H. H. NELSON
6 April 1890 - 4 October 1917
Regimental No.32872 (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Hussars)
There are at least two names on the Aro Valley Memorial which demonstrate the dilemmas faced when conducting research about the lives – and deaths – of the men named. Two men with the surname NELSON are listed. One is H. NELSON. Extensive research has so far failed to find out who H. NELSON was, and we can only hope that one day some records will surface that will reveal his story.
H.H. NELSON is almost as elusive. However, after many months of research across a wide range of genealogy resources the following story has been pieced together from the few facts that have been established:
Harriett Jane 1875
Susan Emma 1876
Peter Robert 1876
John William 1878
Eliza Elizabeth 1879
After this burst of reproductive activity there was a lull of 12 years or so during which there may have been miscarriages or stillbirths.
Research conducted by Ruth Ward.
Documents sourced:
6 April 1890 - 4 October 1917
Regimental No.32872 (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Hussars)
There are at least two names on the Aro Valley Memorial which demonstrate the dilemmas faced when conducting research about the lives – and deaths – of the men named. Two men with the surname NELSON are listed. One is H. NELSON. Extensive research has so far failed to find out who H. NELSON was, and we can only hope that one day some records will surface that will reveal his story.
H.H. NELSON is almost as elusive. However, after many months of research across a wide range of genealogy resources the following story has been pieced together from the few facts that have been established:
- Herbert Harold NELSON was the son of Peter and Annie NELSON (nee MUMFORD). He was born 6 April 1890 in Edward Street, Wellington. Edward Street is a small street between Upper Willis and Victoria Streets, in Te Aro. His father signed the birth certificate and provided information as to his age – 58, and that of his wife Annie – 40, and described himself as a labourer.
- Peter and Annie had married almost 17 years earlier, in Wellington, on 4 September 1873. The marriage certificate states that Peter was born in Sweden. Maybe Peter was a seaman, as many Swedes were, who had washed up on the shores of New Zealand and then settled in Wellington, perhaps in order to marry Annie.
- In the 1875-76 Electoral Roll, Peter was registered as living in Frederick Street, Te Aro, in a leasehold property. Five years later the family had moved a few streets and were living in Holland Street, still on the Te Aro flats, slightly south of Courtenay Place.
- Peter and Annie may have had six children in the next six years, possibly including one set of twins.
Harriett Jane 1875
Susan Emma 1876
Peter Robert 1876
John William 1878
Eliza Elizabeth 1879
After this burst of reproductive activity there was a lull of 12 years or so during which there may have been miscarriages or stillbirths.
- Herbert Harold was born in 1890, and his brother Peter was born in 1891. A girl, Christina Leila was also born in 1890 to a Peter and Annie Nelson and may have been Herbert’s twin, but this has not yet been verified. The names are not uncommon and there may have been other Peter and Annie Nelson’s producing children at the time.
- Peter became a naturalised New Zealand citizen on 14 December 1891. According to Naturalization papers held at the National Archives in Wellington his original name was Peter NIELSON, and he was aged 59, having been born about 1832, in Stockholm. This means Peter was aged about 40 and Annie 22 when they married in 1873.
- Peter died only three months after becoming naturalised, and on 19 March 1892 he was buried in the first Anglican section of the newly opened Karori Cemetery. Reverend Waters officiated.
- Annie died in August 1905, and her address on cemetery records indicates she was living in Edward Street at the time. She is buried with her husband at Karori Cemetery. Their plot is unmarked.
- In the 1896 Electoral Roll Annie was registered as “widow”, residing in Taranaki Street. By the time the next Electoral Roll was published in 1905-06 Annie had died.
- Nothing is known of Herbert Harold from the time of his birth, particularly as there are no school records. Presumably he and his brothers and sisters attended Mitchelltown School. There are no records for the school held by National Archives in Wellington for the relevant period so it has not been possible to confirm their attendance, nor to obtain information about the family during the children’s primary school years.
- Herbert didn’t sign up to serve with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force when war was declared in August 1914, though he was 24 years old at the time and therefore eligible for service. Nor did he enrol in New Zealand at any other time during the war years. He may, like his deceased father, have become a seaman and been out of New Zealand when war was declared.
- There is a record of a Herbert Nelson marrying in 1916, in the Wharfedale District of the Yorkshire Dales in England. His bride was Rose McCABE, a woman of Irish extraction who had been living in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire with her parents and many siblings when the 1911 Census was conducted throughout the UK.
- Herbert Nelson enlisted in Middlesbrough as a Private in the Yorkshire Hussars. The Yorkshire Hussars were also known as the Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Hussars, formed on the creation of the Territorial Force in April 1908. It was headquartered in York, and there was a Squadron based in Middlesbrough. Herbert was assigned to the 10th Battalion, and given regimental number 32872.
- The Hussars saw action on many fronts throughout WW1. It has not been possible so far to identify any specific fighting in which Herbert would have participated but he certainly served on the Western Front, being killed in action on 4 October 1917.
- The WW1 Service Medal and Award rolls held at the National Archives at Kew, London, state that Herbert Harold NELSON, a Private in the Yorkshire Hussars was born in Wellington. This is the only specific connection that has so far been found that indicates that Herbert Nelson, Private, Yorkshire Hussars is possibly the son of NELSON family of Edward Street in Wellington.
- According to a record of Soldiers Effects Herbert left a widow, Rose, to whom his small gratuity was paid. Rose remarried in 1918.
- Herbert is named on the Tyne Cot Memorial. The Tyne Cot Memorial is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. The Memorial marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war and bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of TYNE COT CEMETERY, which is now the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world in terms of burials. There are 11,956 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery, 8,369 of these are unidentified.
- There is a War Memorial in Park Road, Middlesbrough, which takes the form of a Cenotaph which is dedicated to the men who lost their lives in WW1 and WW2, as well as in Korea and Northern Ireland. On an adjacent wall there are 24 bronze plaques set into two walls. These plaques contain the names of 3,135 Middlesbrough men and women who died in WW1. Of these there are 1,107 names of men who served in the Yorkshire Hussars.
- There is no H.H. Nelson, or Herbert Harold NELSON named on either the Cenotaph or the bronze plaques. His name and brief details are though listed on associated documentation, this information having been extracted from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission information.
Research conducted by Ruth Ward.
Documents sourced:
- Army registrar of Soldiers effects 1901-1929 at York
- WW1 Service Medal and Award rolls
- Grave registration and panel list from memorial from Commonwealth Graves website
- Forces War Records https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/
- NZ birth certificate
- Passenger lists
- War diary of Yorkshire Hussars Regiment ex Ancestry.com