BALDOCK, Horace Cecil

BALDOCK, Horace Cecil – A Southern Downs Veteran

CONFLICT : WWI
SERVICE NO : 2666
RANK : Private
UNIT : 42nd Battalion
ENLISTMENT DATE : 10/08/1916
AGE : 18
PLACE OF ENLISTMENT : Warwick, Queensland
PLACE OF BIRTH : Wallabadah, New South Wales
RELIGION : Church of England
OCCUPATION : Farmer
DATE OF DEATH : 25/06/1964
PLACE OF BURIAL : Newcastle, New South Wales

MEMORIALS : Yelarbon War Memorial, Yelarbon Roll of Honour

View Veteran’s Service File : BALDOCK, Horace Cecil

NOTES : In 1897 Horace Cecil Baldock was born to Percy Lusted and Henrietta Ada (nee Bourne) Baldock at Quirindi, New South Wales.

The family moved to Yelarbon where Horace was making his living as a farmer just prior to his enlistment in 1916. He embarked in Brisbane aboard the Kyarra in November 1916 and disembarked in Plymouth, England on 30 January 1917 as a member of the 42nd Battalion.

By July 1917, the 42nd Battalion was in France, and in the October Horace suffered a shrapnel wound to his right thigh and was sent to Eastbourne Military Hospital in England to recover.

On December 17, 1917 the Darling Downs Gazette reported the following:

Mr. P. L. Baldock, Goondiwindi, has been informed that his son, Horace, was severely wounded on the 16th October, and is now in Eastbourne Military Hospital, England. Mrs Baldock’s brother, James Bourne, who was wounded earlier, has returned to the firing line.

The uncle referred to in the newspaper was Private James Henry Bourne 5297 of the 26th Battalion. His name also appears on the Yelarbon War Memorial.

Upon his recovery Horace was sent on command to Technical College at Halifax to learn wool classing before being returned to Australia. He was discharge medically unfit on 25 July 1918 and was awarded a pension of two pound five shillings per fortnight.

Horace and Naomi Baldock were married in Hamilton, New South Wales in 1923 and the couple had two children.

Copyright 2026 Deborah C Wheeler and Duncan McLean, Southern Downs Military History

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