Pte. John Lawrence Stevens

According to his Military Personnel File, John Lawrence Stevens was born in New Zealand on 27 October 1879 (no birth registration yet found), however this cannot be correct as his mother died on 17 February 1879. His sister Minnie appears to have been born in 1878, so the year 1877 has been used here until further evidence can be found. John was the son of MP John Stevens and Margaret Stevens (nee Campion) who had married in 1870. After his mother died, his father remarried to Anne McMaster in 1880 and John gained some new stepsiblings. John served during the Anglo Boer War (1899-1902). His father died on 31 July 1916 and his World War I Military Personnel File records his next of kin as his uncle, James Hopkins Stevens (1856-1946) of Church Street in Palmerston North. John was killed in action at Ypres on 31 July 1917 and is remembered on the Messines Ridge New Zealand Memorial [Death Registration Number: (reg. 1918/58959), age given as 37]. His half-brother, Duncan Burrell Stevens, was killed in action on 1 April 1918. Bio by Debbie McCauley (4 October 2024).

Sources

1. New Zealand and World War One Roll of Honour: http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~sooty/genealogy/nzefrohSM-SY.html / Ref 16.4.2021