Arthur Frederick Kimberley was one of five children born to Frederick Theodore Kimberley and his wife Jessie, nee Bonney.  He was born 20 June, 1885, at Devonport, Tasmania, and at the time of his enlistment in 1917 was a married man, working as a saddler and harness maker in  Clifton Hill, Victoria. In 1905, he had married Ada Amelia Isabel Morse and they had two children, Geoffrey Douglas, born in 1906 and Jessie Isabel, in 1909. Sadly, Ada would die in 1924, but he would have a later marriage, to Laurel Beatrice Bendyke in 1927.

Arthur Kimberley had some previous military training, serving in the Citizens Militia for three years. Perhaps he already had some training in communications, because after a week at the Recruitment Depot from 2- 9 June 1917, at Broadmeadows, he was sent to the Signals School, where he stayed for three months, before embarking for overseas service on HMAT Kyarra on 3 September. By 23 October, he was in Egypt, and on 23 October was at A.I.F. Headquarters at Cairo, before marching in on 27 October to the military camp at Moascar, then to the Base Signals Depot at Alexandria.

Arthur Kimberley was a Sapper or Signalman. Signasls were part of the responsibility of the Royal Australian Engineers, but in 1914, a grading for signallers was announced. Signallers had to be proficient in morse code and be able to interpret signals by flag, by lamp and by heliograph. They also had to be expert map readers and dispatch riders, repairing telephone lines and delivering messages manually. In one way, signalling was one of the safer occupations of the war, although mending or rigging lines would have exposed them to enemy fire, so repairs were often done at night on the battlefield, which had added risk for men carrying reels of wires. The greater danger, however,  was illness or injury. There were few medical stations and it could take up to ten days before an injured man could get medical attention.

By early 1918, Arthur Kimberley was attached to duty with the Australian Ordnance Corps on 26 January probably at Zeitoun Camp, Cairo. From there he was sent to the Cable Section, possibly the 3rd Cable Section, used to support the wireless network and  the only cable section listed as being in Palestine in 1918.

On 13 July, 1918, Arthur Kimberley was transferred again, this time to the 2 Signal Corps and remained there until the end of the war in 1918. The University of Newcastle has a photograph of the 2nd Signals Squadron. It shows perhaps a hundred men, mostly on horseback, eleven on motorbikes, two in cars and in the centre of the group, two horsedrawn covered wagons. Arthur Kimberley would have been one of those men. The Virtual War Memorial site (vwma.org.au) records him as 'Sapper, 1st to 5th Divisional Signal Companies, AIF WW1', a reminder that these men moved around the battlefields of Egypt and Palestine, going where they were needed, rather than being fixed in a single company.

On 25 June, 1919, Arthur Kimberley was released from military service, 'demobbed' and approved for non-military employment. On 9 July, he embarked to England, then returned to Australia on 22 September, 1919, on the ship Port Sydney. He disembarked on 12 November, 1919, and was finally discharged from further service on 23 February, 1919.

In 1921, he was residing at 42 Smith St., Collingwood, with his wife, Ada, working in the saddlery trade. In 1923, following Ada's death, he was at Duntroon Military College, presumably in a teaching role, describing himself as a saddler.  He stayed at Duntroon until 1930, but then moved to Lilyfierld Dalley, N.S.W., with shi second wife, Laural, and was working as a storeman. By 1943, he was in his late fifties and probably retired. His Electoral Roll entry describes him as a soldier, a description he retained until the end of his life.Arthur Kimberley died on 21 November, 1954, at Leichardt, and is buried at Rookwood Cemetery.