Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Victor Fanning Kett was born on 17 May 1887 at Timaru, the youngest son of Joseph Daniel and Bridget Annie (Annie, née Fanning). He was baptized Victor Patrick Kett at the Roman Catholic Church, Timaru on 8 July 1887. Joseph (senior) and Bridget married in 1870 in Victoria, Australia. There, a son and a daughter were born, before Joseph and Mrs Kett came to New Zealand from Melbourne with their three-year old son Rodger and two-year old daughter Mary, arriving at Port Chalmers on 15 July 1874. In New Zealand four sons and three daughters were born between 1875 and 1887 – at Palmerston, Oamaru and Tapanui. The eldest son Roger was admitted to Oamaru South School in October 1879 after two years at a private school. A greyhound pup (47 days old), the property of Joseph D. Kett, was stolen on the night of 15 August 1880 from the yard of the Royal Hotel, Oamaru. Joseph D. Kett had purchased the Royal Hotel in mid-1879. As of February 1882, Mr J. D. Kett was at Tapanui, and of November 1883 at Timaru. No birth registrations have been found for the three youngest children, all said to have been born at Timaru – Joseph Grosvenor, Eileen Bridget and Victor Fanning. A newspaper notice tells that their daughter (Eileen) was born on 7 January 1886. Mr J. D. Kett was certainly in the Timaru district in the early 1880s. Mr J. D. Kett took possession of the Grosvenor Hotel in early 1883. “Mr Kett is the right man in the right place, and his success in his new venture should be as assured . . . . Mr Kett is well known in Otago, having conducted first-class hotels in Oamaru, Palmerston, and Tapanui, and he always had the name of being an excellent host.” He was lately host of the principal Hotel in Tapanui, Southland, and previously of the Royal Hotel, Oamaru, of which he was licensee for a couple of years, and where he made the acquaintance of a large number of South Canterbury people. “Mr and Mrs Kett, with their long experience, are well able to sustain the character of the hotel. Mr Kett, we may mention, is a brother of Mr R. Kett, of the Criterion Hotel, Waimate.” Mr Kett was soon associated with the Jockey Club, the Port of Timaru and the South Canterbury Caledonian Society. Both J. D. Kett and R. Kett were summoned for keeping their billiard rooms open after hours. From the mid-1880s Mr J. D. Kett was involved in local Catholic church and school affairs. He himself, was also a regular cricket player, and with success. In October 1886, Joseph Daniel Kett, of Timaru, hotelkeeper, was bankrupt. He also acquired the licence for the Clarendon Hotel. Roger Kett went to St Patrick’s College, Wellington, where he sang in concerts in October and December 1885, and also received prizes for Christian Doctrine, geography, writing, vocal music and cornet. He was mentioned for playing well in a college football match in May 1886. His father had subscribed to the college in November 1883.

“Mr. J. D. Kett, the popular host of the Clarendon Hotel, has gone to Victoria, his native colony, where he is likely to remain.” [NZ Tablet, 20 April 1888.] Surely, his wife and all his young family went with him. Joseph Daniel Kett died in hospital at Melbourne in February 1905; Bridget Annie Kett died in 1911. Some of the family did, however, return to New Zealand. The eldest daughter, Mary Josephine Kett who was born at Geelong in 1873 and had attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart at Timaru from 1883 till 1888 as both a day pupil and a boarder, married James Patrick Leo Delany (De Lany) in Victoria, Australia in 1905. Mary and James settled in Southland and had three daughters. When Mary died in February 1925, a motion of condolence was passed by the Invercargill Swimming Club to the De Lany and Kett families. Constance Wilhelmina Kett also attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart (day school) from February 1887 till February 1888. Joseph Grosvenor Kett and Victor Fanning Kett, the subjects of these records, also returned to New Zealand.

What is known of Victor’s life was marked by frequent and significant encounters with the law. Thames. — l6th July last, on two warrants of commitment to Auckland Prison for seven days each in default of paying £1 10s. fine and costs for a breach of his prohibition order and £1 fine and costs for giving a false name and address, Victor Kett, age twenty-eight, height about 5ft. 11 in., bushman and labourer, native of New Zealand, strong build, fresh complexion, light-brown hair, grey eyes; smart appearance. [NZ Police Gazette, 21 October 1914.] He enlisted as Victor Fanning Fraser on 13 October 1914 at Wellington. He was then a driver for Walsh Quarries, Te Kuiti, his address being Albert Hotel, Wellington. A single man, he named his sister as next-of-kin – Mrs L. Dines, 7 Hopkins Street, Richmond, Melbourne, Australia. Victor’s sister Constance Wilhelmina Kett married Leonard Dines in 1900 in Victoria. Gunner V. F. Fraser embarked with the Main Body, New Zealand Field Artillery, departing on 16 October 1914 and disembarking in Egypt on 3 December. He was medically examined at sea on 19 October. Examined at Zeitoun Camp on 6 December 1914, he was suffering from debility after acute alcoholism. He was discharged – for misconduct - on 22 January 1915, probably in Egypt.

