On 18 November 1918, Private John Montgomery died and was buried in the St Paul 's Churchyard at Papanui. Prior to his enlistment, he had lived with his parents in Craddock's Road, Styx and worked as a labourer on a local farm owned by Mr G John. He had been a private in the 1st Battalion of the Canterbury Regiment, arriving in the field at the end of 1917. In February 1918, he was admitted to hospital suffering from goitre. The nature of his condition was sufficiently serious for him to be reclassified as C Class (unfit for active service) and he was sent to Torquay, England from where he was sent home to New Zealand in the Ulimaroa on 1 May 1918. It is likely that he contracted the deadly Spanish flu and was one of Christchurch's many victims of the pandemic. he is buried in St Paul's Churchyard, Papanui (see below).
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