Hawthorne, Robert Newton
Lance Corporal
3rd Battalion, Canterbury Regiment, New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Died of wounds on Friday 21 December 1917 (aged 19)
Buried:
Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium (Grave XXVII. C. 8A)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
BIOGRAPHY
When Lance Corporal Robert Newton Hawthorne died of wounds on 21 December 1917 his death was reported in the Newtownards Chronicle under the headline, Granshaw-New Zealander Makes Supreme Sacrifice. Before emigrating to New Zealand his family lived at Granshaw, Bangor.
In the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Debt of Honour Website it is recorded that Robert Newtown Hawthorne was a native of County Down and that he was a son of Samuel and Mary Jane Hawthorne who lived at Kurow, Otago in New Zealand.
Press reports indicate that the Hawthorne family moved from Granshaw, Bangor to New Zealand around 1892 and that Robert was born on 27 January 1898 in Kurow, Otago, New Zealand.
Robert Newton Hawthorne attended Tawai School in the South Island of New Zealand at Glenavy – named after Glenavy in County Antrim, the birthplace of New Zealand Premier John Balance. After leaving school he worked on a farm at Hakataramea and then on the railway until he enlisted in 1915.