At the Wellington Magistrate’s Court in June 1915, Victor Fanning Fraser was charged with two counts of assault and fined 20 shillings. In July 1915, “Victor Fanning Fraser was charged with assaulting Timothy Sullivan and robbing him of four sovereigns, 15s in silver, a knife, soldier’s pass, and return railway ticket from Wellington to Trentham, the total value of the articles stolen being £5 2s 6d. On the application of Chief Detective Boddam, the accused was remanded till the 28th instant.” “A well set up young man”, pleading guilty on 28 July, he was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Fraser, an Egyptian “reject”, was convicted and sentenced to three years’ reformative treatment at Invercargill.

Victor Fanning Fraser, a labourer at Foxton, was called up for service at the beginning of October 1917. He had previously volunteered. When the ferry steamer “Maori” arrived at Lyttelton on 16 October 1917, “a passenger named Victor Fanning Fraser was arrested on a charge of stealing a quantity of jewellery. According to the story told by some of the other passengers, he was pursued at an early hour by a young woman, who gave an alarm, with the result, that several other passengers and members of the crew joined in the pursuit. The man attempted to hide in the engine-room, but was promptly ordered out by the chief engineer He afterwards tried to get into the ship’s tunnel, but was prevented from doing so, and was again ordered on deck. He offered a desperate resistance, but force of numbers eventually prevailed, though he was only captured about four o'clock, through the efforts of over a dozen men. His hands were handcuffed behind his back, and he was placed in a lavatory, where he did considerable damage, smashing everything breakable. When the. steamer sighted the Godley Heads signalling station, a message was sent, asking for two constables to await the vessel’s arrival. On the vessel reaching the harbour the anchor was dropped and the police went on board, collecting evidence and arresting the man, who presented a wretched appearance, his face being severely cut, while one of his eyes had been blackened.” Charged with stealing a gold bangle, a sold charm and chain, and a gold brooch, valued at £9, he was remanded. After looking up some police records and photographs, Detective Quartermain had identified him as “Victor Fanning Fraser. He is a man of about 5ft 10in in height, strongly built, and apparently between 27 and 30 years of age.” Sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for the thefts, he was further remanded. On 23 October his defence said accused was a returned soldier, who had suffered sunstroke abroad, had got into trouble with the law on his return, had been sentenced to three years’ reformative treatment, and released on license. He could only suggest that accused’s mental condition was not normal, and that he was not entirely responsible for his actions. He asked the Magistrate to return accused to Wellington to complete ten months of his original sentence. Fraser was, however, convicted and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, cumulative upon the previous sentence of three months, in addition to a period of reformative treatment that had not been served.

He was a labourer, employed by Wright Stephenson, Invercargill, his home being Invercargill, Southland, 158 Liddle Street, Invercargill being his address for contact, when he enlisted on 3 September 1918. Perhaps it was Victor’s sister Mary De Lany and her family that brought Victor to Invercargill. He had, he recorded, served with the 1st Battery, N.Z. R.F.A. of the Expeditionary Force and had been discharged medically unfit. He stated that he had been medically examined for in Egypt in 1915 and found unfit. There was a discrepancy in his given age at the two medical examinations.

Victor Fanning Kett married Mary Teresa Pobar on 22 May 1919, possibly at Dunedin. The arrest of Victor Fanning Fraser alias Kett, who was charged with indecent assault in the Dunedin City Police Court in mid-July 1919, and who was then in custody while the police were making investigations that may result in further charges, was the result of smart work by Constables Kelly and M’Culloch, aided by a stroke of good fortune in meeting a man who was able to give them useful information. On the evening before, the two constables, who were at the Central Police Station, were informed that a man had been seen taking away a little girl from the vicinity of the railway station, about 4.30 p.m. In the Police Court a week later, Victor Fanning Fraser Kett, charged with indecently assaulting two six-year-old girls, was committed for trial on one charge. The other information was dismissed on account of insufficient corroboration. Supreme Court at Dunedin, August 1919 – “Victor Kett, who had been convicted of indecent assault on a little girl came up for sentence. In this case the jury recommended flogging, but the Judge decided against such a course. The girl had not suffered any physical injury, though the case was a bad one. The maximum penalty of seven years hard labour was inflicted.” The address of Pte V. F. Fraser, 2/832, was Roslyn, Dunedin, when he was advised on 27 April 1920 that his 1914-1915 Star was available for issue. Then, on 15 July 1920 it was recorded that he was ineligible for Service Medals on account of misconduct.

