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HMS Philomel in Auckland, 1914

This photograph from September 1914 shows a warship and a troopship berthed at Auckland's port during the opening months of the First World War. HMS Philomel, New Zealand's first naval ship, is visible on the right-hand side berthed against the Quay Street jetty No. 2. On the left-hand side is the troopship Waimana. The ships are preparing for the departure of the Main Body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, which sailed from Wellington on 16 October that year.

Credit:

Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1-W1582A

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St Paul's Church memorials, Auckland

For some years Saint Paul’s Anglican Church in Symonds Street boasted an unusual memorial outside the church: a First World War memorial tram shelter. This was demolished in 1971, but there remain a number of other memorials inside the church: a Field Ambulance memorial plaque, a parish roll of honour, several New Zealand Wars memorial plaques, and a memorial to victims of the wreck of the HMS Wairarapa in 1894.

First World War memorial tram shelter

After the First World War, the St Paul’s congregation decided to build a tram shelter outside the church in memory of the men of the parish who had died on active service. Bishop W.A. Averill laid the foundation stone on 20 July 1919. Acting Minister of Defence Gordon Coates unveiled the completed building on 28 March 1920.

The architect D.B. Patterson had designed the shelter in a compatible style with the church behind it. It was solidly constructed of Rangitoto and Melbourne bluestone, with dressings of Oamaru stone. The words ‘Remembering these dead, let the living be humble’ were carved into the Tudor arch surmounting the entrance. To the left of the entrance was a tablet inscribed with the names of the First World War campaigns; to the right a tablet with a memorial inscription to the fallen. Inside was an Oamaru stone frieze inscribed with the names of 26 battles and a series of polished stone tablets inscribed with the names of 50 fallen (nine more names were added after the unveiling).

Four stained glass windows were later installed in the windows on the back wall.

When trams were replaced by buses in 1956, the building continued for a while in use as a bus shelter. However, after the bus stop was moved, it became a haunt for tramps and target for vandals. The parish demolished the building in December 1971. It is not known what happened to the stained glass windows and the stone tablets. The names of the fallen, at least, were preserved, since there is a roll of honour in the church’s Requiem Chapel. This polished wooden tablet lists in alphabetical order a total of 72 men connected with the church who died in the two world wars.

Field Ambulance memorial plaque

The tram shelter was not St Paul’s only First World War memorial: on 8 May 1921 Lady Jellicoe, wife of the Governor-General, unveiled a brass tablet inside the church in memory of officers and men of No. 3 Rifle Brigade Field Ambulance who fell during the war. This is headed: ‘Erected by No. 3 / (Rifle Brigade) / Field Ambulance / In memory of the / officers & men of the / unit who fell in France / in the Great War’ The names of nine officers are listed in order of rank; the place and date of death are also given. Two NCOs and 24 men are listed by name only. For some years the unit’s flag was displayed above the tablet.

New Zealand Wars memorial plaques

The Requiem Chapel also houses several brass New Zealand Wars memorial plaques. These are relics of the first St Paul’s church, which stood in Emily Place between 1841 and 1885, and which in its early years served as the city’s proto-cathedral and its garrison church. The plaques were transferred to the new St Paul’s when it was opened on the present site in 1895.

One of the tablets was erected in memory of Captain Thomas George Strange, who had been killed at Waitara in 1861. It reads: “To the memory / of / Thomas George Strange / Captain in Her Majesty’s / 65^th Regiment. / Born A.D. 1827. / Killed in action at Waitara, / in the / northern island of New Zealand. / February the 10^th 1861. / ‘The trumpet shall sound and the / dead shall be raised incorruptible / and we shall be changed.’ / This tablet was erected by his / sorrowing widow.”

Another was funded by members of the 1st Waikato Regiment to honour fellow soldiers who had been killed at the Battle of Titi Hill, Mauku, on 23 October 1863: “Sacred / to the / memory / of / Lieutenants Thomas Norman / and William Percival / & of / Corporal Michael Power & / Privates / William Beswick, George Oborne / Farqr. McGilvray and Wm. Williamson / of the 1st Waikato Regt. / who fell in action on the 23^rd October 1863 at Mauku / This tablet is erected by the / Officers Non Commisnd [sic] Officers & Privates / of the / Regiment.”

