Taranaki War Graves Receive Special Visit

Taranaki’s involvement in World Wars One and Two and will be remembered during Labour Weekend with the visit of the Vice-Chairman of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.


Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Squire has travelled to New Zealand with his wife Lady Carolyn Squire. As part of Sir Peter’s programme, he will be taken on an inspection of true war graves of WWI and WWII in Te Henui Cemetery on Sunday 21 October.

He will also see true war graves at Waiongona Maori Cemetery, Waipapa Maori Cemetery, and the Waitara, Tataraimaka, Inglewood and Okato cemeteries. These visits will be brief as most of these cemeteries contain only one war grave.

There are 31 ‘true war graves’ from WWI and WWII in Te Henui Cemetery. True war graves are those of serving members of the forces who died during wartime, or shortly afterwards, from war-related causes.

Sir Peter will be accompanied by John Hart, who is travelling here from Thames as a representative of the Middlesex Regimental Association to lay a wreath at the 57th Regiment Memorial.

Manager Parks Mark Bruhn says NPDC is honoured to have such a senior representative of the War Graves Commission in Taranaki.

“It’s due to the dedication of council staff and local RSA members that the district’s war graves – and cemeteries in general – are of a very high standard,” he says.

“I think Sir Peter will leave here very impressed by the care that is given to the district’s true war graves.”

The NZ Government acts as agent for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in caring for these true war graves.

The commission last visited Te Henui Cemetery three years ago when then Vice-Chairman General Sir John Wilsey and his wife Lady Wilsey were in New Zealand to attend the interment of an unknown warrior at the National War Memorial in Wellington on November 11 – Armistice Day.