New Plymouth and surrounding areas Roll of Honour Project

Over the last few months the New Zealand Remembrance Army has been working with the RSA and the New Plymouth District Council on an idea that could see a Waterfront Walk of Remembrance in New Plymouth developed over the next few years to honour the fallen of the New Plymouth region. We think the numbers are around 500 service personnel.

Egmont Village and Oakura have no memorials, nor is there one main one in New Plymouth. Waitara, Inglewood and Okato all have fantastic memorials and therefore are out of scope.

What has become clear during our research is that there is no single consolidated list of all those who died in service from the wider New Plymouth area.

Their names appear across a number of different memorials — including New Plymouth Boys’ High School, the Omata War Memorial, Central School,St Mary’s church and a few smaller community memorials.

There are also references to fallen from Bell Block, while Oakura appears to have no war memorial at all.

What is missing is one complete Roll of Honour covering the catchment area of Bell Block, New Plymouth, Egmont Village, Omata and Oakura.

Our work aims to consolidate the full list of those from the region who died in service, from the South African War through to modern conflicts.

Importantly, there are no formal rules for what constitutes a war memorial roll of honour. Because of this, we are applying a practical approach when determining who should be included.

The key criteria we are using is a tangible connection to the wider New Plymouth area — for example if a person enlisted from the region, grew up here, lived here for a significant time, or has a strong family connection to the area.

We are deliberately taking a broad but sensible approach, reviewing each case individually.

If a person already appears on other memorials but their connection to Taranaki is only tenuous, we will carefully assess the evidence. In most cases we are looking for around 80% certainty of a genuine New Plymouth connection before including a name.

One concept currently being explored is a Waterfront Walk of Remembrance, potentially using ceramic plaques along the New Plymouth waterfront, creating a memorial walkway displaying the names of the fallen.

The research work has started with Bell Block and Oakura, with Omata next, before gradually building a full picture across the wider region.

It will be a significant project for the area and one that ensures the sacrifice of those from New Plymouth and the surrounding area is properly recorded and remembered.

We will keep everyone updated as the work progresses.

Lest we forget.

(Photo is a AI mock up and doesn’t reflect any design or location at this point. Its purely to give a visual on what could be possible)