WW1 Lance Corporal Malcolm Innes Finlayson (12/2433)

Finlayson, Roderick John (13/2436) (1887 – 1971)

Roderick was a self-employed farmer when he enlisted on 25 August 1915 at Trentham. He was 28 years of age, was 5ft inches, with blue eyes and fair hair. He was sent to Abyssinia, Cairo and Alexandria. He contracted measles and on recovery he was sent to fight in France on 18 April 1916. There he succumbed to diarrhoea on 13 August 1916 and was sent to England to convalesce. He returned to France, where in March 1917 a shell exploded near him, and he was buried for an hour. He received penetrating wounds to skull that caused bruising, contusion and ringing in the ears leaving him deaf in one ear. [5]

In October 1918, Roderick was involved in a mutiny where a group of soldiers banded together, they ‘did not want to work in the laundry when it was his duty to do so’. He was charged and found guilty and sentenced to ‘imprisonment with hard labour’ (IHL) but his sentence was suspended. On 8 November 1918, fighting in France, he received a gunshot wound to the head and shoulders. He was returned to England to recuperate and was discharged from hospital 31 December 1918 and was discharged from the army on 13 May 1919 as no longer being physically fit due to an illness he had contracted whilst on active service (Neurasthenia – physical and mental exhaustion and sleeping badly) and was returned to New Zealand. He died on 16 May 1971 and is buried in Waipu Cemetery, North Auckland

Neil Kenneth Finlayson (13/2434 and WWII 812017)

Neil Kenneth Finlayson (13/2434 and WWII 812017) (1895 – 1962)  (13/2434 and WWII 812017) enlisted on 23 August 1915 was described as a self-employed farmer, being 5ft 9inches, with dark hair and brown eyes. He sailed for Suez, Egypt with the 7th Reinforcements for the Auckland Mounted Rifles, as a Trooper, then he became a Cook. Seriously ill with enteritis, (inflammation of the intestines), requiring hospitalisation in January 1916 and when he recovered, he was transferred back to his unit in April 1916. He contracted malaria in October 1918 in Jerusalem hospitalised there and in Abyssinia and Suez and was discharged 26 February 1919. In 1926, he married Christine Annie Capener. They had two children – Dorothy Margaret (b1931) and Innes Ross (b1934) Neil also served in WWII from 1941 – 1942. He died on 20 October 1962 and is buried in Maungaturoto Congregational Cemetery.

Murdoch Finlayson (13/184)

Murdoch Finlayson (13/184) (1882 – 1956)  was a self-employed farmer at Maungaturoto, when he enlisted on 16 October 1914 sailing for Suez, Egypt on 3 December 1914, as a Trooper with the Auckland Mounted Rifles, Main Body and the New Zealand Expeditionary Force He served in the Dardanelles and Gallipoli from 9 April 1915. He was wounded by a bomb and lost the sight of his right eye 28 August 1915 and September 1915 transferred to hospital in Birmingham, England. Murdoch returned to New Zealand 29 January 1916 In 1920, he married Clare Beatrice Grayson. They farmed in Maungaturoto and had three children – Margaret Eleanor, Grayson Crisp and June McInnes. He died 22 April 1956 and is buried Waipu Cemetery Public Main Block 30, Plot 324. [6]