The Pātūtahi First World War memorial is a white marble statue of a soldier standing on a pedestal constructed from blocks of New Zealand marble; this in turn is mounted on a stepped concrete plinth. The local war memorial committee ordered the memorial from monumental masons E. Knight and Wilmont in June 1920 and it was unveiled on 29 September 1921.
The granite tablet on the front face of the column was inscribed with the names of 40 First World War servicemen from the district who gave their lives. A further 16 names were added after the Second World War; the new tablet was dedicated on Anzac Day 1948.
The memorial covers Pātūtahi and the nearby communities of Ngātapa, Waerenga-o-kuri and Waituhi.
See: ‘Patutahi Memorial’, Poverty Bay Herald, 28/6/1920, p. 5; ‘Patutahi District Soldiers’ Memorial’ [public notice], Poverty Bay Herald, 24/9/1921, p. 1; Our First Hundred Years: Patutahi School Diamond Jubilee, Gisborne, 1978, pp. 39-40; ‘Tablet Dedicated: Patutahi Memorial’, Gisborne Herald, 26/4/1948, p. 4.
Main image: Jock Phillips and Chris Maclean, c. 1986
Other images and text: Bruce Ringer, 2016