This roll of honour board commemorating the 11 men of the Greymouth section of New Zealand Railways who died in the First World War was unveiled at the Greymouth railway station in about 1921. The simple oak board was made in the same style as Southland’s. It is still on display at the railway station.
The board was intended to be one of 14 Railways Department roll of honour boards around the country, representing men from each rail district (Auckland, Ohakune, Whanganui, Wellington, Greymouth, Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill), the five main railway workshops (Newmarket, Petone, East Town, Addington, Hillside) and the department's head office. Westport was subsequently added to this list, bringing the total number to 15.
The Westport board contained four names which would otherwise have appeared on the Greymouth board: W.M. Butler, J.A. Godfrey, R. Quigley and J. Rennie. It is not known what became of this board. The Railways Department commemorated all railwaymen who died in a roll of honour board at the department's head office in 1922.
Three of those listed – labourer Gerald Barry, a private in the Canterbury Infantry Regiment; guard Michael Hagen Kilkenny, a private in the Machine Gun Corps; and clerk John Henry Laloli, a lance-corporal in the NZ Rifle Brigade – died on the same day. They were among the more than 840 New Zealanders killed at Passchendaele during the disastrous attack of 12 October 1917.
Others commemorated on the roll include guard Hohepa Taupaki Tawhai, who died in France on 7 December 1916 while serving with the NZ Pioneer Battalion, and clerk George Nichol Wallace, a member of the 5th (NZ) Light Railway Operating Company in Flanders, who died of illness on 12 October 1918.
ROLL OF HONOUR
MEMBERS OF THE STAFF WHO MADE
THE SUPREME SACRIFICE
FOR THEIR KING & COUNTRY
DURING THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918
GREYMOUTH SECTION
BARRY G.
FORD S.R.
KENYON B.D.
KILKENNY M.H.
LALOLI J.H.
RAMSAY R.C.
RASMUSSEN C.L.M.
SANGWELL W.H.P.
TAWHAI H.T.
WALLACE G.N.
WILLIS E.J.
N Z RAILWAYS
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