The funding request from the Matangi Community Committee to the Heritage Fund of the Waikato District Council for a WW 1 Roll of Honour listing those who served in the armed forces has been approved. The commemorative board will now be created and placed in the Matangi Hall in November.

The Matangi Poppy Tree project last year prompted research that revealed how deeply affected the local community would have been by the 1914 – 1918 war.

By 1914 Matangi was a busy farming area with a railway station, school, post office and dairy factory – a typical rural area from which many young men signed up or were conscripted to serve in far off lands. Most of those who joined from Matangi were farmers or worked on farms. Other occupations included analytical chemist, boxmaker, butcher, cheesemaker, engineer, fitter, mechanic and platelayer.

A list of those who served has been compiled from research by Eris Parker of the Cambridge Museum, Dave Homewood of the Le Quesnoy Friendship Association, and from access to records provided by the New Zealand Defence Force, the Auckland and Waikato Museums, and in consultation with some local families. It is not complete as not everyone signed up in the same place, and records do not always include place of residence and occupation.  As an illustration of this difference William Ranstead, a Matangi farmer, signed up when he was in London.

A roll of honour was first suggested in 1916 and recorded in the Waikato Times on 29 December, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WT19161229.2.28?query=Matangi , on the occasion of a farewell in Matangi to 4 men going to camp and 2 on final leave:

 “Regret has been expressed in many quarters that a record has not been kept of all the boys who have gone from the district to help the Empire in her need. It is not too late to remedy this, and I suggest the placing of a tablet in our new school with the names inscribed. The following are among those who have gone:—Ranstead (4), Rowe (3), McClennan (2), Thomas (2), Mudford (2), Holloway. Sutherland, Ticklepenny, Bell, De Ville, Murray, King, Coghlan, Corrigan, Campbell, Phillips, Cranston. Elliott, McLaig, Libeau, Mitchell, McWilliams, Burns, Shepherd, Bowyer Hamil. Hinton, Snow, Marychurch, Gray, Smith, Ballinger, Kennedy, Wright, Robinson, Tyler and Thompson. There are probably some others, But the above 45 represent a big gap in the district. I would be glad to receive any farther names which may have been omitted to add to the list”

It is sobering to think of the community having so many young people away, not knowing whether they will return, and regularly meeting to farewell more.

The list of names now needs to be finalised for the Roll of Honour. Identified names are listed below. Please let us know of any queries you may have, omissions from the list or any extra information you may be able to supply*.

WW1 Service 1914 -1918 – Matangi area

 † Died in service

 Ballinger, Frank Heath

Ballinger, Thomas Edwin†

Barkley, Reginald

Beer, Enos William jr.

Bell, Harold Douglas

Bowyer, Stephen Bernard

Brown, Charles Clarence†

Burns, Fredrick John

Calleson, Ernest

Campbell, Findlay Augustus†

Cameron, William C

Churches, Edwin George†

Coghlan, Clarence Arthur

Corrigan

Cranston, Arthur

De Ville, Percy

Eales, Bertie Ernest

Elliott, William†

Ewen, Sedgewick Adrian

Ewen, Lyndsay Keith

Graham, Robert

Gray, George

Hamill ,Sydney Walter Frank

Heaslip, Benjamin John

Heaslip

Hinton, Leslie Frank

Hinton, Percy

Holloway, Thomas

Kennedy

King

Libeau, Alfred George†

Libeau, Eric John†

Marychurch, Arthur ?

McLaig

Medland, Alphonso

Medland , Bertie†

McClennan, Alexander

McClennan, James

McClennan, William

McWilliams, Gilbert

Mitchell, Reginald Paul

Mudford, Herbert George

Mudford, James Ernest

Murray, Jack

Pascoe, Thomas

Porter, William

Phillips, Thomas Wallace†

Poynter, Ernest

Ranstead, George Morris

Ranstead, Ralph

Ranstead, Thomas Lawrence

Ranstead, William

Robinson, Stanley Elwin

Rowe, Alfred Percival Henry

Rowe, Charles Reginald Victor

Rowe, Frederick Norman

Shepherd

Smith, George Enoch

Snow

Smith, Herbert

Sutherland, Robert Mill

Taylor, James

Thomas, Reginald Augustus

Thompson, James Thomas†

Ticklepenny

Tyler

Wright

Ward, Frederick Ernest

*To suggest any addition or alteration please contact Faye Douglas 8295799, fayze54@gmail.com,

 Ian Wallace, 8295848 imwallace@xtra.co.nz, or Kitty Burton, 8295806, burton@hnpl.net