St Peter’s Anglican Church, Hamilton, which was dedicated on 12 December 1916, became a cathedral church ten years later. The first war memorial tablet installed in the church was unveiled in memory of the late Captain Harry Keith Sare on 19 August 1917 (there are also plaques in honour of Captain Joseph Fleming Keith Hunter and Second Lieutenant Cedric Kenny Onslow Graham.
The Soldier’s Memorial Chapel of St George on the cathedral’s south wall was dedicated on 22 October 1933. This accommodated a roll of honour and a memorial altar. The roll of honour lists 55 names, including those of three nursing sisters (Phoebe Mary Reynolds, Ruth Ada Sanderson and Isobel Mary Whyte). The stained glass window in the chapel was presented in memory of Jack Holden, who died of wounds at Gallipoli. Returned servicemen and relatives of the fallen also donated a sanctuary lamp of remembrance in 1935.
The roll of honour for the NZ Field Artillery G Battery is displayed near the memorial chapel. The Second Medium Battery roll of honour was added after the Second World War. There is also a Waikato Mounted Rifles memorial plaque.
Sources: ‘Waikato News: Memorial Unveiled’, Auckland Star, 20/8/1917, p. 2; Paul and Gabrielle Day, Three Score and Fifteen: The Cathedral Church of St Peter, Hamilton, 1915-1990, Hamilton, 1990, pp. 25-6, 31, 46-7.
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