WW1 Rifleman Walter Riddell Craig 52385

Walter Riddell Craig (Service number 52385) was born on the 7 October 1880 to Robert Craig and Jenny Craig in Auckland, who later moved to Waipipi, South of Auckland.

When Walter enlisted, aged 37, on 2 February 1917, he provided his sister’s name and address as next of kin; she was Miss L. M. Craig, ‘Dunholm’, Station Road (now Patey Street), Remuera, Auckland. Walter was single and working as a fencer for Listerson and McCrae in Gisborne. [1] Walter sailed on 13 June 1917 on the RMS ‘Tahiti’ arriving in England on 19 October 1917 as a Private with the 27th Reinforcements, E Company, New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He spent time working in England, before being transferred to the Western Front, where the New Zealanders found themselves fighting to hold the enemy at bay near Serre, in trench systems that they had used two years previously during the 1916 Battle of the Somme. Sadly, Walter Riddell Craig (52385) was killed in action on 9 May 1918. [2]

He is buried at Sucrerie Military Cemetery, Colincamps, Somme, France I. J. 37. Walter is remembered on Gisborne’s War Memorial and the Waiuku War Memorial Hall, Queen Street Waiuku.