Soldiers' War Memorials

Middlemarch

The Strath Taieri Soldiers' War Memorial in Middlemarch honours the service of local men, who served in wars overseas. In particular, it commemorates 28 local men, who did not return from WW1.

The monument's history is described in H Thompson's 1949 centennial publication, "East of the Rock and Pillar" (pp. 186-187), from which the following is an expanded excerpt:

The Strath Taieri and Deep Stream Soldiers' Memorial was first mooted by the Farewell and Reception Committee in 1916, with a fund established on 17 November that year. The Minister of Internal Affairs formally approved the establishment of a fund in April 1918. The fund, by voluntary subscription, was to provide a permanent memorial to the Fallen Soldiers and their comrades of the Expeditionary Force.

Burrows Irwin, father of the local doctor Emma Irwin, was the first chairman of the Strath Taieri Soldiers’ Farewell and Reception Association and the originator of the resolution to establish the fund “to perpetuate the memory of our fallen soldiers” (ODT, 17 June 1919). Thomas William Wise followed him, while William D’Arcy Mason served as a tireless secretary.

Several designs were submitted. A large majority selected a design by Wales of Mason and Wales, architects. Choosing between Coromandel granite and Kokonga stone, the latter was selected by a subcommittee consisting of the chairman and secretary, Jack Milne, James Robertson and William Moynihan.

The memorial was erected on a corner section opposite the Strath Taieri School at the end of the war for £104, and the monument erected at a cost of £1,900. The Roll of Honour is inscribed in gold lettering on red granite. The monument was unveiled in 1923.

The Department of Internal Affairs took over the control of the Memorial Reserve, which since 1933, for five-yearly periods, has been vested in the Strath Taieri Soldiers' War Memorial Board.

Each Anzac Day, a memorial service is conducted in the Agricultural and Pastoral hall followed by a parade of ex-servicemen to the Memorial Ground, where the Roll of Honour is read and the "Last Post" and "Reveille" are sounded.

In 1938, the Middlemarch branch of W.D.F.U. [Women’s Division of Federated Farmers] branches throughout Otago, with the assistance of the board and other interested men, laid out lawns, planted a shrubbery and renewed the rockery. At intervals garden seats have been donated.

Roll of honour

Made the Supreme Sacrifice

Boer War 1899-1902

Osborne, R

World War I 1914-1918

Bailey, R H	Jeffries, J	Moynihan, M A	Robertson, L
Beattie, J	Keast, J	Murphy, G	Scott, W
Burnes, J A	Macdougall, N S	Niven, H J	Scoular, A
Burnet, T L	McClintock, A L	O'Keefe, V	Spratt, H
Cockerell, J	McMillan, H	Peat, A C	Spratt, T A
Gordon, J	Moriarty, D M	Pottinger, J	Stewart, J
Harris, L J	Morrison, W	Robertson, A G	Williams, T J

World War II 1939 -1945

Black, J R	Harraway, A R	James, V D	Neill, J D
Cunninghame, S G	Heenan, A C	Johnston, R N

Hyde

The Hyde Soldiers' Memorial was unveiled 24 May 1922.

The monument commorates 14 local men, who died overseas during WW I and WW II. It bears the following inscriptions:

"In Honour and Memory of those who died for the Empire's Cause, Great War 1914-1918, Hyde School & District."

World War I 1914-1918

Allen, Robert	Gilliespie, Francis	McKay, Andrew
Arthur, George	Howard, Ernest P	McLean, John
Benzie, Robert	Kinney, Francis J	Ramsay, J Allan
Christie, James	Mathewson, James L	White, Percy H