Stephen Charles Hartley

Rifleman

Conflict:

WW1

Additional Information:

Son of Mr. and Mrs. George Hartley, of Rewa, Feilding, Wellington.

References:

CWGC

Archives New Zealand

NZ WAR GRAVES

CONTRIBUTED

Biographical Notes:

Date of birth shown on BDM Online as 14 June 1883, and on service record as 14 June 1894.

Public Contributions:

Files:

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STEPHEN CHARLES HARTLEY 1883 - 1916 Stephen Charles Hartley was born in Palmerston North, Manawatu, New Zealand on the 14th of July 1883, the only son of George Hartley and Elizabeth neé Perrier of ...Waituna West, Manawatu. George, born in 1858 at Motua, near Foxton, Manawatu, was the son of Stephen Charles Hartley from Falmouth, Cornwall, England who emigrated at the age of 15 to New Zealand with his parents and sister on the ship ‘Duke of Roxburgh’ from Plymouth to Wellington in 1840. Elizabeth was born, Elizabeka Prediger in 1856 in Westphalia, Prussia and emigrated at the age of 20 to New Zealand with a married sister on the ship ‘Terpsichore’ from Hamburg, Germany to Wellington in 1876. He had three older and four younger sisters. He attended school at Rewa, Manawatu. In 1911 he was working as a labourer at Hunterville and in the 1914 Electoral Roll he was listed as a Surfaceman (roadworker) of Woodville. He registered for War Service at the Wellington Recruiting Office on the 12th of May 1915 and on the New Zealand Expeditionary Force Attestation form he stated he was a farmer and resided at Spring Hill, near Masterton. His employer was A.G. Pilmer, Springhill. (In the 1911 and 1914 Wairarapa Electoral Rolls Alexander Gordon Pilmer resided at Hapua, Taueru (Tauweru) which is 14 kilometres east of Masterton.) He had served in the Hunterville Mounted Rifles and was discharged at his own request. On his Description on Enlistment form dated 30th of January 1915 his age was 30 years, 7 months, Height - 5 feet 10½, Weight -12 stone, Chest measurement - minimum 37 inches - maximum 40 inches, Complexion - Fair, Colour of eyes - Grey, Colour of hair - Brown, Religious profession - Church of England. Remarks - Unfit at present. Requires upper and lower false teeth. Otherwise fit. On the 13th May 1915 he registered at the Wellington Recruiting Office, listed as a labourer, City. He eventually enlisted in Wellington on the 23rd of August 1915 in E Company 8th Reinforcements as a private, Regimental Number 23/1411. On embarkation his rank was Rifleman. His unit was the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF), New Zealand Rifle Brigade, 1st Battalion, 2nd Reinforcements, E Company and embarked from Wellington on the 13th of November 1915. Members of E Company left New Zealand on board two ships The TSS ‘Tofua’, His Majesty’s New Zealand Troopship 36 and in convoy with TSS ‘Willochra’, His Majesty’s New Zealand Troopship 35, departed with 8th Reinforcements (2nd Reinforcements Infantry to New Zealand Rifle Brigade), a combined total of 2,585 troops commandered by Captain Armstrong aboard ‘Tofua’ The troops disembarked at Suez, Egypt on the 20th of December 1915. He was posted to C Company, First Battalion on the 8th of March 1916 at Moascar Camp on the fringe of the desert near the Suez Canal town of Ismailia on the railway line, which runs from Port Said to Suez. It was here men returned to duty and also received their final training. After training in Egypt on the 6th of April 1916 he embarked for the front in France on board the troopship ‘Arcadian’ after being transported to Alexandria, arriving at Marseilles followed by a 56 hour rail trip to the Somme. (The Arcadian was a Barrow-in-Furness built passenger liner constructed in 1899 by Vickers, Sons & Maxim Ltd for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company as SS Ortona. During World War I she served with the Royal Navy and was torpedoed and sunk on April 15, 1917 26 miles NE of Milos Island, Aegean Sea by the German submarine UC74. 277 lost.) He was deprived of three days pay on the 21st of August 1916 for neglecting to obey orders - being “absent in billets when ordered to be resting in billets.” (A billet is a term for quarters to which a soldier is assigned to sleep.) On the 15 September 1916 the New Zealand Division took part in its first major action near Flers during the Somme offensive (July-November 1916). The 1st Brigade was held in reserve undertaking rear echelon support activities at Fricourt, 11 kilometres south-west of Flers and Mametz, 2 kilometres east of Fricourt. Over the next 23 days, the division suffered approximately 8000 casualties, including more than 2000 killed. He was reported wounded on the 15th of October 1916 but later reported killed in action in the field on the same date. The finding of Court of Inquiry, presided by Captain N. J. King, on the 1st of September 1917 was that he was killed in action. He was buried at a front south-west of Flers, north-west of Montauban. His grave was not registered. He was awarded posthumously three medals for war service in Egypt and the Western Front - the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. A short distance west of Longueval, Somme, Picardy, France, about 13 kilometres east of Albert is the New Zealand WW1 Memorial, the Caterpillar Valley Cemetery containing more than 5,500 burials and commemorations. 3,800 of these are unidentified. On the eastern side is a memorial commemorating more than 1,200 men of the New Zealand Division who died in the 1916 Battle of the Somme whose graves are not known, among then the name of Stephen Charles Hartley. His name is commemorated on the War Memorial at the, now closed, Rewa school. In the Hall of Memories at the National War Memorial in Wellington his name is recorded in the Roll of Honour. [Record since amended - NZWGT] Read More

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Casualty

Service Number:

23/1411

Name:

Stephen Charles Hartley

Rank:

Rifleman

Date of Birth:

14 June 1883

Place of Birth:

Manawatu-Wanganui, Palmerston North,

Next of Kin:

George Hartley (father), Waituna West, Feilding, New Zealand

Date of Enlistment:

Not known

Enlistment Address:

Masterton, New Zealand

Armed Force:

Army

Unit:

3 New Zealand (Rifle) Brigade, 1 Battalion

Casualty Details

Cause of Death:

Killed in action

Date of Death:

15 October 1916

Day of Death:

Sunday

Conflict:

WW1

Embarkation Details

Embarkation Body:

2nd Reinforcements to 1st Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade

Embarkation Place:

Wellington, New Zealand

Embarkment Date:

13 November 1915

Transport:

HMNZT 35
HMNZT 36

Vessel:

Willochra or Tofua

Destination:

Suez, Egypt

Text in italics supplied by Cenotaph Online, Auckland War Memorial Museum

Cemetery

Cemetery:

Caterpillar Valley (New Zealand) Memorial

Cemetery Location:

France