Private George Blacklock

Private George Blacklock, 1st Battalion, 3rd New Zealand Rifle Brigade. He was killed in action in France, aged 32, on the 22nd September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. He had been born in Westmoreland and was the son of George and Jessie Blacklock of Waverley Place, Galashiels. He had emigrated to New Zealand in 1908 and was working as a pattern weaver in Dunedin when he enlisted in May 1915. After service in Egypt his Battalion moved to France in April 1916. He is commemorated on the Caterpillar Valley ( New Zealand) Memorial, Somme, France. The photos show troops on the Somme and the colour image shows a peaceful Somme landscape today ” with no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now “.