Profile

STECHMAN, Frederick Andrew
(Service number 6/3878)

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank

Birth

Date	10 August 1895	Place of Birth	Timaru

Enlistment Information

Date		Age
Address at Enlistment	73 Elizabeth Street, Timaru
Occupation	Tailor
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status
Next of Kin	Mrs F. STECHMAN (mother), 73 Elizabeth Street, Timaru
Religion	Anglican
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	9th Reinforcements, Canterbury Infantry Battalion, C Company
Date	8 January 1916
Transport	Maunganui
Embarked From	Wellington	Destination	Suez, Egypt

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	27 November 1960	Age	65 years
Place of Death	Public Hospital, Timaru
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Timaru Cemetery
Memorial Reference	General Section, Row 55, Plot 1021
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Frederick Andrew Stechman was the son of Francis (Frank) Alexander and Annie Stechman (nee Paxton), A great niece recounts that Frederick's parents both had colourful histories, noting: "Frank Alexandra De Flom was born in France and emigrated to Dunedin from England in 1875. While onboard the ship Corona, he was caught for stealing a passengers jewellery and was later convicted for larceny at sea. He was sentenced to two years labour. Annie (Andriana Paxton) was born in North Leigh, Edinburgh, Scotland and sailed to NZ solo at the age of 17, aboard 'The Wellington'. She worked as a young maid in Scotland and had been treated unkindly by her employers, so basically fled to NZ to start a new life. Annie arrived into Port Chalmers on 26 Feb 1879. Like the majority of the single women aboard, she was listed as being a general servant. . They went on to have 11 children. Their first few kids were given the De Flom surname. Unfortunately Frank's past caught up with him and he thought it best to change his surname in order to give him anonymity and a fresh start. He felt very humiliated by his pasts misfortunes." She continues: "Frank worked for the Timaru Harbour Board from around 1894, doing a variety of jobs such as labouring, crane driving, train driving and in his later years, as night watchman. He was described as a quiet, loving man and was well respected by his colleagues. Frank died between the hours of 10pm on the 17th Sept and 6am on the 18th Sept 1920 while on duty as a night watchman. His death certificate indicates he died of a heart attack, but family believe he was in fact electrocuted. He was found by one of his sons."

Frederick was educated at Timaru Main School.

After the war Frederick married Ellen Gledhill in 1927 at Christchurch. The couple went on to have two children, Eunice and Leslie.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [13 June 2018]; School Admission record (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [June 2018]; Timaru Cemetery headstone image (Timaru District Council) [June 2018]; SCRoll web submission by K Shatford, 20 July 2021

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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