George James Dennistoun

George James Dennistoun

born 25 December 1847 Glasgow, Scotland

son of James Robert Dennistoun[merchant agent and broker in Glasgow]
and Barbara Wilson Macredie
Vice-Admiral Robert Peel Dennistoun (c.  1837 to 18 January 1915) was a brother

arrived Wellington, New Zealand 26 March 1868 on the New Zealand and Australian Royal Mail Co's s.s. Mataura

died 4 May 1921 Torquay, Devon, England

George James Dennistoun was one of the early settlers in the Mackenzie Country, acquiring Haldon Station about 1868. About September 1878 he, together with Messrs G. C. Russell, H. J. Le Cren. and Cuningham Smith, acquired Peel Forest, ultimately becoming the sole owner of the property, and Mr and Mrs Dennistoun lived there until they went to England in 1914.

Obituary.
Mr G. J. Dennistoun.
News of the death at Torquay, Devon. of Mr George James Dennistoun, of Peel Forest, will be received with general regret in Canterbury, and particularly in the district where he so long resided.

The late Mr Dennistoun, who was 73 years of age, married the youngest daughter of the late Colonel A. H. Russell, 68th Regiment, father of Sir A. H. Russell, who commanded the New Zealand Division in France.

The loss of his elder son, James, during the war, was a severe blow to the late Mr Dennistoun. Mr James Dennistoun, who made a voyage to the Antarctic in the Terra Nova, was given a commission in the Royal Irish Horse early in the war, but later transferred to the Royal Air Force. He was severely wounded in an air fight, and subsequently died a prisoner of war in Germany.

Mr Dennistoun's second Bon, Commander George Hamilton Dennistoun, R.N. was for several years first lieutenant of ships Pioneer and Pyramus, and was serving in H.M.S. Psyche at the occupation of Samoa. He married in 1914 the second daughter of the late Mr F. H. Pyne, of Christchurch. Commander Dennistoun was a naval transport officer with the Main Body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, and * subsequently served from 1915 till the armistice as Senior Naval Officer on Lake Nyasa in Central Africa. He was awarded the D.S.O. for his gallant attack in a motor, boat on a well-armed German gunboat on Lake Nyasa.
Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17141, 10 May 1921