Friends of the Somme - Mid Ulster Branch  
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Date Information
24/10/2021 William enlisted Auckland on 1st March 1917. He named his next of kin as his mother, Catherine, who was still living in Aughnacloy.
24/10/2021 William John Moan was a son of William and Catherine Moan. William J Moan and Catherine McKenna were married on 6th August 1868 in the district of Dungannon.
24/10/2021 William John Moan was born on 16th February 1877 in Aughnacloy, County Tyrone. He was one of a number of children, all born in the Aughnacloy area. It is difficult to ascertain the exact family because, from the late 1870s, there were two Moan/McKenna families in Aughnacloy.
24/10/2021 Possible family: William J Moan, Catherine Moan, James Moan (born 29th June 1869), Patrick Moan (born 14th March 1871), Catherine Moan (born 22nd June 1872, Bridget Moan (born 12th April 1874), Mary Moan (born 24th May 1875), William John Moan (born 16th February 1877), Alice Moan (born 3rd November 1878).
24/10/2021 Prior to enlisting William worked as a gardener at the Ellerslie Convent. Ellerslie is a suburb of Auckland.
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24/10/2021 After training, he embarked from Wellington on 14th July 1917. Private Moan arrived in France in September 1917.
24/10/2021 Private Moan was wounded in February/March 1918 when he received a shrapnel wound in the buttock. On 1st June he returned to his battalion.
24/10/2021 On July 20th he returned to the front. On 27th July he was slightly wounded, but was back at the front later that day.
24/10/2021 Private William John Moan was serving with the 1st Battalion of the Auckland Infantry Regiment, New Zealand Expeditionary Force (N.Z.E.F.) when he was killed in action in France on 1st October 1918.
24/10/2021 Private William John Moan is buried in Anneux British Cemetery, west of Cambrai in France.
24/10/2021 The CWGC record Private William John Moan as the son of W J and Catherine Moan of Aughnacloy, County Tyrone, Ireland.
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24/10/2021 The 1901 census possibly lists William as age 30, a farm servant at house 15 in Mullybrannon, Bernagh, Dungannon.
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30/12/2015 William emigrated to New Zealand.
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