BLAKE, Charles Edward
(Service number 24130)
| First Rank | Private | Last Rank | Private |
|---|
Birth
| Date | 11 March 1881 | Place of Birth | Waimate |
|---|
Enlistment Information
| Date | 9 February 1915 | Age | 33 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address at Enlistment | Kaikoura | ||
| Occupation | Grocer | ||
| Previous Military Experience | |||
| Marital Status | Married. Two children | ||
| Next of Kin | Mrs I. C. BLAKE (wife), Kaikoura, Marlborough | ||
Military Service
| Served with | NZ Armed Forces | Served in | Army |
|---|
Embarkation Information
| Body on Embarkation | New Zealand Expeditionary Force | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit, Squadron, or Ship | 13th Reinforcements, Canterbury Infantry Battalion, C Company | ||
| Date | 27 May 1916 | ||
| Transport | Willochra or Tofua | ||
| Embarked From | Wellington | Destination | |
| Other Units Served With | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Unit Served With | Otago Regiment | ||
Military Awards
| Campaigns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Medals | British War Medal | ||
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 | 1 November 1959 | Age | 78 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of Death | Masterton | ||
| Cause | |||
| Memorial or Cemetery | Archer Street Cemetery, Masterton | ||
| New Zealand Memorials | |||
Biographical Notes
Charles Edward Blake was born on 11 March 1881 at Waimate, the second son of William and Elizabeth (née Mann) Blake and a twin of William Herman Blake (Harry). William and Elizabeth had married in 1878 at Waimate and went on to have eleven children born there. Charles was surely educated at Waimate School. On 6 March 1913 at Wairoa, he married Ivy Cicely Adams. Leslie Charles Moyston Blake was born on 14 October 1913 at Wellington and Ivy Catherine Blake was bor on 25 November 1915 at Kaikoura. Another daughter was born in 1918 after Charles’ return from the war.
Charles Blake was a grocer at Kaikoura when he enlisted on 9 February 1915 at Trentham. He named his wife as next-of-kin – Mrs I. C. Blake, Kaikoura, Marlborough. Private C. E. Blake embarked with the Canterbury Infantry Battalion of the 13th Reinforcements, departing from Wellington on 27 May 1916. But C. E. Blake did not get beyond England. After 352 days service overeas he was discharged on 15 July 1917, being medically unfit because of illness. He suffered 50% permanent disability from tuberculosis of the lung. He was awarded the British War Medal. The name of Private Charles Blake appeared regularly on the Waimate Daily Advertiser Roll of Honour under the sub-title of Answered the Call.
Charles and Ivy were divorced in 1921, a decree nisi being granted when Ivy declared that she had been forced to leave her husband several times owing to his drunkenness. In 1938 Charles married Kate Emily Wright (née Hunt), a widow. He died on 1 November 1959 at Masterton, where he had lived since his second marriage. He was buried in the Returned Servicemen’s area of Archer Street Cemetery, Masterton, a services stone marking his grave. Kate had died at Masterton earlier in 1959, her ashes being interred at Palmerston North with her first husband.
Four of his brothers also served in World War One – John Henry Blake, Leslie Walter Blake, George Stanley Blake and Allan Blake. His nephew, Flying Officer Eric George Blake, lost his life in World War Two.
Sources
Auckland War Memorial Museumm Cenotaph Database [04 July 2022]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [04 July 2022]; Masterton Cemetery burial record (Masterton District Council) [08 July [08 July 2022]; Masterton Cemetery headstone transcription (South Canterbury Branch NZSG records) [08 July [08 July 2022];; Masterton Cemetery headstone image (Find A Grave) [08 July [08 July 2022]; Waimate Daily Advertiser, 30 May 1918, NZ Herald, 16 December 1921 (Papers Past) [18 September 2019; 08 July 2022]
External Links
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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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