Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Edward Albert Rickman was the youngest of the family of English-born Frank Mardon Rickman and Sarah Maria née Abbott, who had married in 1864 at Papanui, Christchurch. Mr Frank Mardon Rickman, one of the first stud-sheep owners in Waimate, died suddenly at Ashburton in May 1899. Edward was born on 4 January 1881 at Waimate, when his father was a stock auctioneer and stud sheep owner there. He started school at Waimate before the family moved to Ashburton in about 1890. He finished schooling at Hampstead School in Ashburton, where he was awarded a Standard IV prize in 1893. In 1898 he represented Crescent in a football match at Ashburton. He played for the Waimate Tennis Club against Timaru in 1908 and, although Waimate lost, Edward won his singles match 9-7. By 1909 he was into golf, playing a bogey match on the Waimate Links for the Waimate Club which had great enthusiasm and a strong membership. In the 1910 season he won the club’s Francis trophy. At a meeting at Waimate in December 1905, a proposal was carried to establish what was to be called a New Club, the fundamental principles of which were that there be no gambling or drinking on the premises. The minimum age of membership was fixed at 18 years and the subscription at £1. Edward was elected secretary and treasurer of that club.

First he worked as an auction clerk in Ashburton, before going to Waimate as a clerk with the firm of Leslie O’Callaghan and Co. Prior to the war he had been living at Waimate for at least ten years, employed as an auctioneer’s clerk and stock agent. At the age of 33, Edward was among the first to enlist in Timaru at the outbreak of war – 13 August 1914, aged 33 years 7 months. A few days later the second draft of B Squadron (South Canterbury mounted men) of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles – some 34 or more Waimate men among them - arrived at Addington camp. Single and Anglican, he named his mother - Mrs Sarah M. Rickman, Havelock Street, Ashburton – as next-of-kin. He was 5 feet 9 inches tall, 149 pounds in weight, with a chest measurement of 31-35 inches, fair complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair. His sight, hearing, colour vision, heart and lungs were all good. His limbs and chest were well formed, and he had full and perfect movement of all joints. His teeth were fair, with a small upper plate (2 teeth). Free of diseases and defects, and vaccinated, he was in good bodily and mental health.

Trooper E. A. Rickman was one of ten South Canterbury men promoted to the rank of lance-corporal in September at the Sockburn camp. Just a month later he was on his way to Egypt, embarking at Lyttelton on 16 October and disembarking at Alexandria on 3 December 1914, and one year and one week later he was killed in action at the Dardanelles. Edward was admitted to the Field Ambulance at Zeitoun on 18 December 1914 until 3 January 1915, for treatment of gonorrhoea; he suffered from pleurodypsia from 19 to 21 February 1915; and he stayed from 17 June until 2 July 1915 in the Stationary Hospital with diarrhoea.

Trooper Edward Albert Rickman, of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles, was killed in action on 20 August 1915, aged 34 years, at the Dardanelles, Gallipoli. Private news of his death was received in Waimate and Ashburton on 14 September, and the next day there was listing in the press throughout much of New Zealand. “Heroes of the Dardanelles – one hundred and twenty more casualties reported” was the heading of one account. He was buried in the 7th Field Ambulance Cemetery, Gallipoli, Turkey.

Edward was well known and popular in both Waimate and Ashburton. Not only was he a keen football, golf and tennis player, he was also a good rider at the hunt, on one occasion winning a steeplechase. His medals - 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal, plaque and scroll were all sent to his mother at Ashburton. Two brothers, Frank Mardon and William Frederick, were listed in the Reserves Rolls, both being married with children. A nephew of Edward, Robert Henry Rickman, also served in World War I. In his Will dated 14 August 1914, Edward appointed Edward Stewart Mills, Jeweller, of Waimate, as his executor. He bequeathed all his property to his mother, and, if she should have predeceased him, to his surviving sisters. His father had died suddenly in his garden in 1899; his mother was still living in Ashburton.

Edward was a member of St Stephen’s Anglican Church, Ashburton, where a special service was held in commemoration of Anzac Day 1917. On this occasion a memorial tablet to the memory of fallen soldiers was unveiled. On 13 November 1927 a very impressive service was held in St Stephen’s Anglican Church, Ashburton, to commemorate Armistice Day and to mark the unveiling and dedication of a large handsome marble tablet containing the names of all the parish members who lost their lives during the Great War. A parade from the Drill Hall to the church was held, hymns and the National Anthem were sung, and prayers were offered. At the top of the tablet is the inscription – “To the Glory of God and in memory of those members of the Church in the parish of Ashburton who made the supreme sacrifice in the Great War, 1914-1918, and to whom the east window is dedicated.” The name of E. A. Rickman is among the forty-one inscribed on the tablet. Edward’s name appears also on the Timaru Memorial Wall, the Waimate War Memorial, St Augustine's Church, Waimate, Memorial, and the Ashburton War Memorial. His name was recorded on the Roll of Honour published regularly in Waimate Daily Advertiser. Photographs of E. A. Rickman feature in the “South Canterbury Roll of Honour” published 1916 by the South Canterbury Caledonian Society (held by South Canterbury Museum 17/15) and “Onward: Portraits of the NZEF”, Vol. 1 (held by South Canterbury Branch NZSG).

Sources

Cenotaph Database [18 November 2013]NZ Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ ref. AABK 18805 W5550 0097823 [20 November 2013]; CWGC [21 November 2013]; Lyttelton Times, 13 October 1864, Ashburton Guardian, 16 December 1893, 28 September 1898, 20 May 1899, 14 & 15 September 1915, 26 April 1917, 12 November 1927, Timaru Herald, 18 May 1899, 23 December 1905, 13 March 1908, 6 July 1908, 11 May 1909, 19 September 1914, 15 September 1915, Press, 1 April 1911, 19 & 24 August 1914, 18 September 1914, 15 September 1915 [x 2], 14 November 1927, Waimate Daily Advertiser, 27 August 1914, 14 September 1915, Auckland Star, 15 September 1915, Northern Advocate, 15 September 1915, Manawatu Standard, 15 September 1915, North Otago Times, 16 & 20 September 1915, Sun, 16 September 1915, 27 April 1917 (Papers Past) [18 & 23 November 2013, 22 & 23 May 2015; 30 June 2016; 30 August 2017; 21 February 2018; 04 April 2020]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [2013]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [2013]; Probate record (Archives NZ/Family Search) [16 June 2014]; Photo in Onward: Portraits of the NZEF, Vol. 1 (held by South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [08/11/2014]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file

Related Documents

• RICKMAN Edward Albert - newspaper clippings (pdf, 14.0 KB updated 21-Jul-2021)

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

TS