OBITUARY.
(From "The Colonist," Dec. 19th.) The death occurred at Denniston yesterday morning of Private Maurice Burdon, fourth son of Mrs Fred Hare, of Ngatitama street, Nelson. Deceased left the Dominion with the 19th Reinforcements being severely wounded at Ypres and was invalided home last May. He contracted influenza and pneumonia while on a visit to his sister with fatal results. Deceased was only 21 years of age and prior to enlisting was mining at Denniston. He has two other brothers serving at the front. Mrs Hare lost her son-in-law about three weeks ago. -Nelson Evening Mail, 18/12/1918.
Maurice Burdon was wounded, with shell fragments in his right thigh, during the Battle of Passchendaele in October, 1917. His Army record describes it as "extensive lacerated wound (causing) uch destruction of gluteal muscles." He underwent four operations between October 1917 and March 1918. The word "sequestrotomy" is used in March, 1918 - it refers to the removal of dead tissue from a wound.
His condition was serious enough for him to be repatriated in 1918 and a Medical Board at Westport on July 17 recorded his ongoing issues as a "suppurating wound." His progress was described as "unsatisfactory." A month before a similar board described "tenderness of wound" and progress as "good."
What a world of pain lies behind those words.
Presumably, at the end of 1918, he felt well enough to to travel from Christchurch hospital to the West Coast and ride an empty coal waggon up the Denniston incline to visit his sister. The Spanish flu which killed him was indiscriminate. His coffin would have, as was the custom, ridden a full waggon down the incline for him to be buried at Denniston's cemetery.
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