Yet another was erected in memory of Captain John Shaw Phelps: “To the memory of / John Shaw Phelps / Captain in H.M. 14^th Regiment of Foot, / only son of J.C. Phelps Esqr. / of Gostwyck, Paterson River, N.S.W. / Born in Sydney 21^st May, 1829. / Died, 25^th Nov. 1863. / At the Queen’s Redoubt, New Zealand. / From wounds received while gallantly / leading his company against the hostile / Maoris at Rangariri [sic] on the 20^th Nov. / An affectionate son, a loving brother, / and a true friend.”

Finally, there is a substantial brass tablet that evidently was once accompanied by memorial windows, and honours soldiers and sailors who were buried in the Symonds Street cemetery. It is inscribed as follows: “H.M.D.G. / These windows were re-erected in honoured memory of / [followed by names in five columns] [first column] Commodore Wm. F. Burnett C.B. / H.M.S. Orpheus / Lieutenant Wm. E. Mitchell / H.M.S. Esk / Assistant Surgeon / Geo. R. Pickthorn M.B. / H.M.S. Challenger / Midshipman Thomas A. Watkins / H.M.S. Curacoa / [second column] Colonel Chas. W. Austen / 2^nd Battn. 16^th Reg. / Colonel Marmaduke G. Nixon / Col. [?] Def. Force & Royal Caly. Vols. / Lieut Col John F. Kempt / 1^st Battn. 12^th Reg. / Major Henry Cole / 1^st Battn. 12^th Reg / [third column] Major E. Withers 65^th Reg. / Major James Paul / 65^th Reg. / Major Edward Cantrobus / 2^nd Waikato Militia / Capt. and St Major James T. Ring / 18^th Royal Irish / [fourth column] Capt. John S. Phelps / 14^th Foot / Capt. Henry Mercer / Royal Arty. / Capt. Richard Swift / 65^th Reg. / Lieut. Coll McLeod / 43^rd L.I. / [fifth column] Lieut. Wm. L. Murphy 1^st Battn. 12^th Reg. / Lieut. G.G.S. Menteath 70^th Reg. / Lieut. J.H. Wood Junr. / 2^nd Waikato Militia / Ensign Andrew Ducrow 40^th Reg. / Sergt. J.J. Hanson / Commt Staff Co. / Captain Geo. J. Dormer / 14^th Reg. / And other officers and men who gave their lives in service of the Empire, especially during the Maori Wars. / And whose bodies lie in the Symonds St. Cemetery, Auckland. / R.I.P.”

SS Wairarapa memorial tablet

St Paul’s is also the home of an elaborately carved marble tablet commemorating victims of the wreck of the SS Wairarapa. A total of 121 passengers and crew or more died after the ship struck the cliffs at Miners Head on Great Barrier Island on 29th October 1894. The tablet in St Pauls was erected by the Steward Department of the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand in honour of the ten men, women and boys of the department who lost their lives: William H. Judd, Charlotte McDonald, Annie McQuaid, Lizzie Grindrod, Harry Vear, Alexander McLean, Richard Croucher, Hugh Monaghan, Alfred Holmes and John McDonald.

Sources: ‘St Paul’s Memorial Shelter’, NZ Herald, 19/7/1919, p. 11; ‘St Paul’s Tram Shelter’, NZ Herald, 26/3/1920, p. 4; ‘The Soldiers’ Part: Memorial to Fallen’, NZ Herald, 29/3/1920, p. 6; ‘War Ambulance Work: Memorial at St Paul’s’, NZ Herald, 9/5/1921, p. 6; ‘Modern Chivalry’, Auckland Star, 9/5/1921, p. 8; Jackie Eaglen, A Brief History of St Paul’s Symonds Street, Auckland, 1991, pp. 14, 17; ‘Old Memorial Stone Shelter To Be Demolished’, NZ Herald, 30/12/1971, p. 1.

Credit:

Historical images: ‘Wayside shelter erected’, Auckland Weekly News, 1 April 1920, p. 35 (Auckland Libraries Sir George Grey Special Collections 1-W1825); Henry Winkelmann, Memorial tram shelter outside St Paul’s, 11 April 1922 (Auckland Libraries Sir George Grey Special Collections 1-W1825)
Other images and information: Bruce Ringer, Auckland Libraries, 2014

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Anzac Avenue, Auckland

In 1914 Auckland City Council began work on a new eastern outlet road from the waterfront, linking Beach Road with Symonds Street. This road followed the route of the old Jermyn Street, and the council initially proposed to name the new thoroughfare Jellicoe Street. However, in December 1916, at the suggestion of Councillor A.J. Entrican, it selected the name ‘Anzac Avenue’ instead, as a memorial to the men who had died at Gallipoli.

