CHURCH MEMORIALS

ST. PAUL'S ANGLICAN CHURCH

The main church memorial to Papanui servicemen is contained in the churchyard of St Paul's Anglican Church on Harewood Road, near the intersection with Papanui and Main North Roads. In July 1919, at a meeting of the vestry of St Paul's, the vicar Rev Orbell suggested the building of a memorial lych gate. A public meeting was held which approved the idea and fund-raising began. However, insufficient funds were forthcoming for a lych gate, and so it was proposed that a gate consisting of two stone pillars supporting memorial tablets be built. These gates were dedicated by the Archbishop of Christchurch on 12 November 1922. The Church News reported that the gates " will consist of two bold red stone Gothic pillars, standing nearly eight feet high, with iron gates between. Into the pillars will be let panels of black Bluff granite, on which the names of the fallen are cut in bold relief, in a very effective manner.”

Some time later, these gates were demolished and the memorials tablets built into a cairn-style stand-alone memorial within the churchyard, as shown in the photograph above.

PERSONAL MEMORIALS

Memorials to individual soldiers are contained on plaques within churches, or on family headstones in local church cemeteries. Plaques commemorating James MacArthur and Frederick Daly are on the back wall of the Papanui Methodist Church in Harewood Road. Three soldiers are commemorated in St Giles' Presbyterian Church in Papanui Road.

Some men who died are commemorated in local churchyards.

The Claridge family grave in St Paul's. Thomas is buried with his parents, and his brothers Benjamin and Isaac are commemorated here.

Fred Durey's memorial in St James' churchyard in Harewood Road, near the airport.