13986 Private John Reid, 5/4/1880-8/6/1918.

Mrs Reid, of Kami Street, Mataura, was notified a fortnight ago that her husband, Private John Reid, had been admitted to hospital with influenza, and the news of his death which occurred on June 8 at Walton-on-Thames Hospital arrived on Tuesday. Private Reid was the eldest son of Mr and Mrs James Reid, who are much-respected residents of Mataura. He was born there in 1880 and educated at the Mataura School subsequently learning the bootmaking trade, being associated with his father in the well known business of J. Reid and Sons. At one time deceased was employed by Mr Kingsland, Invercargill, and he also worked for a time at Dunedin. He was a member of the Mataura Town Band, Football, Athletic and Angling Clubs. Private Reid left with the 14th Reinforcements, and was for some time sergeant in charge of one of the military bootshops in England. Last March he was sent to France and was there for six weeks. He was married in 1901 and is survived by his widow and four children, the youngest being about two years of age.  -Mataura Ensign, 14/6/1918.

John Reid enlisted in March, 1916 and left New Zealand after the usual three months of training.  At the end of November, 1916, John was admitted to Codford Hospital, near the NZ camp on Salisbury Plain, to be treated for venereal disease.  This is the first occurrence of the two shameful letters - "VD" - I've seen so far on a soldier's records.  By many authorities, venereal disease was regarded as a self-inflicted wound which rendered a soldier unfit for duty.  Some VD hospitals were not unlike military prisons.  John was discharged to the Base Depot a couple of weeks later.

Codford Hospital, image from Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Originally enlisted in the Otago Infantry Regiment, John was transferred to the Canterbury Regiment in September of 1917 and made a temporary Sergeant the next month.  In March of 1918 he joined the army in France but only for a couple of months before he was admitted to hospital with Spanish flu on May 28th.  Influenza became pneumonia, John's official cause of death.

Major McKenzie Gibson writes from Oaklands Park Hospital, Weybridge, Surrey, to Mrs John Reid, Kana Street, Mataura: ‘‘You will ere this have received the news of the death of your late husband, Sergeant John Reid. Please accept the sincere sympathy of all here who were associated with him. The nursing sisters spoke of him as a good patient, always cheerful and thoughtful for others and never tired of speaking of his wife and children away in far New Zealand. His death was very sudden none of us thought of it in his case. His illness was not such as to place him on the seriously ill list, and only 7 on the Friday evening he was sitting up and chatting cheerily. The doctor who was in the hospital when the change came went to him immediately, bur nothing could be done, and he passed away peacefully at 5.30 on Saturday morning. On Tuesday I had the mournful privilege of reading the burial service at Brookwood Cemetery, where his remains were laid to rest in the ground specially set apart for those of our brave lads who have given themselves for King and Empire. He was accorded a full military funeral. Beautiful wreaths were sent by the hospital staff, nursing staff and the High Commissioner for New Zealand." Nurse Edna Pengally (sister in charge of the Oaklands Park Hospital) also wrote in sympathetic terms to Mrs Reid.  -Mataura Ensign, 7/8/1918.