There is no record that the avenue was ever formally consecrated as a war memorial. However, on 19 September 1918, a tree planting ceremony was held to commemorate its construction. Governor-General the Earl of Liverpool planted two puriri trees at the corner of Waterloo Quadrant and Lower Symonds Street, opposite the Supreme Court building, and schoolchildren from various Auckland schools planted a number of other native trees and exotic shrubs.

The new concrete road was partially opened to traffic in June the following year, and a tram service began along it in February 1921 (one stop was the St Paul’s Church war memorial tram shelter which had been opened further up Symonds Street on 28 March 1920).

Auckland City Council donated a section in Anzac Avenue to the Auckland Women’s Patriotic League for a proposed Soldiers’ Club, but the scheme was never realized on the site.

Sources: ‘Memory of Brave Men’, NZ Herald, 1/12/1916, p. 9; ‘Changed Name Deplored’, NZ Herald, 29/6/1917, p. 4; ‘Anzac Avenue: Tree Planting Ceremony’, NZ Herald, 20/9/1918, p. 6; ‘The Soldiers’ Club’, NZ Herald, 5/6/1919, p. 7; ‘New Traffic Outlet’, Auckland Star, 10/7/1919, p. 7; G.W.A. Bush, Decently and in Order, Auckland, 1971, pp. 113, 116.

Credit:

Historical image: Henry Winkelmann, view in the vicinity of the Auckland railway yards, 26 June 1921 (Auckland Libraries Sir George Grey Special Collections 1-W1767)
Other images and information: Bruce Ringer, Auckland Libraries, 2014

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Kotere memorial, Mangere

On 10 May 1938, Union Airways Lockheed 10 Electra ZK-AFC Kotare crashed shortly after taking off for Palmerston North from the Mangere Aerodrome. Both members of the crew, the pilot, Commander C.M. Duthie, and the second officer, W.J. Peel, died (there were no passengers on board). This was the first fatal accident to occur on a scheduled air service in New Zealand.

On 10 May 2004, a commemorative service was held unveiling a memorial to the victims on the corner of John Goulter Drive and Ansett Place, Auckland International Airport.

Sources: Electra Flying: The Lockheed 10 Electra in New Zealand and the Pioneering of the Main Trunk Air Service, ed. Richard J. Waugh, Manukau City, 1998, pp. 24-51 [esp. pp. 33-4]; 'Honouring crash pilots', Aucklander East, 28/4/2004, p. 7; 'Pioneering incident remembered', Airport Times, no. 31, June 2004, p. 4.

Credit:

Images and information: Bruce Ringer, Auckland Libraries, 2013

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HMS Achilles memorial, St Heliers

On 16 January 1940, to recognize the role the New Zealand ship HMS Achilles had played in the Battle of the River Plate, Auckland City Council resolved to name the tip of the headland on the western side of the Tamaki River as Achilles Point. The headland itself was known to the Tainui people as Te Pane o Horoiwi, but commonly referred to as West Tamaki Head.

On 13 December 1940, a memorial lookout was opened on the point. Its structure took the form of a ship’s bow. The memorial plaque was inscribed:

This reserve is dedicated to / commemorate the gallant performance of H.M.S. Achilles / and the bravery of her captain / officers and ship’s company / in the victorious naval battle / fought in the South Atlantic / off the River Plate / on December 13th. 1939.

Two memorial seats were later dedicated adjacent to the memorial: one donated by Private J.E. (Ted) Scherer in memory of a friend, Douglas O. Stanley, who lost his life in England on 26 October 1940; the other donated later by Mr A.H. Scherer in memory of Private Scherer himself , who was killed in action in Italy on 10 April 1945.

The memorial as a whole was restored and upgraded in time for the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the River Plate in 2009. Another plaque was added commemorating the four naval ratings who lost their lives during the battle: Ordinary Seaman Ian W. Grant; Ordinary Telegraphist Neville J. Milburn, Able Seaman Archie C.H. Shaw, and Telegraphist Frank Stennett.

The redevelopment also included the installation of a new ship’s mast and the erection of three totara pou whenua on the boardwalk platform to acknowledge the Māori heritage of the site.

Sources: ‘Men of Achilles: Citizens’ Memorial: Opening Ceremony Today’, Auckland Star, 13/12/1940, p. 8; Elizabeth T. Jackson, Delving into the Past ... St Heliers Bay, 4th ed., Auckland 2005, p. 111; ‘Achilles Pt Platform Starts to Take Shape’, East & Bays Courier, 13/11/2009, p. 4.

