Initial of first name (“F”), surname (“Dent”), from Neville Richards, grandson of Ivy Grace Oliver.

Name of Frank Dent, birth name of “Erich Max Rudolf XAVER”, date of birth of “31 December 1889”, place of birth of “Stettin, Pomerania, Kingdom of Prussia”, year of death of “1978”, place of death of “New Plymouth”, year and place of first marriage “"1914 in St Peters district, NSW, Australia", year and country of second marriage “1936, in New Zealand”, from Barry Dent in an email dated 21 February 2018 and his website. Barry is the grandson of Iris Rita Morrison, who is the great-granddaughter of Samuel Oliver (b.ca1820), who built the first flour mill in New Plymouth.

Frank Dent was born Erich Max Rudolf XAVER. The fascintaing strory of how Frank Dent came to and came to Australia, change his name, and then emigrated to New Zealand has been written by his grandson in “Frank Dent- My Mystery Grandfather”:
https://mymysterygrandfather.wordpress.com

Here, Barry writes that the marriage certificate of his first marriage to Lucia Elsa Bialke, confirms that, “Eric Xaver’s parents were Elsa Baus’ parents Max Xaver and Emma Waldheuer. Eric Xaver was Frank Dent”.

Barry goes on to give the background to this change of name writing, "The rise of Prussian militarism from the 1870s led to compulsory military service… Dad recalls Frank Dent as being very anti-war, as had been many young Prussian men at the start of the twentieth century… A steady trickle of young men began to leave through Hamburg and Bremerhaven and Erich was among them. A popular destination was Australia and he arrived there in 1912, his fiancée getting there at the end of April 1914. They were married in early May, and war between Britain and Germany was declared on 4 August”.

Firt wife, Lucia Elsa Bialke, “did get back to Danzig after marrying in Australia, and in 1923 under the name Lucia Elsa Xaver, geb. Bialke, married Karl Wilhelm Albert Meyer”.

“Antipathy to the Germans in Australia ramped up to the point of hysteria. People were being thrown out of their jobs and worse for having German surnames”.

“Erich Xaver, wifeless, borderline stateless, sick of being picked up by the police and hounded out of jobs… eventually acquired the name Frank Dent. He gained legitimacy by getting on the electoral roll after a time, which with maybe a few other bits and pieces, like employer references, got him on the boat to New Zealand in 1935 for a fresh start”.

In Australia, “Frank evidently worked as a cook in hotels and on stations up and down the eastern side of the country. The latest reference was dated 30 January 1935 in Warburton, Victoria”.

“Frank was working in New Zealand from March 1935, as evidenced by a reference from the Settlers Hotel in Whangarei. This ties up with the correct Frank Dent arriving on the Monowai in March 1935. He also worked in the Federal Hotel, Picton, as a labourer, in a foundry and in a dairy factory prior to, or in the early days of, taking up farming in Stratford”

Link to a chart prepared by Barry of Frank Dent/Erich Xaver’s ancestors:
https://mymysterygrandfather.files.wordpress.com/2...ax-rudolf-xaver2.pdf
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Country of marriage from search on New Zealand BDM website in June 2022:
1936/9031. Bride: Iris Rita Morrison Groom: Frank Dent

Full date of marriage of 17 September 1936 from further searching in June 2022 on BDM Search by incrementally changing the date range for the marriage.

In an email dated 9 June 2022, Frank’s wife’s daughter, Betty Dent, writes that, “My mother Iris Rita Morrison, (known as Rita), married Frank Dent when he was 47 years old!”. This would place his year of birth as circa 1889 which matches earlier date of birth from Frank Dent, Betty’s nephew.