“Trooper Matthew Gallagher: Gallagher's name is already on the Prebbleton War Memorial, although he has not been acknowledged in the rolls of honour. Although there's no surviving personal file for Gallagher, it's assumed he joined the NZEF before August 16, 1914, and was mostly like one of the volunteers who poured into the mobilisation camp at Addington in Christchurch between August 12 and 16. He was initially enlisted into the Canterbury Infantry Battalion but late in August transferred to B Squadron of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles. On the evening of August 30 that year, he fell from the platform of a tram travelling from Cathedral Square to the mobilisation camp at Addington, hitting his head. He died from a serious head injury.” [Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/last-post-first-light/10379800/Six-names... downloaded 21/8/2014]
“Yesterday afternoon Mr H. W. Bishop, coroner, held an inquest on the death of Matthew Gallagher, a member of the Expeditionary Force who died as the result of a fall from a tramcar on Sunday night. Formal evidence of identification was given by W. Gallagher, a brother of the deceased, who said his brother was a bachelor, 28 years of age, and a painter by occupation. Dr D. L. Sinclair, house surgeon at the hospital, stated that when the man was admitted to the hospital at 10.15 on Sunday evening last he was dead. Apart from a few small abrasions on the nose there were no external injuries, but an examination showed that death was due to fracture of the base of the skull. Lieutenant E. H. Stack gave evidence that he was returning to camp by a special car which left the Square at 9.32 o'clock on Sunday night, and noticed Gallagher on the rear platform. The car was not full and the man could have had a seat if he had desired. From where he was sitting he could only see Gallagher's head, and suddenly he saw it disappear and heard a fall. The man seemed to have been leaning on the side of the platform near the door, but he noticed nothing about him which would account for his fall. The conductor of the car, Henry Douglas Galbraith, gave similar evidence regarding the seating accommodation in the car and said that when the car moved out of the Square he had asked Gallagher to go inside. The deceased was smoking at the time and replied that he would go in in a minute or two. The witness, after collecting some tickets, next noticed that Gallagher had changed his position and was standing at the open end of the platform, when he fell the witness was about two feet away from him but inside the car. He saw him disappear and immediately stopped the car. The place where he fell was about halfway between the Moorhouse Avenue and St. Asaph Street intersections of Colombo Street. The witness could not say whether Gallagher was leaning against the door when the accident happened, but was certain that there was no jolt of the car that might have caused the fall. The deceased was found lying on his face in an unconscious condition. Mr Bishop asked if there were any Tramway regulations prohibiting passengers from standing on the platforms of cars, and Mr Brown, who represented the Tramway Board at the inquest, said there were no regulations, but conductors were instructed to ask passengers doing so to go inside. Mr Bishop said that it was obvious that the fatality was due to accident purely, and not to any negligence on the part of the board or its employees. Anyone who used the platforms did so at their own risk. He therefore returned a verdict that "The deceased came by his death as the result of falling from a tramcar whilst in motion.”” [Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 177, 1 September 1914, Page 9]
“Trooper Gallagher was a member of the B Squadron Mounted Rifles. His parents reside at Prebbloton, and he had been working as a painter and signwriter for Mr Davies, of Sydenham. The funeral will take place at Prebbleton to-morrow, leaving the residence of his parents at 2 p.m. A detail of the Mounted Rifles will be present.” [Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16644, 1 September 1914, Page 6]
