Profile

DEANS, Francis Richardson
(Service number 54017)

Aliases
First Rank	Rifleman	Last Rank	Private or Rifleman

Birth

Date	26 January 1897	Place of Birth	Waimate

Enlistment Information

Date	12 February 1917	Age	20 years
Address at Enlistment	Chappel Street, Timaru
Occupation	Labourer (Pareora Freezing Works, Pareora)
Previous Military Experience	2nd South Canterbury Regiment - serving
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Mrs H. R. DEANS (mother), 41 Niblett Street, Wanganui
Religion	Church of England
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	27th Reinforcements, G Company
Date	16 July 1917
Transport	Athenic
Embarked From		Destination	Liverpool, Merseyside, England

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	4 April 1983	Age	86 years
Place of Death	Timaru
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Salisbury Park Crematorium, Timaru; ashes interred Timaru Cemetery
Memorial Reference	General Section, Row 49, Plot 161
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Francis Richardson Deans was the second-born son of John and Rosa Harriet (née Richardson) Deans, and the only one of their three sons to survive infancy. He was born on 26 January 1897 at Waimate and educated at Hannaton and Timaru Main schools. Francis Deans was a labourer at the Pareora Freezing Works and had just turned twenty when he enlisted on 12 February 1917. A single man, residing at Chappel Street, Timaru, he named his mother as next-of-kin – Mrs H. R. Deans, 41 Niblett Street, Wanganui. This was the address to which his oldest sister, Harriet Rosa McKinney, had gone when her husband, William McKinney, enlisted in June 1918.

The South Canterbury quota of the 29th Reinforcements left Timaru on 30 April 1917. There among the men who proceeded to camp was F. R. Richardson. It was the 27th Reinforcements with which Rifleman F. R. Deans embarked. He left for Liverpool, England, on 16 July 1917 per the “Athenic”. Rifleman F. R. Deans, 54017, came home by the “Pakeha” (Returning Draft No. 251) which was due at Wellington about 30 May 1919.

He married Dorothy Jessie Barkley (known as Doris) in 1936. Francis Richardson Deans, of Timaru, was called up for service again in December 1942. He died on 4 April 1983 at Timaru, aged 86 years. He and Doris, who died in 1985, were cremated at Salisbury Park Crematorium. Their ashes were interred in the Deans plot at Timaru Cemetery.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [03 February 2022]; School Admission record (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [08 February 2022]; Timaru Herald, 30 April 1917, 23 December 1942, Evening Post, 15 May 1919 (Papers Past) [08 February 2022]; Timaru Cemetery headstone images (Timaru District Council) [01 February 2022]; Salsibury Park Crematorium record [08 February 2022]

External Links

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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