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Adolph Goldfinch, service number 45853
This studio portrait shows Private Adolph Goldfinch with his wife Ann (nee Annie Moore) and four children.
Adolph declared that he was 43 years old when he attested for military service at Taumaranui on 5 January 1917. This was not true - he had in fact been born on 21 October 1859, at Wellington. The doctor who performed his medical examination must have been a little sceptical, as he noted that while Adolph stated his age as 43, he had grey hair. However, Adolph was accepted, and trained with 'B' Company of the 24th Reinforcements and embarked from Wellington for England on 5 April 1917. He was first based at the Sling training camp, then Lark Hill and returned to Sling in April 1918. According to family stories, Adolph had a theatrical bent, and the Army found useful employment for him as an entertainer in the training camps. In July he was found unfit for service and went to the convalescent depot at Torquay. He finally left England on the return voyage to New Zealand on 7 November 1918.
Adolph was discharged from the NZEF on 15 January 1919 as 'no longer fit for War Service', due to being overage and his rheumatism.
Adolph was married three times, although his second marriage does not appear to have been officially registered.
His first marriage was to Mary Edith Robinson in 1878 and they had ten children. His second wife was Mary Tremain Day and they had four children. It appears that these are the children in this photo but the woman is probably Mrs Ann Goldfinch who Adolph had married in Taumaaranui on 15 January 1917. Adolph Goldfinch's name appears frequently in the court pages in ‘Papers Past’ for failure to send children to school. Between 1906 and 1908 he was sentenced three times to one month's imprisonment with hard labour for disobeying maintenance orders.
Adolph died at Hamilton on 3 June 1927, the cause of death being given as embolism of the heart. .