties of the First World War and 340 from the Second World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery.First NameAmeral ChristopherLast NameAbbottFamilySingleYoungest son of William and Isabella AbbottDate of Birth11 June 1893Place of BirthSouthbridgeDate of Death8 May 1915Place of DeathCairoCause of DeathIllnessAge at Death21

Collection

Person

Connections

CollectionSoldiers of Selwyn World War OnePersonRifleman George Duncan AbbottImageLeeston and Ellesmere County War MemorialMore InformationAuckland War Memorial Cenotaph

Military Service

Memorial or CemeteryEllesmere County War MemorialOccupation before EnlistingFarm HandRegiment or ServiceCanterbury Mounted RiflesEnlistment Details20th August 1914 at the Addington Military CampService Number7/296Embarkation16th October 1916TransportTahitiAthenic

Attribution

Researched ByL. M. Seaton

Menu

Corporal Ameral Christopher Abbott