New Zealand Veterinary Corps
Thomas Gordon LILICO
Captain
Died 5 April 1917 · Aged 50
His story
Captain Thomas Gordon Lilico MRCVS was born on 17 April 1866 and qualified in Edinburgh in May 1888. His veterinary career was unusually wide-ranging. He spent time in North America and contemporary accounts associated him with veterinary service during the Spanish-American War and the South African War before he eventually settled in New Zealand.
In New Zealand Lilico built a civilian veterinary career and also served in the military veterinary organisation. He was appointed Captain on 5 February 1904. During the First World War he served with the New Zealand Veterinary Corps, but ill-health brought his active military career to an end and he was discharged in March 1916.
He died at Christchurch on Thursday, 5 April 1917, aged 50. An inquest investigated the circumstances of his death. He was buried in Linwood Cemetery, Christchurch, and does not have a Commonwealth war grave.
Lilico’s career is important because it predates the First World War by decades and shows the international experience already present among New Zealand’s veterinary officers when war began in 1914.
Before the war
- Nationality
- New Zealand
- Date of Birth
- 17 April 1866
- Place of Birth
- Northumberland, England
- Veterinary College and Date of Graduation
- New Edinburgh - May 1888
Military service
- Last Rank
- Captain
- Regiment/Service
- New Zealand Veterinary Corps
Medals and commemoration
- Name on RCVS Honour Board
- Yes
- Name In Officers who died in Great War
- No
Death and burial
- Date of Death
- 5 April 1917
- Age at Death
- 50
- Place of Death
- Christchurch, New Zealand
- Cause of Death
- Alcoholism
- Cemetery
- Lindwood Cemetery
- Location
- Christchurch, New Zealand
- Grave Reference
- Block 35. Plot 308
- Commonwealth War Grave
- No
- Emblem or Badge on Headstone
- Private Grave with no headstone
Sources and further reading
Cite this biography
Graham Hodgkins and Pete Matthews, “Thomas Gordon Lilico”, Veterinary Virtual War Memorial, https://vetsremembered.org/people/thomas_gordon_lillico/.
Contribute information
Can you supply a photograph of Thomas Gordon Lilico, with its source and permission to display it?