Title: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Author: Cyclopedia Company Limited

Publication details: The Cyclopedia Company, Limited, 1905, Christchurch

Part of: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand Licence

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Staff Sergent-Major Frederick William Kibblewhite , of the Third Battalion Otago Rifles, was born in 1837 at Purton, Wiltshire, England, and was educated at national schools. He joined the Second Battalion Devonshire Regiment, with which he left for India on the 7th of February, 1877. On the 22nd of October, 1881, he was promoted to the rank of First Class Instructor on the Bengal Unattached List, and continued a member of the Devonshire Regiment till it left India. He was transferred to the 99th Regiment as supernumerary on the Bengal Unattached List, and when that Regiment left India he was transferred to the 30th Regiment in the same capacity. He holds the medal for the Afghan war of 1878–9–80, the good conduct and long service medals, and was also recommended for the meritorious medal, with an annuity, in September, 1895. He also received two Viceroy-of-India silver medals as the best shot of Bengal, and one bronze medal as second best shot, also the National Silver Medal of England. Mr. Kibblewhite twice gained the Championship of the Indian Rifle Association, and also the Bombay Rifle Association Silver Medal, and took third place for the Championship of the whole of India, Aden, and Burmah under the Indian Rifle Association. Besides these trophies, he gained two shields at the Interregimental Matches, the National Silver Cup, and two Instructors' Champion Shot Cups and other prizes. Sergeant-Major Kibblewhite left India for New Zealand on the 1st of March, 1897, and reported himself to the military authorities in Wellington, when he was sent to Dunedin as Staff Sergeant-Major, being transferred to Oamaru on the 1st of November, 1899. Altogether he served twenty years in India out of twenty-one years two hundred and ninety-two days of Imperial service. During his experience as a marksman Mr. Kibblewhite competed at Bisley, where he won the eighth prize presented by the “Graphic” newspaper. He was married in India on the 6th of June, 1881, to a daughter of the late Mr. Michael Dempsey, of County Galway, Ireland, and has four sons and five daughters.