Corporal Edward St George - Bulls Memorial

 

In Memoriam, 1914-1918 [Wanganui Collegiate School], Wanganui Chronicle Co. Ltd.

Edward St George Gorton known as Jack was the youngest son of the late Lieutenant Colonel Edward and Nora Mary Stephenson Gorton.   Born in 1881 he was educated along with his brothers at Wanganui Collegiate School.  In 1902 he headed to Argentina to join his brother where they both ran large farms from which they hoped to make their fortune before eventually returning to New Zealand.  At the outbreak of war and Jack quickly left Argentina and headed for Britain where he enlisted with the New Zealand Engineers.

He embarked for Gallipoli on 12 April 1915 where he was wounded on 16 May 1915 receiving shrapnel wounds to his back and right arm.  After being hospitalised in Alexandria and Cairo he returned to Gallipoli in August 1915.  Whilst recovering from his wounds he would have received the sad news of the death of his brother Denis in Buenos Aires.  Jack distinguished himself in Gallipoli and is mentioned in the records.

After the evacuation from Gallipoli he served on the Western Front with the Engineers where he was killed in action on 11 January 1918 he is buried at Ypres Reservoir Cemetery, Ieper, Belgium, he was 37 years old.  Below is a extract from In Memoriam, 1914-1918, Wanganui Collegiate School:
 
The evening before his death he received instructions to leave for a commission in England, but asked permission to go out and finish a job he had not completed. While doing this he was instantly killed by a shell. He was in the Engineers and very keen on his work. Had he been a little less so he would in all probability be alive today.