BATCHELOR, Ernest Robert
(Service number 78224)
| First Rank | Private | Last Rank |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 13/06/1897 | Place of Birth | Sefton |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | Age | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | St Andrews | ||
| Occupation | Farm labourer | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | Single | ||
| Next of Kin | T. H. BATCHELOR (father), St Andrews, South Canterbury | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | New Zealand Expeditionary Force | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | 39th Reinforcements, A Company | ||
| Date | 13 June 1918 | ||
| Transport | Athenic | ||
| Embarked From | Destination | Liverpool, Merseyside, England | |
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | |||
Military Awards
| Campaigns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Medals | |||
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 |
Death
| Date | 6 March 1928 | Age | 31 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | Christchurch | ||
| Cause | Pulmonary tuberculosis | ||
| Memorial or Cemetery | Bromley Cemetery, Christchurch | ||
| New Zealand Memorials | |||
Biographical Notes
Ernest Robert Batchelor was born on 13 June 1897 at Sefton, the second son of Thomas Henry and Mary Elizabeth (née Bennett) Batchelor. The family seemed to have moved quite a lot from North Canterbury to South Canterbury. Ernest was educated Springston South and Burnham schools, leaving at the age of fourteen to go out to work. When he enlisted, he was a farm labourer for his father at St Andrews. His father was his nominated next-of-kin, his mother having died in 1906. Private Ernest Robert Batchelor embarked per the “Athenic” on 13 June 1918 with 39th Reinforcements, destined for Liverpool, England. E. R. Batchelor, of St Andrews, returned home by the hospital ship “Marama”, which arrived at Auckland on 20 July 1919, with 672 men aboard. Ernest married Ethel Burborough om 1923. He died of Pulmny tuberculosis on 6 March 1928 at Christchurch, aged just 31 years, and leaving a widow and two little children. Ethel lived on till 1980. His older brother, Henry (Harry) Thomas Batchelor, was killed in action in 1915 at Gallipoli.
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [[11 May 2021]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [11 May 2021]; School Admission record (Canterbury Branch NZSG) [11 May 2021]; Temuka Cemetery headstone image (Timaru District Council) [07 May 2021]; Press, 8 July 1919, Otago Daily Times, 9 July 1919 (Papers Past) [07 May 2021]
External Links
Related Documents
No documents available.
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.