8/1279 Driver James Lyall, (1894-9/9/1916). "in a very precarious condition"

PERSONAL

Mr James Lyall, of Stirling, who left New Zealand as a trooper with the Expeditionary Forces and was some time ago invalided home, is now an inmate at the Pleasant Valley Sanatorium, Palmerston, in a very precarious condition.   -Clutha Leader, 8/9/1916.

The death is reported from the sanatorium at Palmerston of Driver James Lyall, youngest son of Mr John Petrie Lyall and the late Mrs Lyall, of Stirling. He was 22 years of age, and was a member of the 2nd Reinforcements, having enlisted as a driver in the artillery section. Educated at the Stirling and Balclutha District High Schools, he later joined the staff of the New Zealand Railways as a porter, and was for some time stationed at Balclutha. Prior to enlisting he was engaged at the Benhar Pottery Works. The deceased will be accorded a military funeral to-day.   -Otago Daily Times, 12/9/1916.

The Palmerston sanatorium was built before the war for the treatment of tuberculosis, and it was that disease which killed James Lyall.

MILITARY FUNERAL.

There was a very large attendance of the public and members of the Territorial Forces at the military funeral of the late Driver James Lyall (N.Z.A.B.) on Tuesday afternoon. The cortege left the residence of the late soldier's parents at Stirling early in. the afternoon, headed by a firing party. The gun carriage bearing the coffin was draped with the Union Jack, upon which were laid a large number of wreaths, the carriage being surrounded by a guard of honour. Immediately after the gun carriage came a procession of Territorials and Cadets, the whole of the military arrangements being under the command of Captain Stevens. The Balclutha Brass Band, which met the cortege near the top of North Balclutha hill, played the "Dead March" until the cemetery was reached. Two members of the 18th Reinforcements, with the aid of two Territorials, acted as pall-bearers. Rev. Webster (Presbyterian minister, Stirling) read the burial service at the graveside, after which Bugler A. Brown, of Stirling, sounded the "Last Post.'' When the coffin had been lowered into the grave the firing party discharged three volleys in honour of the memory of the fallen soldier.  -Clutha Leader, 15/9/1916.