Edmund Mahoney died on 9 October 1918 of wounds received fighting in France. He was aged 28. He is buried at Beaulencourt British Cemetery, Ligny-Thilloy, France.Edmund
Edmund was born on 3 June 1888 in Auckland. His parents were Mary and William Mahoney. He attended Marist Brothers' School and Sacred Heart College. He studied law at Auckland University College and gained his LLB in 1911. He was academically gifted, being awarded the Auckland University College Professorial Board premium for jurisprudence and constitutional history in November 1907. He was the first pupil of Sacred Heart College to gain a degree at Auckland University. A keen rugby player, he was a committee member of the Sacred Heart College Old Boys' Football Club, and later a member of the Marist Brothers Old Boys' Football Club. Mahoney remained single throughout his life.
Mahoney was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court by Justice Cooper on 16 March 1911. He practised on his own account in Auckland and appeared regularly in the Magistrate's Court and at times in the Supreme Court. He appeared in divorce proceedings and was involved in a widely reported case in the Supreme Court in March 1916 when the petitioner for divorce obtained a decree nisi but changed lawyers in favour of Mahoney. The former solicitor, JR Lundon, claimed the right to be heard when the motion to make the decree absolute came before Justice Stringer. Lundon declared the change of counsel was an "improper attempt" to deprive him of the costs paid by him, claiming none had been paid by his petitioner. Mahoney said he had been instructed that the petitioner had paid, but this was denied by Lundon ("That is not corrrect, and cannot be correct"). Justice Stringer decided that Lundon had no locus standi.
In July 1917 his name was drawn in the Ninth Ballot for Military Service. He was posted to the 27th Reinforcements, G Company with the rank of Rifleman for training at Trentham. His army medical examination report shows he was 6 foot tall (1.83 metres), weighed 13 stone (82.6 kg) and had dark brown eyes and black hair.
Mahoney's unit embarked from Wellington on 16 July 1917. He was ill on the voyage to England, being admitted to the ship's hospital twice before arrival at Liverpool on 16 September. He proceeded to Tidworth and was transfered to the 5th Battalion at Brocton on 16 January 1918. He embarked for France on 11 September 1918, being posted to B Company of the First Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade at Etaples on 19 September. Mahoney was wounded during fighting on 8 October, the casualty report saying he received multiple gunshot wounds in his upper extremity and abdomen. He was admitted to a casualty clearing station but died of his wounds on 9 October 1918.
Mahoney is remembered in Sacred Heart College's War Memorial Chapel and his name is on the Auckland District Law Society memorial plaque.
Sources: Auckland Star, 13 December 1905, page 7; Auckland Star, 1 November 1906, page 5; New Zealand Herald, 27 April 1907, page 5; New Zealand Herald, 19 November 1907, page 6; New Zealand Herald, 28 October 1910, page 8; New Zealand Herald, 17 March 1911, page 4; New Zealand Herald, 9 November 1911, page 5; New Zealand Herald, 11 April 1913, page 9; New Zealand Herald, 20 March 1914, page 5; New Zealand Herald, 24 March 1916, page 4; Poverty Bay Herald, 29 March 1916, page 6; New Zealand Herald, 4 July 1917, page 9; New Zealand Herald, 21 October 1918, page 7.
Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph soldier profile.
This obituary has been prepared by the New Zealand Law Society to preserve the memory of members of the legal profession who died while serving in World War I.
By Geoff Adlam, New Zealand Law Society. Further information is welcomed: geoff.adlam@lawsociety.org.nz.