On this day in 1916, Bro John McKinnon of Lodge Tawhiri No. 166 was killed in action during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on the Somme.
He was 40 years old.
John was one of four Brethren of Lodge Tawhiri known to have died while serving during the First World War.
He was born in Buteshire, Scotland, on 23 February 1876, the son of Peter and Janet McKinnon of Torrylinn, Kilmorie, on the Isle of Arran.
Before entering military service in New Zealand, John worked as a farmer.
Freemasons New Zealand's record of members who served during the First World War lists John McKinnon, 25/1788, as a member of Lodge Tawhiri No. 166, Frankton.
John volunteered for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and became a Rifleman in the New Zealand Rifle Brigade.
He left Wellington on 1 April 1916 with the 2nd Reinforcements to the 3rd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade. By the time he went into battle on the Somme, he was serving with the 4th Battalion.
The New Zealand Division had arrived on the Somme only weeks earlier. On 15 September 1916 it entered its first major battle on the Western Front, the Battle of Flers-Courcelette.
That morning, New Zealand troops advanced towards the German positions around Flers, with the New Zealand Rifle Brigade heavily involved in the fighting.
The battle came at a terrible cost.
Among those killed that day was Bro John McKinnon.
John was killed in action while serving with the 4th Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade.
Unlike many of those who died on the Somme, John has a known grave.
He was buried at Bulls Road Cemetery at Flers, not far from the ground over which the New Zealand Division had fought. His grave is recorded as Plot II, Row D, Grave 22.
His death appeared in the casualty lists published in New Zealand later that month. His father, Peter McKinnon of Arran, Buteshire, Scotland, was recorded as his next of kin.
For Lodge Tawhiri, John's death came during a period in which several of its Brethren were serving overseas. Just over two weeks later, Bro John French would also be killed on the Somme, followed in November by Bro William John Pritchard Guiness.
Three years later, as Tawhiri welcomed returned soldiers home, the Lodge arranged for three trees to be planted in Kowhai Memorial Park as a lasting memorial to Brethren who had fallen during the war. The surviving Lodge history does not identify the men represented by those individual trees.
More than a century later, John McKinnon's name remains part of the story of Lodge Tawhiri.
On 15 September, we remember our Brother.
Bro John McKinnon
25/1788
Rifleman, 4th Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade, NZEF
Killed in action, 15 September 1916
Aged 40
Lest we forget.