Tuesday 11 October 2016

Rowland William Carter

The Carter family outside their home in Otago, NZ
Finding out what happened to her father Rowland William Carter, has been a lifelong quest for his 89-year old daughter.

I was contacted by the family to see if I could help find out what happened to Rowland or at least to find some answers so that they could have closure.

Solving family mysteries and finding people is what I do.

Rowland was born in Palmerston South, South Island of New Zealand on 19th May 1889, he was the youngest son of Samuel Metherel Carter, and Emma Essex.

On 24 August 1914 he enlisted with the Otago Mounted Rifles at Gore, he was a tall man for the time at just over 6 foot and his occupation was a sheep farmer. He fought in Gallipoli, Egypt, and France and was honourably discharged at the end of the war after spending time in a hospital in London.

Rowland returned to New Zealand and studied at university. He then travelled to the Falkland Islands between 1925-1929, where he served as a Stock Inspector for the NZ Government, and  where his daughter was born. When she was 4-years old her father travelled to Chile and Argentina and then on to London. He set up kennels in London and was there when WW2 broke out. He wrote to the family for a period of time but the letters stopped in late 1939 and the family never heard from him again.

So what had happened to Rowland? Had he got caught up in war-time Europe, did he become a casualty of this conflict after surviving the Great War? Or had he simply started a new life?

As always I started my search by compiling a family tree for Rowland and a timeline so I would know which records to start searching and in the correct time period.

The 1939 Register on www.findmypast.co.uk was an obvious first port of call as Rowland was known to be in the UK at this time. The Register was taken on 29th September 1939 and listed the personal details of every civilian in GB and Northern Island.

 There were two men with the surname Carter who had the exact same date of birth as Rowland, but I was able to eliminate them both as not being the man I was looking for.

Findmypast is also an excellent source for passenger lists and sure enough, there was an entry for Rowland William Carter, age 55, returning to NZ on the S.S Northumberland which sailed from London on 6th March 1946.

I moved my search back to NZ to access his WW1 file and learn more about his war, hospitalisation and discharge. There were two entries for men named Rowland W Carter on the archives NZ site https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ - his WW1 Military Personnel file and a probate record in Taupo dated 1978.

Most of the WW1 files have been digitised so I downloaded his WW1 file which contained 27 pages. The first 7 pages were details of his enlistment, postings, and service. Page 8 was totally unexpected - it was a Department of Internal Affairs Notification of Death on 29 May 1977 with all the details matching his regiment and service number. So Rowland had returned to Taupo in NZ but had never contacted any family members.

A check on ancestry gave me a cemetery record for Corporal R William Carter buried in the RSA Lawn Section Plot 24 of the Taupo Cemetery, the date of death matching the Notification of Death in his military file.

I ordered his probate record as it could possibly contain more information and was able to view free of charge at the Auckland National Archives office located near the airport.

From the probate record I learned that Rowland had been living in Taupo for at least 15 years as recorded by the local Post Office Supervisor, George Nathaniel Gatchell of Taupo. For approximately 3 years Rowland lived in a caravan in the grounds of Crystal Brook Fishing Lodge at Waitahanui which was owned by George and his wife.

Rowland then moved to live at the Salvation Army Old Peoples Home at Wharengi. Rowland told George that he would leave him all his possessions when he died and he wrote a very basic will to that effect. This “will” was deposited with the Salvation Army for safe keeping and when Rowland died they produced it.

In clause 9 of the affidavit made by George, he states:

"That I am the sole residuary legatee named in the said will. The said deceased was unmarried and had no children and no next of kin of whom I am aware."

The historical death index (https://www.govt.nz/) showed that George had died in 2004 , were there still any descendants living?

 So for whatever reason, Rowland came back to New Zealand and chose to settle in Taupo. He lived a quiet life, keeping himself to himself and never mentioned having a family.

The family now know what became of Rowland, but not the why. They said that he suffered from nightmares when he returned from the Great War and had flashbacks. The family don't know why he made certain decisions along the way but they cannot judge his actions as they don't know why things turned out the way they did.  But at least now they know where he ended his days and have closure.











No comments:

Post a Comment