GEORGE MacINDOE

Private George MacIndoe's connection with Belfast was brief, yet the community felt it necessary to commemorate him as one of their own. He had been born in London, and was for a time a pupil at Belfast School until his family moved to Invercargill, where his father was an analytical chemist. He was one of the few men with a tertiary education. While in the fifth form at Southland Boys' High School, he had won a National University Scholarship and attended Canterbury University College, studying for a degree in electrical engineering. He graduated in 1913, completed his practical work at the Addington Railway Workshops and in June 1914 was appointed demonstrator in electrical engineering at Canterbury University College. From 1914 until he resigned to join the Army in 1916, George MacIndoe was working on experiments on behalf of the Defence Department. He obviously possessed a lively mind, as he carried with him books written in Latin, Greek, French, German and Gaelic to read in spare moments. It is curious why such as promising and well-educated man was posted as a private to a fighting battalion rather than in some more specialist role (or even for officer training). Perhaps this was at his own request. Despite living in Christchurch at the time of his enlistment, he served in the 3rd Battalion of the Otago Infantry Battalion as a signaller. He was killed fighting at Broodseinde and is also commemorated on the New Zealand memorial to the Missing at Tyne Cot near Passchendaele in Belgium.

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