Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

John Shore Bladin was born on 11 June 1884 at Sale, Victoria, Australia, the older son of Henry Victor and Ellen Margaret Francis (née Fitzpatrick) Bladin. His mother died in 1894 and his father in 1899. He married Alice May Burley on 2 December 1908 at Midland Junction, West Australia. In 1911, John was a Salvation Army officer in Nelson, New Zealand, and gazetted as an officiating minister. Their daughter, Dorothy Irvine Bladin, was born 20 April 1912 at Christchurch, New Zealand. In January he was transferred from Christchurch to Wellington, where John and Alice resided at 10 Jessie Street, Wellington, which address he gave on enlisting at Featherston on 3 October 1916. At Tauherenikau Camp he was appointed to ccompanty the Reinforcements. He named his wife as next-of-kin – Mrs Alice May Bladin, care of Salvation Army College, Aro Street, Wellington. Before his return, Mrs Bladin had moved to Waimate.

Chaplain J. S. Bladin embarked with the New Zealand Chaplains Department of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, leaving Wellington for Plymouth, England, on 15 November 1916. John Shore Bladin, Salvation Army officer, returned to New Zealand by the “Mokoia” which arrived on 15 July 1918. Mrs A.M. Bladin was then at Waimate. Their only child, Dorothy had started at Waimate Main School in February 1918, transferring to Featherston later in the year. Chaplain Bladin was discharged on 2 January 1919.

As of 1931, John and Alice were still recorded in New Zealand. By 1936, however, they were resident in Lewisham, New South Wales. They and their daughter had travelled overseas in the intervening period. John Shore Bladin died on 1 June 1959 at Bethseda Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, aged 74 years. Mrs Bladin had died in 1950. Their daughter, Dorothy Irvine Bladin, died in 1985 in New South Wales. His brother, Henry William Bladin, served in World War One with the Australian Forces, enlisting on the outbreak of war. Henry named his brother as next-of-kin – John S. Bladin, 10 Jessie Street, Wellington, New Zealand. Henry died of wounds in 1917 in France. Henry William Bladin is remembered on his sister’s headstone in the Timaru Cemetery. Edith Rose Bladin, born in about 1890, in Victoria, Australia, married John Keay in October 1912 in Australia. Edith and John came to New Zealand, and Edith died in June 1913 at Timaru, just 23 years old. John Keay married for a second time. Three of his younger brothers who were born at Timaru saw service in the war.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [29 January 2022]; School Admission records [29 January 2022]; Timaru Cemetery headstone & burial records (Timaru District Council) [29 January 2022]; Victoria, Australia, death index (ancestry.com.au) [29 January 2022]; Various records (ancestry.com.au) [29 January 2022]; Otago Daily Times, 8 July 1918 (Paper Past) [29 January 2022]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.