YOUNGEST MEMBER?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 83, 8 April 1933, Page 10

YOUNGEST MEMBER?

NEW ZEALAND R.S.A.

AMBULANCE SERVICE—AGED 14

VARIED CAREER OUTLINED.

Though many of the returned men were showing grey hairs—a reminder that a considerable time had elapsed since the days. of the. Great War in which they took part—the Birkenhead Ex-eervicemen's Association prided itself on having the youngest- member of the New Zealand" Returned Soldiers' Association, stated the president,: Mr. G. B. Chinnery, at the annual' meeting. This was Mr. J. W. Tinsley, who, though now only 29 years old, was "doing his bit" in France at the age of 14.

Born at Te Pea, Hok'itika,. on April 15, 1903, Mr. Tinsley twelve years subsequently went to England, where he joined His Majesty's troopship Grantully Castle on October 17, 1917, and served in Prance on the ambulance train till November 23. He transferred •to the troopship Ormonde, which was chased by a submarine, but escaped. Receiving injuries through falling into a lifeboat, he was sent to the Royal Alfred Hospital at Sydney, where he was a patient from February 28, 1918, till May 8, when he was put aboard the troopship Osterley till July 10. From August 15 till October 21 he was with the "mystery ship" Darnholme, which ran ashore at South Foreland, on the Kentish coast of England, and sank. Between October 23 and December 17 he was on the troopship Kenil worth Castle, which carried American troops from New York, Newport, Montreal, and other ports to Cherbourg and Le Havre, and he was in New York when the Armistice was signed on'- November 11. On December 23 he joined the Arzila, engaged in carrying troops for the Afghanistan front.

Suffering a recurrence of the trouble arising from his injury on the Ormonde, Mr. Tinsley spent the ensuing live months in the naval hospital at Invergordon, Scotland. From June 3, 1919, f till Jul y. 2S-J»- j wa«. on..<kkfey again, <»,

the Coblenz; and on August 9 on the Admiralty oil tanker Le Coq, carrying oil to Spitzbergen after the Russian trouble, leaving her on October 6 in England. He next served from October 21 to November 21 on the troopship Caronia, carrying relief troops to India, and returning others. A period in hospital at Inverness followed, and then at St. John's V.A.D. Hospital at Hull, whence he was sent to the North Middlesex Military Hospital in London. He received his discharge on May 8, 1922, on pension.

Mr. Tinsley then joined the merchant service, shipping at Liverpool as an able seaman for Brazil on the ship Francis, which went. 1800 miles up the Amazon River. On her return to England be joined the Logician, and during the period from September 9 to February 13, 1923, travelled all round the West Indies and along the Pacific Coast. From March 17 till May 17 he was on

the ship Gaelic Star, which went to the River Plate. Again becoming ill, he entered the Prince of Wales Hospital, London, and back to the North Middlesex Hospital, where he remained nine months. He then got a berth on the steamer Queensland from May 20, 1924, till September 14, in the Medi-terranean-South African trade. On September 26, 1924, he embarked by the Tainui at Southampton and returned home, arriving at Auckland on' November 12. I

After a while ashore ho worked on the motor ship Hauraki for five months. He then got a landsman's job, joining the Auckland Fire Brigade, in which he served from April 19, 1926, till May 13, 1929. Ho returned to sea in the steamer Kaponga, lea,ving that vessel to work in the coal mines at Glen Afton, where he was empjoyed for two years. Now —he is a relief worker at Birkenhead!