Profile

KIRKE, Charles Vere
(Service number 15187)

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank	Sergeant

Birth

Date	1 August 1887	Place of Birth	Kelso, Otago

Enlistment Information

Date		Age
Address at Enlistment	C/o R. SANDILANDS, 64 Queens Drive, Musselburgh, Dunedin
Occupation	Sheep farmer
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status	Married. One child.
Next of Kin	Mrs G. A. KIRKE (wife), No. 1 Rugby Street, Highfield, Timaru
Religion	Church of England
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	15th Reinforcements, Otago Infantry Battalion, D Company
Date	26 July 1916
Transport	Waitemata or Ulimaroa
Embarked From		Destination

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	2nd Battalion Otago

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals
Military Awards

Award Circumstances and Date

No information

Prisoner of War Information

Date of Capture
Where Captured and by Whom
Actions Prior to Capture
PoW Serial Number
PoW Camps
Days Interned
Liberation Date

Discharge

Date	6 June 1919	Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Sheep farmer

Death

Date	19 November 1973	Age	86 years
Place of Death	Timaru
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Fairlie Cemetery
Memorial Reference	Block A9, Plot 3
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Charles Vere Kirke, born on 1 August 1887 at Kelso, Otago, was the older son of John Ambrose Hodge, known as Kirke, and his second wife, Isabella Pringle née White. John adopted his mother’s maiden name. Charles was educated at Christ’s College, Christchurch. His mother died in 1911 and his father in 1915. Charles married Gertrude Amy Sandilands on 5 March 1913 at Dunedin. A child who may have died in infancy was born in 1914 and a son, John Mervyn Kirke (registered Mervyn George John), was born on 31 May 1915 at Tapanui.

Charles was a sheep farmer when he enlisted, nominating his wife as next-of-kin – Mrs G. A. Kirke, No 1 Rugby Street, Highfield, Timaru. C. V. Kirkland, 15187, of Timaru, returned to New Zealand per the “Kia Ora”, embarking at Liverpool in March 1919, the draft being due at Lyttelton on 7 May 1919. Charles died on 19 November 1973, at Timaru, of Glenwood Home, aged 86 years, and was buried at Fairlie Cemetery.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [27 June 2020]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [27 June 2020]; Salisbury Park Crematorium record [30 June 2020]; Fairlie Cemetery burial record (Mackenzie District Council) [30 June 2020]; New Zealand Times, 26 April 1919 (Papers Past) [27 June 2020]

External Links

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.

Tell us more

Do you have information that could be added to this story? Or related images that you are happy to share? Submit them here!