Community Contributed

Percy NATION

Kete Horowhenua2020-03-23T16:54:19+00:00
Date of birth19 August 1881
Date of death24 February 1902
Mothers nameSarah Annie (née Webley)
Spouses nameUnmarried
Mothers place of birthEngland
Mothers date of death1923
Fathers date of birth18 February 1840
Fathers nameWilliam Charles Nation
Fathers place of birthSydney, NSW, Australia
Parents date of marriage12 August 1864
Parents place of marriageNelson, New Zealand
Fathers date of death29 May 1930
Fathers place of deathLevin
SiblingsMary Esther (b 1865), Ellen Elizabeth (Eliza, b 1868), Alice Webley (b 1869), Eva Lucy (b 1879), Bertha Eleanor (b 1872), Charles Cecil (b 1873), Annie Ethel (b 1877), Jessie Wigram (m Jones, d 1922),
Fathers occupationPrinter, Journalist, Newspaper Proprietor, Spiritualist, Tree Planter
Children, , , ,
Cause of deathKilled in action
Buried whereVrede Garden of Remembrance, Transvaal, Sth Africa. 1
Places of relevance, , , ,
Last known residenceLevin, New Zealand
AwardsQueens South African Medal & 4 Claspa, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902
Place of birthWellington
OccupationStorekeeper
Place of deathVrede near Langverwacht, Sth Africa
Date of arrival overseas10 May 1901
Theatres of warSouth Africa
Place of embarkationon SS Gulf of Taranto from Wellington.
SurnameNATION
War memorialShannon
Place enlistedLevin
Christian namesPercy
Place of arrival overseasDurban, South Africa
Overseas memorialLangverwacht, South Africa
SchoolGreytown 1888 - 1893; Shannon 1894 - 1895
WarsBoer War
Service number4637
ReligionWesleyan
Date enlisted3 April 1901
Final rankLance Corporal
Regiment or service7th Contingent 26 Coy
Embarkation date06 April 1901
User reference7.26

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Father a JP in Horowhenua 1910 – 1917.

Parents and sister Jessie Wigram JONES buried Tiro Tiro Rd Cemetery, Levin.

Height: 5’ Chest measurement: 35”

Weight: 9st.4lb.

Percy was youngest of 9 children

William Nation (Percy's father) concern for children as well as his deep love of nature may have prompted his capaign for the introduction of Arbor Day in New Zealand. He had read of the movement in the United States, where a special day was set aside for school children to plant trees, and he wrote to the Greytown Borough Council suggesting that they support a similar scheme. The Council endorsed the idea, but would not fund it. Nation raised the money himself, by staging various entertainments, and was soon able to arrange the planting of 150 trees beside the road south to Featherston. A ceremony took place on 3 July 1890; the day was declared a holiday in Greytown and over 800 Maori and Pakeha gathered to hear speeches and to plant the trees, some of which are still standing Nation's efforts to introduce Arbor Day at a local level were matched by Dunedin conservationist Alexander Bathgate's campaign to have Arbor Day declared a National holiday. This was achieved in 1892.

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