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Monday 26th October 1914

Our first burial at sea. Pvt Gilchrist of the Ruapehu. A very impressive sight. All transports stopped Ruapehu in centre.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Voyage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Monday 26th October 1914”

  1. Anna Says:
    October 27th, 2009 at 10:23 am

    Any way of knowing how Pvt Gilchrist died?

  2. Gillian Tasker Says:
    October 29th, 2009 at 12:12 pm

    Hi Anna
    According to Auckland Museum’s Cenotaph Database (see http://www.aucklandmuseum.com) Private William Louis John Gilchrist (also known as Jack Gilchrist) died of disease. You can view Private Gilchrist’s military record that records that the disease was “Ptomaine Poisoning” at Archives New Zealand’s Archway database: http://www.archway.archives.govt.nz. Just type the name “Jack Gilchrist” into the search field and you will find a digitised copy of Private Gilchrist’s full military record. Page 15 of his records includes the conclusions of the Doctor on board the transport ship. Ptomaine poisoning is a term for food poisoning thought to be caused by poisonous alkaloids created in decaying food. This theory has been discounted by modern medicine.

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