Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Ernest Vernon Arbuckle was the sixth son of John Carse and Charlotte Ann (née Bastings) Arbuckle. He was born on 29 August 1892 at Lawrence, Otago, and was educated at the local school, leaving at the age of 15 for Wellington. He married Lyla Winifred Eliza Clare on 4 August 1913 at Dunedin. They had three daughters – Dolly born on 25 June 1914 at Dunedin, and twins, Joyce and Madge born on 10 October 1915 at Timaru. Dolly, Joyce and Madge all attended Timaru Main School. Ernest Arbuckle, a labourer, of 80 Ghuznee Street, Wellington, responded to a recruitment drive and, on filling the standard physical requirements, enlisted on 4 December 1915 at Trentham. He named his wife as next-of-kin – Mrs E. Arbuckle, 91 North Street, Timaru. Private E. Arbuckle embarked with the Canterbury Infantry Battalion of the 11th Reinforcements, departing for Suez, Egypt, on 1 April 1916. 6/4586 Private Ernest Arbuckle, Canterbury Infantry Battalion, returned to New Zealand, invalided, by the hospital ship “Maheno” which was due to arrive at Wellington on 14 December 1916 approximately, having departed from England on 28 October 1916. He was discharged on 19 January 1917, being no longer physically fit for war service as a pre-enlistment disability had been aggravated. In May 1921, Ernest Vernon Arbuckle petitioned for divorce on the grounds of desertion. His wife, he alleged, had gone in 1916 to spend a holiday with her mother and had not returned. An order for a decree nisi was made. An outside tally clerk employed by the National Dairy Association, Ernest suffered back injuries when he was accidentally jammed between a moving insulated railway truck and a hydraulic crane on the wharf at Wellington on 29 October 1920. Some months later he sought compensation. In 1922, he married Agnes Atley (formerly Roderigue, widowed in 1917), while Lyla married again in 1923. Agnes died in December 1936 at Wellington. Ernest married for a third time, in 1940 in Sydney, New South Wales, to Rebecca Lesley Irvine. He died in 1966 at Bankstown, New South Wales, and was buried at South Head Cemetery, Sydney. Two brothers of Ernest served in World War One – Frederick William Arbuckle and Eric Alfred Bastings Arbuckle. Two cousins also served – Matthew Milson Arbuckle, who died of wounds in 1918 in France, and Albert Edward Arbuckle. Dolly Arbuckle married in 1940 at St Mary’s Church, Timaru. In March 1942, Joyce Arbuckle joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force at Wigram. She married in 1948. And Madge Arbuckle married in 1942 at Sacred Heart Church, Timaru.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [12 June 2022]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [12 June 2022]; School Admission record (Dunedin Branch NZSG) [12 June 2022]; NZ Times, 2 December 1915, 30 October 1920, Evening Post, 17 & 26 May 1921, 23 December 1936 (Papers Past) [12 June 2022]; NSW Cemetery Headstone Transcripts (ancestry.com.au) [12 June 2022]; NSW Death Index (https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/lifelink/familyhistory/search/result?4) [12 June 2022]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.