The photograph in the Otago Witness of 21 July 1915 is most likely to be of this John Matheson, as no other New Zealand soldier of that name and from Dunedin wase wounded at that time (even though his military personnel file contains no record of a middle name). John Matheson received a gunshot wound to the leg at Gallipoli in June 1915 and was treated on a hospital ship before being admitted three days later to the Egyptian Army Hospital in Cairo.
When he joined up in 1914 John was working as a labourer in Kurow, Otago. His next of kin was his father, also John, who lived at Waitaki though his address by 1917 was given as Market Street in Dunedin. John spent 4½ years overseas, at Gallipoli and Egypt in 1915, and for three more years on the Western Front. He was wounded only the once, but was in hospital several times for various illnesses. On returning to New Zealand in 1919 he was discharged as unfit for duty on account of varicose veins, and died at Dunedin in 1927 from secondary anaemia, bronchopneumonia and heart failure, aged only 37.
Credit:
Photo from Otago Witness 21 July 1915, via Papers Past