Credit:

Images and information: Bruce Ringer, Auckland Libraries, 2014

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New Zealand Flying School pupils

Pupils of the New Zealand Flying School at Kohimarama pose with a Walsh-Curtiss flying boat, circa 1917. The first private flying school in New Zealand, Kohimarama was set up at an old mission station by Leo and Vivian Walsh in 1915 to train military pilots for the British aviation services.

Credit:

Air Force Museum of New Zealand
Accession number: ALB5364029
Permission of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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New Zealand's first military aircraft

New Zealand’s first military aircraft, a Blériot XI dubbed Britannia, on the ground at Epsom Racecourse, Auckland in 1914. Pilot Joe Hammond stands at right with goggles. Following the outbreak of war, New Zealand authorities returned the aircraft to England, where it flew for the Royal Flying Corps.

Credit:

Air Force Museum of New Zealand
Accession number: 2011/406.14
Permission of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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St Alban's Church memorial tower

The memorial tower at St Alban's Church, Dominion Road, Auckland. The tower was dedicated in October 1923 - see this related article from the Auckland Star, 15 October 1923.

This article from 26 August 1918 has more information about the font in the church, which was donated as a memorial to the sons of Mr. J.W. Bailey who had been killed in the First World War.

The church features the names of a number of servicemen who are listed on memorial plaques, pews, on the font and the altar:

First World War

Allan Richard Bailey 1297
Henry Irwin Bailey 10073
Ernest Claude Cook 3/2615
Henry George Clark 4/1905
Edwin Mitchelson Clark 12/3920
Herbert William Cox 2/2391
William Emmins 21234
Karl Jenkins 56303
Herbert Samuel Mackay 12/2023
Robert Alexander Reid 26914
Cecil Francis Cantlay 23969
James Charles Booth 46430
Cecil Frank Booth 21485

Second World War

William John Green NZ421702
Allan Warden Pugh 28783
Edward Henry Vazey A/1821

The foundation stone reads:

To the Greater Glory of God
Let the Living be Humble
1914-1918
This stone was laid by
Alfred Walter Bishop of Auckland
October 29 1922

Credit:

Images and information: John Halpin, 2014

Find out more about the men listed on these memorials from Auckland Museum's Cenotaph website

Hospital ship souvenir programme

Public appeals in 1915 got many New Zealanders behind ‘their’ hospital ships. This souvenir programme is a memento of a patriotic sports carnival held on 3 July 1915. It began with a grand parade through the city streets to the Auckland Domain, where the sports included rugby, rugby league, football, hockey and women's basketball.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: Ehp-A-WAR-WI-Patriotic-1915-01-front
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any reuse of their images.

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John Logan Campbell

In the winter of 1840, recent immigrant John Logan Campbell and his business partner William Brown settled on an island at the mouth of the Waitematā Harbour, confident that the Tāmaki Peninsula would soon house the colony’s capital. By the time the capital shifted south the following year, Campbell was poised to make a tremendous profit from – and contribution to – the growth of the town. He became known as the Father of Auckland.

From a warehouse in Shortland Crescent, Campbell and his partner conducted their business as general merchants (with Māori trade particularly profitable), auctioneers, shipping and commission agents, and land speculators. The speculative coup of this period was the purchase in September 1853 of a superb 1000-acre [405-ha] suburban farm, which Campbell renamed One Tree Hill. Much against his inclinations he became caught up in politics, serving as provincial superintendent and as a member of the House of Representatives for the City of Auckland in 1855–56.

But the pioneer life which was quickly making Campbell wealthy did not satisfy him. He felt ‘banished from every thing that can be called society.’ In November 1856 he left the colony to begin his ‘season of enjoyment’, funded by his business interests back in Auckland. Campbell, his much younger wife and their two daughters divided their time between resorts and spas in Italy, Switzerland, France and Britain until 1871, when they returned to New Zealand for good.

In the late nineteenth century, Campbell expanded his commercial empire into timber milling and breweries, founded Auckland’s first school of art, and served on more than 40 committees, boards, trusts or directorates. No ceremonial occasion in Auckland was complete without his presence. In 1901, at the age of 83, Campbell was persuaded to serve as honorary mayor of Auckland to welcome the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and of York to New Zealand. He took the opportunity of the heir apparent’s tour to gift 230 acres [93 ha] of One Tree Hill to New Zealand, renaming it Cornwall Park.

By R.C.J. Stone; adapted by Matthew Tonks

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