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RHODES, Arthur Ernest Timaru
(Service number 7/109)

Arthur E T Rhodes, 8th NZMR, circa 1915? — (Courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund, Rhodes P20-175 )

Canterbury Mounted Rifles Officers, South Palestine, October 1917 — Arthur Rhodes is pictured standing at the rear right. (Courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund, Rhodes P20-48 )

'Our trenches in front of Gaza', South Palestine, October 1917 — (Courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund, Rhodes P20-53 )

“Near Jerusalem 1918” — The image shows a view of Allied troops east of Jerusalem following the capture of the city. In the distance, on the hill, the outskirts of the city
of Jerusalem (including the a pointed tower) is visible. (Courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund, Rhodes P20-133 )

Wadi Nuweimeh, the Jordan Valley, Palestine, 1918 — Allied troops, presumably New Zealand Mounted Rifles, negotiating their way across the Wadi Nuweimeh, a tributary of the River Jordan.

The image illustrates how time-consuming the difficulties of crossing even a small river can be to organise and achieve. (Courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund, Rhodes P20-164 )

Captain Arthur E T Rhodes, probably taken ca.1919 — (Courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund, Rhodes P20-168 )

Captain A E T Rhodes being presented his Military Cross at Caroline Bay, Timaru, in 1920. — Rhodes was one of the five men presented with their decorations at Caroline Bay, beneath the Piazza (visible in the background), during the New Zealand tour of the Prince of Wales. The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) is pictured on the right hand side of the image facing away from the camera. (Courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund, Rhodes P20-174 )

Aliases	Arthur
First Rank	Sergeant	Last Rank	Captain

Birth

Date	8 April 1892	Place of Birth	Hadlow, Timaru, New Zealand

Enlistment Information

Date		Age
Address at Enlistment	Tycho Delivery, Timaru, New Zealand
Occupation	Farmer
Previous Military Experience	Territorial and Expeditionary Force
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Timaru R Rhodes (brother), Tycho Delivery, Timaru, New Zealand
Religion
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	Main Body
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	Tahiti or Athenic
Date	16 October 1914
Transport
Embarked From	Lyttelton, New Zealand	Destination	Suez, Egypt

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals	1914-15 Star, General Service Medal, Victory Medal, MC, and mentioned in dispatch
Military Awards	Military Cross

Award Circumstances and Date

01/01/1919. In error mention was made he was awarded the White Eagle but that was Captain ATG Rhodes.

Prisoner of War Information

Date of Capture
Where Captured and by Whom
Actions Prior to Capture
PoW Serial Number
PoW Camps
Days Interned
Liberation Date

Discharge

Date		Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	14 October 1922	Age	30
Place of Death	The Cliffs, Timaru, Canterbury, New Zealand
Cause
Notices	Obituary, Timaru Herald, 16 Oct 1922
Memorial or Cemetery	Timaru Cemetery
Memorial Reference	Row 7 Plot 139
New Zealand Memorials	On Memorial wall, Timaru; Gleniti War Memorial (listed as A E T Rhodes, MC)

Biographical Notes

Arthur Rhodes was the son of Ernest Timaru Rhodes and Mildred Julia Rhodes. Brother of Timaru Robert Rhodes, Ethel Mildred O'Cordner, Moana Helen Timaru Innes, and Guy Rhodes.

Promoted to Lieutenant 9 August 1915, and Captain 10 August 1917.

Arthur's granddaughter recalls that her mother donated a number of photographs of his time in Palestine to the Paestine Exploration Fund, London, that (created for the study of the Levant area}. These included photographs of fellow officers of the Canterbury mounted Rifles, camel transport lines and various location shots taken at Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Gethsemane and Jaffa. A transcript of his diary for the time is also held at the Alexander Turnbull Library.

Sources

Cenotaph database (Ocober 2014); BDM Historical Records (bdmhistoricalrecords,dai.govt.nz); Obituary Timaru Herald, 16 October 1922; Digitised Military Personal File at Archives NZ; SCRoll web submissions by L Ivey, 23-25 July 2023; Transcripts of Arthur Rhodes' Diary, kept during his service is held by Alexander Turnbull Library (Reference MS-Papers-9969) - see their catalogue record for "Rhodes, Arthur Ernest Timaru (Captain), 1892-1922 : Diary kept while campaigning in the Sinai" at https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.16360 [Accessed 25 July 2023]; Images belonging to Rhodes of his time in service in Palestine were donated to the Palestine Exploration Fund by his daughter. Their website can be found at https://www.pef.org.uk/ [Accessed 25 July 2023]

External Links

Researched and Written by

George Munro

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.

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