Profile

NICHOLLS, William Sidney Valentine
(Service number 91848)

Aliases
First Rank Last Rank

Birth

Date 14/02/1886 Place of Birth Timaru

Enlistment Information

Date Age
Address at Enlistment Ada Street, Hastings
Occupation Carpenter
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status Widower. Two children - adopted niece, illegitimste son
Next of Kin Mrs Elizabeth NICHOLLS (mother), 208 Willowpark Road, Hastings
Religion Church of England
Medical Information Height 5 feet 5 inches. Weight 126 lb. Chest measurement 32-35 inches.

Military Service

Served with NZ Armed Forces Served in Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation
Unit, Squadron, or Ship
Date
Transport
Embarked From Destination
Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals
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 Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date 29 July 1927 Age 51 years
Place of Death Napier
Cause Acute toxaemia caused byspreading gangrene
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery Hastings Cemetery
Memorial Reference Block M, Plot 72
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

William Valentine Sidney Nicholls was born on 14 February 1886 at Timaru, the youngest son of Henry Charles and Elizabeth Anne (née Gillard) Nicholls. He started his education at Washdyke School, transferring to Edendale School in 1898 when the family moved south. In 1883 his sisters Jane (Elizabeth Jane), Adeline and Etty were at Washdyke School, as was his brother Nicholas, while Henry and Thomas started there in 1886, Emma in 1888, and Mary in 1889. Three, maybe four, of his brothers are buried at Timaru – Albert in 1885, Thomas in 1907, and Tararua in 1910, and perhaps Nicholas in 1911. William Sidney Valentine Nicholls enlisted on 28 May 1918 at Hastings. He was then a carpenter, residing at Hastings. His father had died in 1909 at Hastings and his mother was named as William’s next-of-kin. His personnel file records that he married Theodosia Matison (?) on 4 April 1911 at Iquique, Chile, South America, the ceremony performed by the Rev Father Oscar Nicholls, and that Theodosia was deceased by 1918. William’s status was ‘widower, with two children – Kathleen (adopted niece), born on 23 January 1900 at Galatea, New Zealand, and Victor Paul (Jones), illegitimate, born on 22 September 1917 at Hastings. . After the war William remained at Hastings, working as a carpenter. His brother, Henry Charles Nicholls, was listed at Napier in 1917 on the Reserve Roll. It appears that William had a wife in 1928. William Sydney Valentine Nicholls died on 29 July 1937, aged 51 years. His plot in Hastings cemetery was purchased by Doris Nicholls. His nephews, Gordon Hoskin and Artileur Hoskin, and Harold Parkes, served with the New Zealand Forces in World War One, while Tararua Augustus Wesley Lawson Nicholls, served with the Royal Flying Corps, and Thomas Franklin Parkes served with the Royal Machine Gun Corps. .

Sources

NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [21 November 2020]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [25 & 28 November 2020]; School Admission records [22 November 2020]; Hastings Cemetery burial records (Hastings District Council) [22 November 2020]; extracts from Personnel File (Archives NZ) [21 November 2020]

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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