Profile

BLAKE, George Stanley
(Service number 10303)

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank

Birth

Date	19/11/1895	Place of Birth	Waimate

Enlistment Information

Date	11 January 1916	Age	20 years
Address at Enlistment	30 Bay Rod, Kilbirnie, Wellington
Occupation	Storeman
Previous Military Experience	5th Regiment - serving
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Mr William BLAKE (father), 30 Bay Road, Kilbirnie, Wellington
Religion	Methodist
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	12th Reinforcements, Wellington Infantry Battalion, J Company
Date	6 May 1916
Transport	Mokoia
Embarked From	Wellington	Destination	Suez, Egypt

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

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	23 April 1918	Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	1 May 1974	Age	78 years
Place of Death	Papakura
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery	Papakura Cemetery, Auckland
Memorial Reference	Ros S, Plot 55
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

George Stanley Blake was born on 19 November 1895 at Waimate, the fifth son of William and Elizabeth (née Mann) Blake. William and Elizabeth had married in 1878 at Waimate and went on to have eleven children born there. George was admitted to Temuka School from Waimate District High School in February 1907 and left in October 1907 for the North Island. In the Wellington area, he attended Newtown and Island Bay schools, leaving the latter just after his 15th birthday.

George was a storeman living at home when he enlisted on 11 January 1916. Single and Methodist, he named his father as next-of-kin – Mr William Blake, 30 Bay Road, Kilbirnie, Wellington. He had served with the Eketahuna Mounted Rifles until he left the district and e was still serving with the 5th Regiment. Private G. S. Blake embarked with the Wellington Infantry Battalion of the 12thy Reinforcements, departing from Wellington for Suez, Egypt, per the “Mokoia” on 6 May 1916. G. S. Blake, 10303, of Kilbirnie, arrived home in New Zealand (Draft 407) at the end of January 1918. He was discharged on 23 April 1918 and in June married Mabel Frances Nuttall. George and Mabel had six children, their first-born, Flying Officer Eric George Blake, lost his life in World War Two, dying on 4 May 1944 at the age of 24.

George Blake died on 1 May 1974 at Papakura, aged 78 years, and was buried at Papakura Cemetery, Auckland. Mabel died in 1998 and was buried with George. Four of his brothers also served in World War One – John Henry Blake, Charles Edward Blake, Leslie Walter Blake and Allan Blake. The name of Private George Blake appeared regularly on the Waimate Daily Advertiser Roll of Honour under the sub-title of Answered the Call.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museumm Cenotaph Database [04 July 2022]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [04 July 2022]; School Admission records (South Canterbury & Wellington branches NZSG) [08 July 2022]; Papakura Cemetery headstone image [08 July 2022]; Papakura Cemetery burial record (Auckland Council) [09 July 2022]; NZ Times, 1 February 1918, Waimate Daily Advertiser, 30 May 1918 (Papers Past) [18 September 2019; 09 July 2022]

External Links

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, Teresa Scott, South Canterbury Genealogy Society

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

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

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