Pte
Stanley Herbert Julian

Information about birth

Date of birth:
27/03/1895
Place of birth:
Okato, Taranaki, New Zealand

General information

Profession:
Farmer

Army information

Country:
New Zealand
Force:
New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Rank:
Private
Service number:
30377
Enlistment date:
21/08/2016
Enlistment place:
Featherston, Wellington, New Zealand
Units:
 —  Canterbury Regiment, 3rd Bn.  (Last known unit)

Information about death

Date of death:
22/11/1917
Place of death:
Reutel, Beselare, Belgium
Cause of death:
Killed in action (K.I.A.)
Age:
22

Cemetery

Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood
Plot: IX
Row: AA
Grave: 11

Distinctions and medals 2

Points of interest 3

#1 Place of birth
#2 Enlistment place
#3 Place of death (approximate)

My story

Private Stanley Herbert Julian served in the Canterbury Regiment, Third Battalion, 4th New Zealand Brigade. He was the son of Nicholas Henry Julian, of Okato, Taranaki, New Zealand and husband of the late Mary Ann Julian.

His unit was in the Polygon Wood sector after the end of the Third Battle of Ypres. Much of the time was spent in wiring, repairing crumbling trenches and improving defences. The landscape was covered with waterlogged shellholes.

Neither the New Zealand Division history or that of the Canterbury Regiment give detailed information for the November 1917-February 1918 period so it is impossible to say with any certainty how Stanley Herbert Julian died on 22 November 1917. On the night of 21/22 November, 3rd Canterbury Battalion relieved the 3rd Auckland Battalion at a position called Joiners Rest, at Polygon Wood and it can be presumed he was killed during this event, aged 22. The opposing German forces generally held higher ground, and movement in the New Zealand lines was often observed and shelled or machine-gunned.

He is buried in Buttes New British Cemetery in a special memorial area for men ‘Buried in this cemetery’ in Plot IX, Row AA, Grave 11 with others of the 3rd Canterbury Battalion who died on 22 November 1917.

Files 2