Soldiers' War Memorials

Strath Taieri Soldiers' War Memorial, Middlemarch
Hyde Soldiers' War Memorial

Middlemarch

The Strath Taieri Soldiers' War Memorial in Middlemarch honors the heroic efforts of local men, who served in wars overseas. In particular, it commemorates 28 local men, who did not return from their war service.

The monuments history is described in H Thompson's 1949 centennial publication, "East of the Rock and Pillar" (pp. 186-187), from which the following is an abbreviated excerpt:

The Strath Taieri and Deep Stream Soldiers' Memorial was erected by the Farewell and Reception Committee on a corner section opposite the Strath Taieri School at the close of the Great War of 1914-1918 at a cost of £1,900. A fund was established by voluntary subscription for a permanent memorial to the Fallen Soldiers and their comrades of the Expeditionary Force. Wales of Mason and Wales, architects, provided the plans for a monument of Kokonga stone. The Roll of Honour is inscribed in gold lettering on red granite. The monument was unveiled in 1923. The Department of Internal Affairs took over the control of the Memorial Reserve, which since 1933, for five-yearly periods, has been vested in the Strath Taieri Soldiers' War Memorial Board. Each Anzac Day, a memorial service is conducted in the Agricultural and Pastoral hall followed by a parade of ex-servicemen to the Memorial Ground, where the Roll of Honour is read and the "Last Post" and "Reveille" are sounded.

In 1938, the Middlemarch branch of W.D.F.U. [Women’s Division of Federated Farmers] branches throughout Otago, with the assistance of the board and other interested men, laid out lawns, planted a shrubbery and renewed the rockery. At intervals garden seats have been donated.

Roll of honour

Made the Supreme Sacrifice

Boer War 1899-1902

Osborne, R

World War I 1914-1918

Bailey, R H	Jeffries, J	Moynihan, M A	Robertson, L
Beattie, J	Keast, J	Murphy, G	Scott, W
Burnes, J A	MacDougall, N S	Nivan, H J	Seoular, A
Burnet, T L	McClintock, A L	O'Keefe, V	Spratt, H
Cockerell, J	McMillan, H	Peat, A C	Spratt, T A
Gordon, J	Moriarty, D M	Pottinger, J	Stewart, J
Harris, L J	Morrison, W	Robertson, A G	Williams, T J

World War II 1939 -1945

Black, J R	Harraway, A R	James, V D	Neill, J D
Cunninghame, S G	Heenan, A C	Johnston, R N

Hyde

The Hyde Soldiers' Memorial was unveiled 24 May 1922.

The monument commorates 14 local men, who died overseas during WW i and WW II. It bears the following inscriptions:

"In Honour and Memory of those who died for the Empire's Cause, Great War 1914-1918, Hyde School & District."

World War I 1914-1918

Allen, Robert	Gilliespie, Francis	McKay, Andrew
Arthur, George	Howard, Ernest P	McLean, John
Benzie, Robert	Kinney, Francis J	Ramsay, J Allan
Christie, James	Mathewson, James L	White, Percy H