George Thomas Bathgate, known as ‘Danny’ by his grandchildren, was born 26 May 1890, at “Janefield”, West Taieri. He was the youngest of 10 children, with 6 brothers (Alexander, Peter, Charles, John Henry, William David (1884-1967 Dr at Narareth Hospital 1921-?), and James Archibald) and 3 sisters (Jane Eliza, Jessie Brown and Helen Mary)
His parents were John Bathgate (1841-1913) and Ann Grant (1848-1914), both of whom were Otago early settlers, from Scotland. John arrived on the ship ‘Pladda’ and Ann on the ‘Storm Cloud’ – both in 1861. They married in August 1872.
George’s father John Bathgate was a farmer and George also farmed. The original Bathgate farm settlement was sub-divided among 4 of John’s sons and George started a Friesian stud dairy farm named ‘Kinfauns’ on Beehive Road, Outram (later subdivided into two farms, Kinfauns and ‘Kinfalloch’.
George Bathgate joined the Otago Mounted Rifles in World War 1, Gallipoli veteran 9/900 (click picture below to see records). George was injured in Gallipoli by shrapnel to the head and was actually left for dead. He was found to be alive when the fallen were being recovered. After this George had an indented skull and a white streak of hair in the injured area. Later when his hair become white this patch actually went darker again.
- George Thomas Bathgate (2nd from bottom – Click to enlarge)
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