The Gisborne Times of 15 January 1926 reported thus - The story of a ticket-of-leave man, whose term of probationary license expires to-morrow, and who for the past eight or nine months has lived under an assumed name in this district and neglected to report to the Probation Officer, was related to the Magistrate in the Gisborne Police Court yesterday, when Victor Fanning Fraser Kett, alias McDonald, alias McCarthy, stood in the dock charged with failing to observe the conditions of his license. The accused who pleaded guilty to the offence, had been released' by the Prisons Board from the Dunedin gaol on probationary license on November 7, 1924, conditionally that he reported to the probation officer once monthly. He arrived in the Gisborne district eight or nine months ago and, passing under an assumed name, he had not reported either to the Prisons Board or to the Probation Officer. It was stated that since his release from gaol on probationary license in November, 1924, the accused had been working hard in an endeavour to reinstate himself in the community and during the whole of last year had reported regularly to the Probation Officers in various parts. On coming to this district, however, he assumed another name in the hope that he would not be known as a man with the brand of prison upon him. The accused had been accustomed to reporting regularly, but since coming to this district had allowed his obligations to slide. Counsel submitted that the offence was not a serious one, and in view of the fact that the accused had been working hard endeavouring to rehabilitate himself and had become a good citizen, he suggested that the penalty should be as light as possible. The Magistrate: You have apparently been trying to run straight. I intend giving you an opportunity of continuing that course, but you heard what the detective said about your associating with convicted thieves; you want to keep clear of these characters. Kett was convicted and fined £2. Victor Kett, labourer, and Mary Kett, married, were at a South Dunedin address in 1926.

Victor Fanning Fraser Kett, alias J. Manning, alias McCarthy, was charged with, on 1 February 1926 at Napier, stealing a brief bag, a kit, six handkerchiefs, two shirts and two pairs of socks, to a total value of £5 12s 6d.; and on 1 February at Waipukurau. stealing a shaving companion and a handkerchief sachet, to a total value of £6. Accused who had been arrested at Waipukurau and given the name of Manning, pleaded guilty to both charges. He had a bad record. Concurrent sentences of 12 months’ hard labour on each charge were imposed. On 15 February 1928 at the Wellington Magistrate’s Court, Victor Fanning Fraser Kett, alias McCarthy, alias Fraser, alias John McDonald, age 40, was fined £2, in default seven days’ imprisonment, for casting offensive matter. He was also convicted and discharged tor drunkenness. Back in court, a remand until 21 March 1928 was granted in the case of Jack Mack Donald, alias Victor Fanning Fraser, alias Kett, alias McCarthy, alias John McDonald, aged 40, who was charged with breaking and entering by night the shop of C. H. Oxley and Co., situated at 18 Adelaide Road, with the intent to commit a crime therein. The accused pleaded not guilty. Because there was a considerable amount of suspicion about the case, the charge was dismissed. Victor Fanning Fraser Kett – a middle-aged married man - was charged with, on 10 October 1928, at Dunedin, breaking and entering a dwelling house with intent to commit a crime therein. Kett was remanded, but because he was caught red-handed, bail was refused. One of the prisoners sentenced at the Dunedin Supreme Court on 8 November 1928 was “Victor Fanning Fraser Kett, breaking and entering, three years’ hard labour.” In sentencing accused to three years’ hard labour, the Judge remarked upon the prisoner’s previous record, which dated back to 1914 and included crimes of assault and robbery. In various parts of the Dominion.

