Hi everyone.
Thank you for all the information and ideas you contributed which allowed me to build a detailed timeline of Arthur's life, although his place and date of death still eludes me.
Below is my brief biography based on your research which I thought you might be interested in. I have omitted mention of the alleged Fiji conviction and divorce because I firmly believe that the Manawatu Standard was guilty of reporting unsubstantiated and scurrilous gossip. In any case, the Fiji Times has not replied to my request for further information.
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Biography of Baron Arthur James John Robert McKenzie POELLNITZ (circa 1847- after 1926)
A member of the Bavarian nobility trained as a cavalryman and holding the rank of Lieutenant in the Cuirassiers, Arthur von POELLNITZ was by definition an upper-class gentleman, an expert horseman and an excellent shot with a carbine (a short-barrelled rifle carried by cavalrymen). He would have been a polite, well-mannered and confident member of the upper class. He was curious and adventurous, at the age of twenty-one embarking alone on a voyage to the South Pacific on his own personal Grand Tour. He moved frequently, always seeking new sights and experiences. He was very competitive, applying his skills as a rifleman in both Australia and New Zealand and winning the Cavalry Carbine Belt in New Zealand in 1875.
Arthur struggled financially. He incurred debts and was slow to repay loans from colleagues while a member of New Zealand’s Armed Constabulary Force. If he was receiving a regular remittance from his family he was not skilled at budgeting so occasionally lived beyond his means. Following his discharge he appeared in Magistrate’s Court on three occasions, twice for non-payment of debts and once accused of embezzlement of the Christchurch Acclimatisation Society while its curator. In the latter case he was held on remand and then was extremely fortunate to escape conviction by a legal technicality, but his personal reputation was left in tatters.
This last incident triggered Arthur’s rapid departure to Australia where he quickly went on to Hobart Town, Tasmania. Within the year he was back in Melbourne but then moved to South Deniliquin, New South Wales for a period, perhaps working as a hotel billiard player, before gaining employment with South Australia police as a Mounted Constable. In December 1881 he was transferred from South Australia police to the Northern Territory police, based at Palmerston, now the city of Darwin, and he remained there until about 1883. Arthur did not return to his family, now living in England, until 1884, a period of sixteen years. His father had died in 1879.
Arthur’s next appearance was in Buenos Aires, Argentina at his marriage to Caroline Elizabeth Elliot. She was aged 36 and he 40, and it was the first marriage for both. Their only child, Herman Walter, was born there in January 1891. During his time in Argentina Arthur developed a successful horse stud business. The family remained in Argentina until about 1905 although Arthur made at least three trips back to England, presumably on business.
By 1905 Arthur and his wife and son were living in Blandford, Dorset. Six years later, in 1911, Arthur and his wife Caroline were living in Sidcup, Kent, with two servants, a cook and a maid. Arthur was a retired ranch owner. The census sheet for the household records that Caroline was born in Masulipatam, India.
The next five years were difficult for Arthur. In 1915 his mother Eleanore died at Farnham aged 100. In 1918 his son Herman was killed in a car accident in Bagdad while on active service. And his wife Caroline died at their residence in Sidcup in 1920.
In 1921 Arthur was living in Kensington with one of his sisters. By May 1923 Arthur was back in Bavaria, living with his friends Baron and Baroness Puthon.
Arthur was still alive in December 1926, living in Salzburg. This is the last record I have of him.
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Regards,
Spades
