item details
NameCertificate of Date of Death
ProductionRegistrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages (N.Z.); creating agency; 3 February 1920; New Zealand
ClassificationVisual and Verbal Communication, official documents
Materialspaper, ink
DimensionsOverall: 187mm (width), 103mm (height)
Registration NumberGH022245
Credit lineGift of Cathryn Riley, 2012
Overview
This death certificate for Gwendoline Morrison is part of a collection of official and personal papers which document the military service of her brother Leonard Morrison with the First New Zealand Expeditionary Force. The siblings were keen correspondents during the First World War (1914-19).
Gwen died in January 1920 from influenza when she was 20 years old - not long after Leonard returned to New Zealand after the war. Her death came only a year after the terrible influenza pandemic that struck New Zealand between October and December 1918, killing thousands. New Zealand lost about half as many people to influenza as it had in the whole of the First World War.