Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Son of Gotlieb Reinholdt BOCK and Johanna Caroline nee SCHILLING

Husband of Isabella Jane Bock, of 19 Russell St., Linwood, Christchurch.

Enlisted 27 June 1916 New Zealand Machine Gun Battalion

BOCK.—Killed in action, in France, on the 12th September, Private E. T. Bock, beloved husband of  Jennie Bock, Ashburton, New Zealand, and loving son  of R. and C. Bock, Oakey, Queensland, and loved  brother of Sisters L. and E. Bock, Private Hospital, Murray Bridge.

Ernest was born at Bendlby, SA where he was educated.  He helped his father on the farm.  When, owing to drought in the north of SA, the family moved to Queensland.  Ernest went to New Zealand in 1901 to find work to help support his family.  He obtained work as a railway ganger at Canterbury in the South Island.  Ernest met his future wife Jane Wilson at Ashburton.  Jane was born in Auckland, and educated in Auckland at Grafton School. Ernest and Jane were married in Ashburton, Canterbury on 27th September 1905.

Ernest enlisted in 1916, the first married man in North Canterbury to do so.  He was in the Nineteenth Reinforcements Battalion, and fought as a machine gunner in France.  He was killed in action six weeks before the end of the war.  

Jane lived on in Christchurch.  She did not remarry, but grieved for Ernest for the rest of her life.  She died in Auckland in 1936, and was buried in Waikumete Cemetery.