The memorials register is an ongoing project to document memorials throughout New Zealand.
At this stage it mainly includes civic First World War memorials and memorials from the New Zealand Wars and South African War. There are plans to add memorials from non-military commemorations (e.g. centennial memorials) in the future.
First World War memorials
A register of 453 public First World War memorials was initially compiled by Jock Phillips. More about some of the memorials can be found in Jock Phillips and Chris Maclean, The Sorrow and the Pride: New Zealand War Memorials (1990).
Each record contains information about the location and appearance of the memorial; some records include the unveiling date and the number of soldiers listed who died in the First World War. Most of the records link to images of memorials.
Since the register was launched many more memorials have been added, largely contributed by members of the public.
How you can help
There are gaps in the records. We invite you to check your local memorials to see if they are on the register. We are keen to add more lists of the names of those that appear on the memorials – either as transcriptions or images of the plaques that the names appear on.
We also welcome images where these are missing from the register. If you are sending digital images we would prefer you to scan these at a high resolution - 200dpi or 300dpi - and send them to us as .jpg files. Please do not resize images before sending. We are also very keen to find the exact location of memorials where these are known.
If you can help with either of these projects please send your information to [email protected] and we will add it to the register.
You can also post images to us at: History Group, Ministry for Culture and Heritage, PO Box 5364, Wellington.
Suggestion for teachers
Teachers, why not use the register for a class project on your local memorial? You might want to get your students to find out more about the people listed on it and create a web project for your school website. Please let us know if you do this and we will be sure to link to it!
Acknowledgements
The memorials register would not have been possible without the contributions of many volunteers all over New Zealand who have generously sent in images, contextual information and geo-location data for us to use. We are very grateful to everyone one who has helped out over the years.
We would particularly like to acknowledge the contributions of Bruce Comfort, Francis Vallance, Glennis Austin, Ron Lambert, Bruce Cavanagh, Christine Chambers, Bruce Ringer and John Halpin.
About the memorials
Read an essay on First World War memorials by Jock Phillips.