Bay Harbour: July 27, 2022

Bay Harbour News Wednesday July 27 2022
12
NEWS
• From page 11
Fittingly, this memorial is
scheduled to be unveiled on
Remembrance Day, November
11, due to the New Zealand
Remembrance Army, a charity
dedicated to restoring war graves.
McLaughlin joined as a
volunteer and has identified the
resting places of 436 veterans in
the Sydenham Cemetery.
From that number, 43 are
unmarked, including four other
Great War survivors, whose
service will also be recognised by
granite headstones with a ceramic
poppy attached.
Fahey will be acknowledged,
figuratively, alongside Sapper
Ernest Perry, Private William
Hudson Wingham and Sergeant
George Withers.
Sergeant Alan Grimshaw, a
member of Jayforce who also
served in the Royal New Zealand
Army Medical Corps during the
Malayan Emergency, belatedly
benefits from McLaughlin’s tireless
fact-finding as well. He died,
aged 80, in 1999.
Eventually, the Remembrance
Army wants to restore up
to 15,000 service graves in
Christchurch and Canterbury
so the dead are appreciated for
generations to come.
A dozen more headstones have
already been earmarked for Sydenham,
while 200 poppies are
destined for Linwood Cemetery.
Remembrance Army chief
executive Simon Strombom said
while all service graves in Wellington
and Taranaki had been
restored, there was still work to
do in Canterbury.
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Researching 16,000 plots leads to headstones
WAR MEMORIAL: Terry McLaughlin places a makeshift cross on the unmarked grave of
Gallipoli veteran Private Patrick Fahey in Sydenham Cemetery until a granite headstone is
installed in November.
PHOTO: CHRIS BARCLAY
“It’s going to take three or
four years, we’re going to make
a substantial investment in Canterbury,”
he said,
McLaughlin’s connection
to the Remembrance Army
stemmed from growing up near
the Avro Woodford factory –
home of the RAF’s famed WW2
vintage Lancaster bomber.
“I’ve always had an interest in
military history. I grew up with it
(in Cheshire) with it all around,”
the 69-year-old said.
“I was brought up about half
a mile from the Avro factory. I
reckon I’ve seen every Avro Vulcan
ever made fly over my house
at 150 feet, coming into land.”
McLaughlin, who moved to
New Zealand in 1986, went to a
Remembrance Army working
bee last year, where it was
suggested Sydenham Cemetery
was his ideal location to explore
because he lived nearby.
“I thought; ‘That’s alright then,
I’ve always liked cemeteries’.
Then I went to the city council
website and found there’s nearly
16,000 burials there. I thought:
‘I’m retired and have plenty of
spare time’.
“I did one pass through the
cemetery, it took a few days obviously,
and then I took a photo of
every headstone that could have
possibly belonged to a service
veteran,” he said, explaining
he excluded people born before
1860 or after the 1930s.
“Once I’d eliminated the
photos of headstones of people
who didn’t have a service history
I started going through the cemetery
ledgers. I’ve audited every
burial there.
“There’s some amazing stories
and the fact the Remembrance
Army is uncovering and
recording them for posterity is
what matters.”
NUMBER ONE SUPPLIER
TO THE NZ JET BOATING
COMMUNITY FOR OVER
50 YEARS
SERVICING
• Part Boats & Hulls
• Turn Key Packages
• New Jet Units
• Custom Fabrication
• Expert Advice
• Spare Parts Retailer
• Jet Unit Refurbishment
• Engine Tune-Ups
• Insurance Repairs
• Impellor Reconditioning
Read local
03 962 0505
Lunns Road, Middleton