Arnold Kenneth Beale Williams
Born 4 Nov 1913 - Died 13 Jan 1945
- Service number
- 16452 AWMM
- Also known as
- —
- Armed force / branch
- Army AWMM
- Last rank
- Trooper AWMM Divisional Cavalry AWMM
- War
- World War II, 1939-1945 AWMM
About
- Title
- —
- Forenames
- Arnold Kenneth Beale AWMM
- Surname
- Williams AWMM
- Ingoa
- —
- Also known as
- —
- Service number
- 16452 AWMM
- Gender
- Male AWMM
- Iwi / Hapū / Waka / Rohe
- —
- Religion
- —
Images
Documents
About birth
- Birth
- 4 Nov 1913 AWMM
- Date of birth
- —
- Place of birth
- Te Puia Springs, NZPublic - Lorraine M - Researcher - 6 January 2016 - Research
- Birth notes
- Son of Arnold Beetham Williams and Ema Reremoana WilliamsPublic - Lorraine M - Researcher - 6 January 2016 - http://www.nzwargraves.org.nz/casualties/arnold-kenneth-beale-williams
- Address before enlistment
- Unknown AWMM Te Puia Springs, New Zealand AWMM
- Post war occupation
- —
- Next of kin
- Mr A.B. Williams (father), Te Puia Springs, New Zealand AWMM
- Relationship status
- Pre 01 Apr 1941-30 Jun 1941 AWMM Single AWMM
Wars and conflicts
- War
- World War II, 1939-1945 AWMM
- Campaign
- —
- Armed force / branch
- Army AWMM
- Service number
- 16452 AWMM
- Military service
- —
- Promotions/ Postings/ Transfers
- —
Military decorations
- Medals and Awards
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Training and Enlistment
- Military training
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- Branch Trade Proficiency
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- Enlistment
- WW2 Shepherd/Civilian AWMM
- Age on enlistment
- —
- Occupation before enlistment
- —
Embarkations
- Embarkation details
- WW2 Trooper AWMM 2nd Divisional Cavalry Regiment AWMM
Prisoner of war
- Capture details
- —
- Days interned
- —
- Liberation date
- —
- POW liberation details
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- Liberation Repatriation
- —
- POW serial number
- —
Medical history
- Medical notes
- Killed in Action, Cause of Death AWMM
Last known rank
- Last rank
- Trooper AWMM
Divisional Cavalry AWMM - Last rank
- —
Biographical information
- Son of Arnold Beetham Williams and Ema Reremoana Williams, of Te Puia Springs. AWMM
- During this period Div Cav was suddenly the poorer for a much loved, strong, & very picturesque character. On 13 January Trooper Williams was killed. He was arriving back at his troop casa after returning the ration containers—rations were always ‘cunning munga’ in his parlance—when a mortar bomb landed nearby. His companion was wounded, but Arnold took the last 2 or 3 paces inside & fell down dead, with shrapnel through his head. He was a particularly kind & gentle man inside, and outside, rough and rugged. One of a large and closely-knit family, he & his Air Force brother, who had died in a German hospital in Yugoslavia some 4 months earlier, had often proved capable of overcoming not only time but also great distance to see each other. Arnold was irregular in dress &, despite all contrary orders over head-dress, retained for use, whenever possible, his old felt hat, which he wore caved in, & with a leather strap woven through some knife-cuts in place of a puggaree. In Italy it was typical of him that he was never satisfied to sleep where others did & was particularly fond of making his bed in the big bread ovens in the walls of the houses. Stories of him—‘Arnold stories’ to Div Cav—went the rounds of the Division. He once, when banking on having no squadron inspection and realising he was caught, took a smart pace back from the rear rank, extracted the pull- through from his rifle-butt, cleaned the bore, & stepped back into line with nobody in authority any the wiser. On another occasion the inspecting officer, Lt-Col Carruth, noticing the bagginess of his pants, stopped & said: ‘No braces, Trooper?’, to be floored by the quasi-friendly reply, ‘No buttons at the back, eh!’ In Tunisia he drove the carrier for the ‘I’ Corporal, ‘Banjo’ Pattison. He got steadily more & more annoyed at a stiff steering wheel & wrenched it harder & harder at each bend, until it finally came off in his hands. Whereupon he solemnly handed it up to the crew commander with the remark: ‘Here y'are, Banjo. Drive the bast..d yourself!’ But his most famous exploit of all was whilst on a train-guard in the Nile Delta when everybody was at loss for hot water for a brew of tea. Down the main line came roaring the Cairo-Alexandria express, which was met by A.K.B. standing between the rails, his arm held up imperiously. When it screeched to a panting halt he walked round to the driver, handed up one issue cigarette in exchange for a jet of steam from the boiler-pump exhaust into his billy, stood back & waved the train on its way.
Arnold passes out of this story mourned by all of Div Cav, buried in the Romagna in a grave dug under the snow. Even the sky wept that day.Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 4 January 2016 - nzetc.victoria.ac.nz
About death
- Death
- 13 Jan 1945 AWMM
Age 32 AWMM - Date of death
- —
- Age at death
- —
- Place of death
- —
- Cause of death
- Killed in Action AWMM
- Death notes
- —
- Cemetery
- Faenza War Cemetery, Italy AWMM I.A.10. AWMM
- Cemetery name
- —
- Grave reference
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- Obituary
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- Memorial name
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- Memorial reference
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Memorial
- Memorial name
- Auckland War Memorial Museum, World War 2 Hall of Memories AWMM
- Gisborne First World War Memorial, The Esplanade, Kaiti, Gisborne AWMM
Related objects
Sources
- External links
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission record
https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2238002
Sources Used - References
- Loughnan, R. (1963). Divisional Cavalry. Wellington, N.Z.: Department of Internal Affairs, War History Branch.
p. 391. - Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. (1941). Nominal Roll Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force No. 4 (Embarkations from 1st April, 1941 to 30 June, 1941). Wellington, N.Z.: Govt. Printer.
p.378 - Loughnan, R. (1963). Divisional Cavalry. Wellington, N.Z.: Department of Internal Affairs, War History Branch.
- Auckland Museum. Roll of Honour, Auckland Province, 1939 - 1945. Auckland War Memorial Museum Library. MS 93/139.
- Loughnan, R. (1963). Divisional Cavalry. Wellington, N.Z.: Department of Internal Affairs, War History Branch.
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