Profile

DEVERELL, Arthur Lindsay
(Service number 57491)

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank	Private

Birth

Date	27 November 1886	Place of Birth	Invercargill

Enlistment Information

Date	19 May 1917	Age	30 years
Address at Enlistment	C/o Mrs Marshall, Peel Forest, Rangitata
Occupation	Kinematograph operator
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Walter DEVERELL (father), 209 Liddel Street, Invercargill
Religion	Presbyterian
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	29th Reinforcements, Canterbury Infantry Regiment, C Company
Date	15 August 1917
Transport	Ruahine
Embarked From		Destination

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	Canterbury Infantry Regiment

Military Awards

Campaigns	Western European
Service Medals	British War Medal; Victory Medal
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	16 June 1919	Reason	On the termination of his period of engagement.

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Farmer

Death

Date	4 April 1966	Age	79 years
Place of Death	Christchurch
Cause
Notices	Press, 5 & 6 April 1966
Memorial or Cemetery	Oxford Cemetery, Canterbury
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Arthur Lindsay Deverell was born at Invercargill on 27 November 1886, the youngest son of Walter and Charlotte Walker (née Cooper) Deverell, who had married in 1877 at Invercargill. He was educated at Invercargill South School, as were his siblings, and Forest Hill School, Southland. Arthur was a farm hand at Geraldine when he was called up in 1917. Enlisting on 19 May 1917 at Timaru, he named his father as next-of-kin – Walter Deverell, 209 Liddel Street, Invercargill. A kinematograph operator for Mrs Marshall, Peel Forest, he gave his address as care of Mrs Marshall, Peel Forest, Rangitata. He was then single and Presbyterian.

Arthur L. Deverell and seventeen comrades from the Geraldine and Temuka districts, who were going into camp to join the 31st Reinforcements, were entertained on 25 June 1917 at a farewell luncheon provided by the ladies of the Temuka Patriotic Entertainment Committee. After several addresses and roll call, the men were marched to the railway station. To the strains of the Brass Band and cheers, they left for camp. Private A. L. Deverell embarked with the Canterbury Infantry Regiment of the 29th Reinforcements, on 15 August 1917 per the “Ruahine”.

When Arthur Deverell returned to New Zealand, his intended address was Peel Forest Roadside, Rangitata. In 1921 he married Mrs Marshall – Alexandrina Florence Marshall, née McCallum, who had been widowed in 1916 and left with five young children. Arthur and Alexandrina had two daughters Alexandrina died in 1939 and was buried at Temuka with her first husband. In 1941 Arthur married Prudence Ada Wright. Arthur Lindsay Deverell died on 4 April 1966 at Christchurch, aged 79 years, and was buried at Oxford Cemetery, Canterbury, after a service at the Oxford Presbyterian Church, Prudence buried with him in 1975. Both a services plaque and a headstone mark his cemetery plot.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [03 January 2025]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of internal Affairs) [02 January 2025]; Oxford Cemetery headstone transcription & headstone image [02 January 2025]; Temuka Leader, 26 June 1917, Press, 5 & 6 April 1966 (Papers Past) [02 & 03 January 2025]

External Links

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

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