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Ngatimoti Anzac Day

(April 25th 2015)
Report by Coralie Smith

With our monthly meeting falling on Anzac Day, the Motueka and District Historical Association decided to join the people of Ngatimoti at their Anzac Day service at 10.30am held in St James Church and then proceeding out to the War Memorial on the same site.

Reverend Wayne Thornton and Reverend Neil Bowdler conducted the service after the bell that hangs outside was rung. The Motueka Municipal Band provided the hymn music and Captain Gwyn Rees, MBE, RNZN (retired), gave the speech, his second for the day, as he spoke at the Motueka Dawn Parade as well.

Padre Trevor Squires conducted the military part of the service while the Motueka cadets were posted round the memorial. The names of the men on the memorial and also from the brass tablet inside the church were read out and a bell rung after each one by Les Stanton, Motueka RSA. They were also named on the white crosses in the Fields of Remembrance formation.

Wreaths were laid by groups and individuals and then a cup of tea and scone enjoyed by an exceptionally large crowd.

We had taken our lunch as well so we sat in the sun and listened to local resident Anne McFadgen as she told us how she came to research further each of the 20 men who died in WW1 of the 42 who had joined up and served from the district.

Anne is a recently retired reference library who worked at the TDC library in Motueka. So she knew where to go for material. She had a lot of queries about William Ham and realised there was no material at National Library sources. So she set about finding out about him and writing his story for The Prow.

In the meantime Ed Stevens, Ngatimoti historian, had written a story for Motueka Online about raising money for two flagpoles at Ngatimoti for the New Zealand and Australian flags to be flown on Anzac Day. He heard of Annes skills and together they have worked on researching and writing up what they found. Ed used local knowledge and his card index while Anne used the internet and her reference library.

The names on the memorial itself appear to be those men who lived in the valley when they signed up and the names in the church are those who had a connection to valley people. One man Alan de Castro is the odd man out but it appears he did have a distant connection to the Salisbury and Strachan families.

I am not going to tell all the stories here but will mention the names Anne talked about.

Ralph Watson and the Everett family who had seven members serve as soldiers and nurses have to be unique in NZ history. Their story is an example of a family doing more than its fair share for its country.

George Stuart was an orphan who had a tragic childhood and his war service was no happier.

Wilmot Grooby came from a dysfunctional family and his family story reads like a novel.

Francis Strachan's mother wrote a story called "Our Boy" which relates how much the family was affected by his death.

William Ham whose story is more typical for rural New Zealand.

On this special day which commemorated 100 years since the Gallipoli landings by Australian and New Zealand soldiers it was hard to imagine a more beautiful place to be than Ngatimoti. A stark difference to the beach and cliffs where many of these men fought.

Les Stanton and cadet at Ngatimoti Memorial


Motueka Historical members at Ngatimoti

 
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