Used the alias John Brown; place of birth shown, at the time of enlistment, as Nantucket, Massachusetts, though his marriage certificate, as well as census records for the state of Massachusetts conducted in 1865 show his place of birth as New Zealand; to complicate things even further, his death certificate lists his place of birth as Ireland, and his naturalization application, made out in 1888, show it as Great Britain; enlisted in the United States Navy, at New Bedford, Massachusetts, on May 21, 1862, and served as ordinary seaman aboard the USS Ohio till June 27, 1862, when he was sent aboard the USS Tioga, on the James River; personal details, at the time of enlistment shown as blue eyes, brown hair, dark complexion and standing 5 feet 8 ½ inches tall; pre war occupation as a cabinet maker; declared that he believed he had contracted malarial fever about October, 1862, when he was employed on the vessel as the ship's diver, and had accidentally ingested river water, while discharging his duty; treated by Dr. Du Bois, the surgeon of the vessel; sent aboard the USS Vandalia, on June 11, 1864, and was subsequently honourably discharged at Kittery, Maine, on June 30, 1864; post war occupation as a sea farer, and travelled to many places, including, about 1866, to New Zealand; later employed as a carpenter; Bettridge had first been married, in the state of Missouri, to Rebecca J. Harris, on April 4, 1877, and by whom they had a daughter; however he abandoned his wife and daughter, and a divorce was granted to Rebecca on January 18, 1899; Arthur later resided at Campello, Massachusetts; naturalized as an American citizen at the Police Court at Brockton, Massachusetts on June 6, 1888; married a second time, at Brockton, on August 3, 1889; Arthur filed for a pension, claiming he had suffered from malarial poisoning and rheumatism, on November 28, 1890, and that, by this time he was so incapacitated by his illnesses, that he was unable to perform any physical work; Bettridge was treated, on July 4, 1891, for a gunshot wound of the hand, though the circumstances of this wound was not indicated; in January 1893 he was stated to have been quite despondent, and to have made an attempt at suicide by pointing a small pistol at his temple and discharging the weapon, but only causing a glancing injury, but with no serious consequences, and for which Bettridge was stated to have been thankful that he had not taken his own life; Nathaniel C. King, a practising physician at Brockton, declared, in May, 1894, that he had been treating Bettridge for about five years, for his afflictions; died of dysentery on August 17, 1896, and was buried at the Pine Hill Cemetery, Brockton.