Profile

NICOL, William Harold
(Service number 7/97)

Aliases Known as Harold
First Rank Trooper Last Rank Sergeant

Birth

Date 16 May 1886 Place of Birth Naseby

Enlistment Information

Date 13 August 1914 Age 27
Address at Enlistment Waimate
Occupation Clerk for National Mortgage Agency, Waimaate
Previous Military Experience N Battery, Dunedin, completed 2 years' service
Marital Status Single
Next of Kin Robert NICOL (father), Waimate
Religion Presbyterian
Medical Information 5ft 8in, 149lbs, fair complexion, brown eyes, brown hair

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation Main Body
Unit, Squadron, or Ship Canterbury Mounted rifles
Date 16 October 1914
Transport Tahiti or Athenic
Embarked From Wellington Destination Suez, Egypt
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With Canterbury Mounted Rifles

Military Awards

Campaigns Egyptian and Gallipoli
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 20 January 1918 Reason No longer physically fit on account of pre-enlistment disability aggravated by active service

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Storekeeper; Confectioner

Death

Date 10 December 1952 Age 66 years
Place of Death Christchurch
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Ruru Lawn Cemetery, Christchurch
Memorial Reference Services Section, Block 3A, Plot 339
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

William Harold Nicoll, known as Harold, was born at Naseby on 16 May 1886, the fourth son of Robert Nicol and his wife Elizabeth Ereana (nee Andrews). Robert, from Scotland, married Elizabeth in 1878 at Oamaru. Robert established the flour mill (with the giant silos) at Waimate in 1890. Both parents died at Waimate, his mother in 1920 and his father in 1926.

Harold was a clerk for the National Mortgage Agency in Waimate at enlistment, giving his next of kin as his father Robert (by then also living in Waimate). Harold enlisted with the Main Body of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles on 13 August 1914. He was described as 5ft 8in, 149lbs, with fair complexion, brown eyes, and brown hair, single and Presbyterian. He had previous military experience with the territorials. He embarked at Wellington on 16 October 1914, bound for Suez and Egypt. Harold served as a clerk at military headquarters in Egypt, achieving the rank of sergeant in November 1915. He eventually left Cairo in December 1917 with malaria, and was discharged 20 January 1918 as no longer physically fit on account of a "pre-enlistment disability aggravated by active service". He had served 3 years 161 days. His intended address was Frasertown, Wairoa, Hawkes Bay.

William Harold Nicol was still at Frasertown in 1928, listed as a farmer. He married Ethel Jean Johnston in 1931 and by 1935 he was a confectioner in Hokitika. He re-enlisted during the Second World War on 17 June 1942 aged 53, a private No.819011. At that time he was listed as a married man living in Weld St, Hokitika, a confectioner and owner of a cake shop. He was discharged from that engagement on 17 April 1943 after an examination found evidence of TB, his intended address 114 Albany St, Dunedin.

Harold died in Christchurch on 10 December 1952 and is buried at Ruru Lawn Cemetery.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [27 May 2018 & August 2021]; NZBMD; Assorted records at Ancestry.com [August 2021]; Christchurch City Council Cemeteries Database at https://heritage.christchurchcitylibraries.com/Cemeteries/

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Sahiban Kanwal; Carol Bell, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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

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