THOMAS MOORFOOT ~ One good turn deserves another.

29282 ~ THOMAS MOORFOOT 

The return of a medal by MRNZ in May to a North Shore descendant of Pte. Alexander Westwood CRAIG had an unexpected and happy consequence.  After successfully researching the ancestors of her husband’s family, Barry C’s wife Julie took a look at our ‘Lost Trails’ website page and decided to see if she could do a little sleuthing to try and make any connections.  As a result Julie posted the following message to an Ancestry family tree member:  

Hi Jeremy, I noticed on your tree that you have Thomas Moorfoot WW1 killed in action, wife Ann-Marie Frances Blackett m 1913 in NZ. The reason I am emailing you is that we have just been reunited with a great uncle’s WW1 medal from Medals Reunited NZ, and on their list of medals that they are trying to find relatives for is a medal for Thomas Moorfoot, Pte, 29282. If you are interested or know of any family related to T. Moorfoot, you can get his medals (they don’t charge). The website is medalsreunitednz.co.nz and their email address is [email protected]  My name is Julie C**** if you want to get in touch with me please email me on *******

29282  Private Thomas MOORFOOT was a Yorkshireman who had immigrated to New Zealand, and later married Ann-Marie Frances BLACKETT in 1913.  At the outbreak of WW1, Pte. Moorfoot, a Labourer had volunteered for service and subsequently enlisted into the Canterbury Infantry Battalion.  He was living with his wife Ann-Marie in High Street, Rangiora, later moving to the High Street in East Oxford.  After his basic training at the Featherston and Trentham Camps, Pte. Moorfoot embarked for war service on the Western Front, at Lyttelton with the 18^th Reinforcements of the 1st Canterbury Infantry Battalion in October 1916.  The British War Medal and Victory Medal of Pte. Thomas Moorfoot were offered to MRNZ from a deceased estate if we would undertake to try and have them returned to the soldier’s family. 

In August 1917 whilst in France, Pte. Moorfoot sustained a severe gun-shot wound to the thigh from which he recovered and subsequently returned to the field.  On 11 November 1918, approximately 10 weeks prior to the Armistice being declared, Pte. Moorfoot was shot and Killed In Action during the Battle of Bapaume in France.  He is buried in the Grevillers British Cemetery, France – Pte. Moorfoot was 40 years of age. 

Within hours of Julie C’s post on Ancestry I received an email from Jeremy McC. of Christchurch along with some documentary evidence of his connection to Pte. Thomas Moorfoot.  A few Electoral Roll and archival checks of my own together with Jeremy’s documents soon validated his claim to the medals to my satisfaction.  Jeremy’s grandmother, Evelyn Victoria McCANN (nee Moorfoot) had been the second eldest daughter of Thomas and Ann-Marie Moorfoot’s three daughters – May, Evelyn and Rita – thereby making Jeremy the maternal great-grandson of Thomas Moorfoot. 

I telephoned Jeremy the next day and arranged to meet him at his place of work whereupon he produced the original documents for me to view as proof of his family lineage and links to Pte. Moorfoot.  Jeremy is now the proud custodian of his maternal great-grandfather’s war medals which he says will be mounted and displayed alongside the WW2 medals of his maternal grandfather, 10404 Pte. Fred Jones 2NZEF.  Case #31 is now successfully closed.