On 16 September 1916, Private John Joseph Riordan was killed in action. He had been born on 5 August 1890 at Racecourse Hill in central Canterbury. Prior to the war he had worked for Derrett's produce business on Main North Road as a driver and lived in St James Avenue in Papanui. One of the earliest to volunteer, John Riordan had signed up on 7 August 1914 and was posted to the Canterbury Battalion. He survived at Gallipoli until being invalided out from there with ear problems and dysentery in August 1915. After recovering from these problems in hospital in England, he rejoined his unit in January 1916 and sailed with them to France. He survived his introduction to trench warfare near Armentieres before becoming one of the many New Zealand fatalities in the battles of Flers-Courcellette. He is commemorated on New Zealand Memorial to the Missing at Caterpillar Valley on the Somme.
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