About the memorials register

The memorials register is an ongoing project to document memorials throughout New Zealand.

At this stage it mainly includes civic First World War memorials. There are plans to add memorials from other wars and from non-military commemorations (e.g. centennial memorials) in the coming months. Use the navigation on the far right to find memorials from different regions.

First World War memorials

This register of 453 public First World War memorials was initially compiled by Jock Phillips. More about some of the memorials can be found in Jock Phillips and Chris Maclean, The Sorrow and the Pride: New Zealand War Memorials (1990).

Each record contains information about the location and appearance of the memorial; some records include the unveiling date and the number of soldiers listed who died in the First World War. Most of the records link to images of memorials.

How you can help

There are gaps in the records. We invite you to check your local First World War memorial to see if there are any gaps that you could fill. We want to add more lists of the names of the First World War dead that appear on the memorials.

We also welcome images where these are missing from the register. If you are sending digital images we would prefer you to scan these at a high resolution - 200dpi or 300dpi - and send them to us as either .tif or .jpeg files. Please do not resize images before sending.

If you can help with either of these projects please send your information to info@nzhistory.net.nz and we will add it to the register.

You can also post images to us at: History Group, Ministry for Culture and Heritage, PO Box 5364, Wellington.

If you wish to nominate a First World War memorial that does not appear on our register then please include an image and any information about the memorial such as its unveiling date and exact location.

Suggestion for teachers

Teachers, why not use the register for a class project on your local memorial? You might want to get your students to find out more about the people listed on it and create a web project for your school website. Please let us know if you do this and we will be sure to link to it!