Alexander George Whitelaw was born in 1879 in the town of Ashburton on New Zealand’s South Island. One of ten children, his parents were Scottish immigrants Peter and Agnes Whitelaw.

There is little information about Alexander’s early life: his father died in 1912, with his mother passing just two years later. By the autumn of 1916, he was working as a general labourer, but the world was at war, and he stepped up to play his part.

Alexander enlisted on the 4th October 1916, knocking five years off his date of birth to ensure he was accepted. His papers also show other discrepancies, as he noted both of his parents being having been born in New Zealand. As a Private, he was assigned to the New Zealand Canterbury Regiment, his service papers showing the man he had become. A Presbyterian, he stood 5ft 11ins (1.8m) tall, and weighed 154lbs (69.9kg). He had cark hair and a dark complexion. His eyes were blue, but he suffered some colour blindness, confusing reds and blues.

Private Whitelaw’s unit – the New Zealand Canterbury Regiment – left home on the 19th January 1917, and embarked for Europe. His movements from this point on aren’t entirely clear, although by the start of 1918, he had been medically evacuated to the No. 3 New Zealand General Hospital in Codford, Wiltshire, suffering from pleurisy. The condition was to get the better of Alexander: he passed away on 10th January 1918, at the age of 38 years old.

Thousands of miles from his family home, the body of Alexander George Whitelaw was instead laid to rest in the extension to St Mary’s Churchyard, Codford.

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