NICHOLLS, William Sidney Valentine
(Service number 91848)
| Aliases |
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| First Rank |
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Last Rank |
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Birth
| Date |
14/02/1886 |
Place of Birth |
Timaru |
Enlistment Information
| Date |
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Age |
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| Address at Enlistment |
Ada Street, Hastings |
| Occupation |
Carpenter |
| Previous Military Experience |
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| 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 |
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Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation |
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| Unit, Squadron, or Ship |
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| Date |
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| Transport |
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| Embarked From |
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Destination |
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| Other Units Served With |
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| Last Unit Served With |
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Military Awards
| Campaigns |
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| Service Medals |
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| Military Awards |
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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 |
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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
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Researched and Written by
Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG
Currently Assigned to
Not assigned.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.
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