The below biography was written by Patrick Bourke in 2020, about his great uncle:
George was working as a bushman in the Ohakune area of the North Island of New Zealand when he enlisted in the NZ Army on 8th April, 1916. Whilst fighting in D Company, NZ Rifle Brigade, 2nd Battalion, as a rifleman he was killed in action on 7th June, 1917 in the Battle of Messines, France/Belgium. The Battle of Messines Ridge, near Ypres, started on 7th June, 1917, when 19 massive mines were set off by the Allies. The Allied Forces were successful in capturing the Ridge but they still lost many men, including George Bourke.
George, like so many servicemen from the First World War, has no grave as his body was never found. However, he is remembered on the Messines Ridge (NZ) Memorial. There is a NZ Messines Ridge Memorial near Messines but George's name is not on this memorial. You have to go to the Messines Ridge British Cemetery to find the memorial with his name on it. Immediately within the Messines Ridge British Cemetery and a little north is the memorial. It consists of a circular rubble wall, five feet eight inches high, built round a mound, on which the Great Cross is erected. His name is one of the 840 NZ soldiers recorded there–men who died in the Messines area during the war who have no known graves.
George's name is on the Commemorative Roll Book at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra (access may be available upon request from staff). His name is also on the Bodangora First World War Memorial and Lone Pine and Wellington Cenotaph and Great War Memorial Gates in NSW, and on the Roll of Honour at the New Zealand National War Memorial in Wellington, NZ.
George's parents, John and Jane Bourke, are buried in the Bodangora Cemetery. George is also commemorated in the family enclosure.
