Archibald Veitch New Zealander's Medal

[kenmorrison]

This man is named on the Jedburgh War Memorial in the Scottish Borders as:

VEITCH, ARCH. M.M. PTE. N. ZEALDRS.

I cannot trace the award of a Military Medal but a local newspaper refers to the award of a special medal to men of the Otago Regiment for duties on the Suez Canal.

Anyone have an ideas what this might be about?

His details are:

Archibald Veitch – age 31 – Private (8/1159) Otago Regiment, New Zealand Infantry.

Archibald had served his apprenticeship as a plumber in Jedburgh and was employed on government work for the telegraph service before the family emigrated to New Zealand in 1913.

He was working in Dunedin when he enlisted there in October 1914. He sailed from Port Chalmers, Dunedin later that month and landed at Alexandria in December 1914 where he volunteered for patrol work in the firing line at the Suez Canal and was awarded a special medal. Alexander then moved with his battalion to take part in the landings at Gallipoli in April 1915 but he was killed at Chunuk Bair four months later.

(Source: Jedburgh Gazette 9/7/1915 p.3 & 10/9/1915 p.3 and Service record at Archives New Zealand)

Born 1884 in Jedburgh as Archibald Robson Veitch. Son of John and Mary Ann (Robson) Veitch of 65 Castlegate, Jedburgh and of Roslyn, Dunedin.

Missing in Action on 6 August 1915 and named on the Chunuk Bair (New Zealand) Memorial, Gallipoli, Turkey.

 

Cheers

ken

 

[sadbrewer]

Not Archibald, but a Veitch connection from October 1916.

[sadbrewer]

This is interesting....need to find a copy of the Otago Witness.

 

 

Edited 22 September , 2019 by sadbrewer

[Moonraker]

Here it is

 

Moonraker

[sadbrewer]

12 minutes ago, Moonraker said:

Here it is

 

Moonraker

Brilliant work Moonraker!!

 

 

 

[sadbrewer]

From The British Newspaper Archive. 

 

 

[Moonraker]

4 minutes ago, sadbrewer said:

Brilliant work Moonraker!!

Happy to help. I knew that there is a magnificent archive on the Web of NZ newspapers, though I haven't accessed it for a while, since when it appears to have been enlarged. Just spent a few minutes searching in it for a few Wiltshire locations and came up with articles that I hadn't seen before.

 

Moonraker

[sadbrewer]

11 minutes ago, Moonraker said:

Happy to help. I knew that there is a magnificent archive on the Web of NZ newspapers, though I haven't accessed it for a while, since when it appears to have been enlarged. Just spent a few minutes searching in it for a few Wiltshire locations and came up with articles that I hadn't seen before.

 

Moonraker

Thanks for that, I've used the Aussie Trove.au for a while but find it very tricky to search...the NZ site looks as though it will open up lots of new avenues!!

[corisande]

 

 

His New Zealand Service record is available online - click this link

 

The space on his record for medlals is left empty, so my assumption is that he did not get any medals

Edited 22 September , 2019 by corisande

[kenmorrison]

Thank you for all this background information folks - but what was this special medal????

Sadbrewer - you mentioned an item about John and James Veitch in hospital in Oxford. These were Archibald's brothers and sadly John was killed and is also named on the Jedburgh War Memorial.

VEITCH, JOHN PTE. N. ZEALDRS.

John Veitch – age 32 – Private (8/4237) 2^nd New Zealand Entrenching Battalion.

John was employed in the Jedburgh Aerated Water Company before the family emigrated to New Zealand in 1913. He was a gardener when he enlisted in December 1915 and he sailed in April 1916 as reinforcement of the Otago Regiment. He joined the 1^st Battalion in France in June 1916 but was wounded in July . He was wounded again in September and after treatment in hospital in Rouen he was evacuated to the 3^rd Southern General Hospital in Oxford, together with his brother James who had been wounded in the same action. He returned to France and joined the 3^rd Battalion in May 1917. John was transferred to the Entrenching Battalion in March 1918 but died two months later.

Born 1885 in Jedburgh. 

Died of Wounds on 8 May 1918 and buried in Perth Cemetery (China Wall) Belgium.

 

Their older brother, James, enlisted in the Otago Regiment as Private (8/3103) in June 1915. As mentioned above, he was wounded in September 1916 and was then severely wounded in October 1918. He was evacuated to the New Zealand War Contingent Hospital at Walton-on-Thames where he right leg was amputated. He was repatriated to New Zealand in November 1919.

Cheers

Ken