Bay Harbour: November 21, 2018

Wednesday November 21 2018
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WW2 victims remembered at rose garden
• By Louis Day
ABOUT 60 people remembered
21 Addington railway workshop
workers on Saturday who did not
return from World War 2.
The special ceremony at
Ferrymead Heritage Park was a
great success, said organiser Jude
Turner.
Augustas O’Malley, who was
one of the 21 railway workers,
was killed on board the HMS
Jupiter after hitting a Dutch mine
off the coast of Indonesia.
After working as an electric
plater for the Addington railway
workshops, Mr O’Malley died
in February 1942 at the age of
22 after joining the navy in July
1941.
Mr O’Malley was represented
by relative, Denise O’Malley-
Grey, at the commemoration.
Mrs O’Malley-Grey said the
memorial service gave the closure
needed for her great uncle.
“For me, as part of Gus’s
family, it honestly felt like he had
been brought home to rest.”
Mrs O’Malley-Grey said she
had been on a “journey” in
getting to know her great uncle
since she was sent one of his
memorial medals along with his
navy records.
“He was a stoker in the boiler
room, so he was quite in the
middle of it when there was the
massive explosion that hit the
ship, and of course those guys in
the boiler room wouldn’t have
stood a chance.”
His body was never recovered.
“He was killed in 1942,
his mother didn’t receive the
telegram till 1945. His father died
in 1944 not even knowing he had
lost his son.”
George Nelson’s descendant,
Linda Perkins, felt the service
was exactly what the 21 men
deserved.
“I went along with my two
cousins and it was a beautiful day
with the roses out in bloom. It
was really nice people other than
our family could acknowledge
the sacrifice George made.”
Sergeant Nelson worked
as a fitter and turner at the
Addington railways before
NOT FORGOTTEN: Family
members of some of the men
commemorated at Ferrymead
Heritage Park come together
in remembrance.
enlisting in the air force.
He was killed in action
on October 2, 1942, on his
first operational flight over
Dusseldorf, Germany.
“It is great to have a
permanent reminder of George
and somewhere for the other
members of the family to go
remember him. Not all people
are able to visit the graves of their
loved ones overseas.”
Descendants of Alan Davies
were also in attendance at the
memorial.
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Augustas O’Malley worked
as an electric plater at the
Addington railway workshops
before enlisting in the navy.
George Nelson died aged 21
in his first operational flight
over Dusseldorf.
BAY HARBOUR
PAGE 17
Fire rages, homes at risk
Rose garden roll of honour
•Army: William Allen Cooke,
Neil Studley Galyer, Arthur
Higham, Frank Herbert G.
Lancaster, Brian Patrick
Pope, Sydney James Smith,
Geoffrey Edmund White,
John Joseph Williams.
•Air force: Harold Roger
Blake, John Wallace Henry,
Albert John Victor Hunt,
John Allan Horgan, John
Douglas Jacobs, Frederick
Aylward Jennings, John
Bernard Kennedy, John
Reginald Rundle, Robert
Arnold Southward, Robert
Bruce Wilson.
•Families found: Alan
Charles Davies (army),
George Nelson (air force),
Augustus Michael O’Malley
(navy).