Profile

NICHOL, James Arthur
(Service number 2/2228)

Sutherlands War Memorial, pictured in 2007 — (South Canterbury Museum 2013/155.20)

Taiko Hall (interior) — Showing the First and Second World War memorial plaques over the fireplace. (Courtesy of Clive Callow )

Taiko Hall World War One plaque — Mounted inside the Taiko Hall, alongside a Second World War plaque. Photographed October 2014. (Courtesy of Clive Callow )

Aliases
First Rank	Gunner	Last Rank	Sergeant

Birth

Date	28/07/1893	Place of Birth	Waimate

Enlistment Information

Date	18 August 1915	Age	22
Address at Enlistment	Care of D Gibson, Sutherlands, New Zealand
Occupation	Ploughman
Previous Military Experience	Territorials
Marital Status	single
Next of Kin	Mrs M Nichol (mother), Clive St, Timaru
Religion	Presbyterian
Medical Information	5ft 8in, 156lbs, blue eyes, light brown hair

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	7th Reinforcements
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	New Zealand Field Artillery
Date	10 September 1915
Transport	Aparima or Navua or Warrimoo
Embarked From	Wellington	Destination	Suez, Egypt

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns	Egyptian and Gallipoli, Western Front
Service Medals	British War Medal, Victory Medal, 1914-1915 Star
Military Awards

Award Circumstances and Date

No information

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	21 May 1919	Reason	Termination of period of engagement

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

8 October 1918 - Gunshot wound left forearm

Post-war Occupations

Ploughman

Death

Date	1 June 1944	Age	51
Place of Death	Timaru
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Sutherlands War Memorial, Timaru Cemetery
Memorial Reference	Row 131, plot 345
New Zealand Memorials	Sutherlands

Biographical Notes

James Arthur Nichol was born in Waimate on 28 July 1893 to Walter and Margaret Nichol.

At the time of his enlistment on 18 August 1915 he was working at a ploughman for D. Gibson of Sutherlands, Cave. He was described as 22 years old, 5ft 8in, 156lbs, with blue eyes, and light brown hair, single, and Presbyterian. He gave his next of kin at his mother Margaret Nichol, by then living at Clive St, Timaru. He was attached to the 7th Reinforcements, NZ Field Artillery as a gunner and embarked at Wellington for Suez and Egypt on 10 September 1915, going on to serve in Egypt and on the Western Front. In March 1918 he was promoted to sergeant at Rouen, France. Later that year he was wounded in action with a gunshot wound to his left forearm on 8 October 1918. He was sent to England for treatment and was there when the Armistice was declared. Nichol returned to New Zealand early in 1919 and was discharged on 21 May 1919. He had served for 3 years, 277 days. His proposed address was C/- Miss Matthews, 9 Rathmore St, Timaru.

After the war James went on to marry Emma Jane Matthews in 1924. James Arthur Nichol died in 1944 and is buried with his wife in Timaru Cemetery.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph database [August 2021]; NZBMD; Assorted records at Ancestry.com [August 2021]

External Links

Researched and Written by

Sahiban Kanwal; Carol Bell, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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

Tell us more

Do you have information that could be added to this story? Or related images that you are happy to share? Submit them here!