1. William Sinclair-Burgess became a professional soldier in the New Zealand Military Forces in 1911.
20 Facts About William Sinclair-Burgess
1. 2.
William Sinclair-Burgess served in the Gallipoli campaign and on the Western Front in a series of artillery commands.
3.
William Sinclair-Burgess died in 1964 at the age of 84.
4.
William Sinclair-Burgess's parents divorced when he was a child, and when his mother remarried, he took on his stepfather's surname, Burgess.
5.
William Sinclair-Burgess's stepfather, George Burgess, was a minister of a Congregational church and immigrated to New Zealand with his family in the 1890s.
6.
William Sinclair-Burgess initially served with the South Canterbury Mounted Rifles in Timaru and then in 1902 was transferred the New Zealand Regiment of Field Artillery Volunteers, based in Auckland.
7.
William Sinclair-Burgess was commissioned in 1906, and was promoted to captain three years later.
8.
William Sinclair-Burgess's injuries required hospital treatment but he returned to the front on 17 May Eventually poor health led to his evacuation from Gallipoli in October 1915.
9.
William Sinclair-Burgess served in this capacity for the remainder of the war, by the end of which he had been mentioned in despatches six times.
10.
William Sinclair-Burgess received a number of honours, including being made a Companion of the Order of the Bath and a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George.
11.
William Sinclair-Burgess received the Distinguished Service Medal from the government of the United States, having been attached to the 27th Division for a time.
12.
William Sinclair-Burgess was discharged from the AIF on 18 July 1919.
13.
William Sinclair-Burgess was an artillery officer at the Wellington Military District headquarters, in Palmerston North.
14.
William Sinclair-Burgess married in 1921, which was when he first adopted the additional surname Sinclair, his biological father's name.
15.
William Sinclair-Burgess was an advocate for the mechanisation of the New Zealand Military Forces.
16.
William Sinclair-Burgess was made a Knight Bachelor in the 1934 New Year Honours, and a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1935 King's Birthday Honours, the same year his term as Commandant of the New Zealand Military Forces was extended for two years.
17.
William Sinclair-Burgess retired from the military in 1937, having served six years as Commandant of the New Zealand Military Forces.
18.
William Sinclair-Burgess died at Eastborne, Wellington, on 3 April 1964.
19.
William Sinclair-Burgess's marriage had ended in divorce several years earlier, and he had no children.
20.
William Sinclair-Burgess is buried in the servicemen's section of Wellington's Karori Cemetery.