Found sleeping in a drunken condition in an empty house in Wellington in September 1931, Victor Fanning Fraser Kett, alias M’Carthy, alias McDonald, aged 43, was sentenced to fourteen days’ imprisonment on a charge of being unlawfully on the premises. Stated to have a long list of convictions for crimes, including assault and robbery, Victor Fanning Fraser Kett was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment by the Magistrate on 20 May 1932 for receiving from Arthur L. Dalley a fur-valued at £2, knowing it to have been dishonestly obtained. Sub-Inspector Ward said that on 3rd May Dalley, who was working for a furrier in the city, committed the theft of a fur. He was unable to dispose of it himself, and the following day he gave it to the accused and asked him to sell it. The accused carried the fur about the city for some days and when interviewed by detectives he said he had seen a price tag on the fur and concluded that it must have been stolen. The accused, who had a “list” dating from 1915, and Dalley had both been in prison before, and it was probable that they had become acquainted there. On 3 November 1933, in the Wellington Court, a sentence of three months’ imprisonment was imposed upon Victor Fanning Frasei Kett, aged 45, a labourer, for disorderly behaviour while drunk. Apprehensions, Persons Found, Etc. - Dunedin. Victor Fanning Fraser Kett, alias Victor Fanning Fraser, convicted of indecent assault, is now deceased. (See Police Gazette, 1924, page 655.) [NZ Police Gazette, 5 February 1936.]

In the Dunedin Police Court doings on 21 February 1936, one John Walter Buchanan was charged with being idle and disorderly in that he had insufficient lawful means of support. Margaret Eva Buchanan and May Theresa Kett were also charged with being idle and disorderly in that they had insufficient lawful means of support. In an application for a remand for a week, it was said that these two women and the man John Walter Buchanan had been living in a house at South Dunedin. Complaints had been received from the police about the conduct of this house and about drunken parties being held and men going there at all hours of the day and night. The accused were remanded for a week, bail being allowed in each case in the accused’s own. recognisance of £25 and one surety of £25. A week later, arising out of a police visit to Buchanan’s house, Mary Theresa Kett (44) was charged with being idle and disorderly. She pleaded not guilty, but after evidence had been given of her mode of living and her associates the Magistrate adjourned the case till the afternoon to allow arrangements to be made for the woman to go to the Salvation Army Home.

The disappearance of three fowls from Lady Sidey’s Dunedin residence in early December 1938 led to the appearance of Victor Fanning Kett and two others in court on 13 January 1939. They were all charged with stealing the birds and pleaded not guilty. The value of the missing fowls was assessed at 13s 6d. As there was no successful evidence by the police relating to the identification of the birds, the charges against all three accused were dismissed. This was Victor Fanning Kett who was born – Francesco Vittorio Pobar - on 2 March 1914 at Dunedin and died on 7 March 1961 at Dunedin. A natural son or ‘adopted’ son of Victor Fanning Fraser Kett? Victor Kett (born 1914) was admitted to Taita South School, Lower Hutt in December 1923, having come from the Dunedin Convent School and in the guardianship of Mrs W. Harris. Not three weeks later, he moved on to Island Bay, Wellington. Victor Fanning Kett, junior, was a seaman and single with an address in South Dunedin when he volunteered and enlisted in January 1940 for service in World War Two. He named his aunt as next-of-kin – Mrs E. Aitchison, 42 Chalborough Rd, Adelaide. Victor’s grave at Anderson’s Bay Cemetery is marked by a Services plaque.

Victor Fanning Fraser Kett died on 24 January 1936, aged 48 years, and was buried in the Services area of Auckland’s Waikumete Cemetery. What became of Mary Theresa (Pobar) Kett is not known. Victor’s brother, Joseph Grosvenor Kett also served with the New Zealand Forces in World War One, as did two cousins – Sydney Kett and George Alexander Kett. Both sons of Victor’s brother Joseph Grosvenor – Walter Grosvenor Kett and William Gregory Joseph Kett - served in World War Two; and a nephew – Vernon Vincent Ernest Dines (son of his sister Constance).

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [06 June 2025]; NZ BMD Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [05 June 2025]; South Canterbury Times, 1 March 1883, 8 January 1886, Timaru Herald, 5 March 1883, NZ Tablet, 20 April 1888, Dominion, 25 June 1915, Evening Post, 23 & 28 July 1915, 14 August 1915, 17 October 1917, 28 September 1931, 20 May 1932, 3 November 1933, Waikato Times, 2 October 1917, Star, 16 October 1917, Timaru Herald, 24 October 1917, 8 August 1919, 9 November 1928, Otago Daily Times, 17 July 1919, 12 October 1928, Evening Star, 26 July 1919, Gisborne Times, 15 January 1926, Hawke’s Bay Tribune, 8 February 1926, Dominion, 15 February 1928, 19 March 1928, Evening Star, 21 & 28 February 1936, 10 January 1940, Otago Daily Times, 11 January 1940, Police Gazettes (Papers Past) [06 & 07 June 2025]; NZ & Australian Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [06 & 07 June 2025]; Waikumete Cemetery record (Find A Grave [07 June 2025]; Waikumete Cemetery burial record (Auckland Council) [07 June 2025]

External Links

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC Genealogy Society

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.