On 21 December 1919 a handsomely carved oak roll of honour was unveiled at St Lukes Presbyterian Church, Remuera. This listed 65 former members of the parish who had served during the war, including two women, Sisters E.E. Beattie and B. Maxfield, and a minister, the Rev. J.T. Macky, who had served with the YMCA. Fourteen men had lost their lives. The roll of honour was transferred to the new church when this opened in 1932.
After the Second World War, the First World War list was reconfigured to allow the addition of the names of 58 men and ten women who served during the Second World War (three deaths). A three-light stained glass memorial window was also unveiled on the eastern wall of the nave. The accompanying plaque reads: “Erected / to the Glory of God / and in memory of / the men and women from this church / who served in the Great Wars / 1914 – 18 [and] 1939 – 45”.
St Lukes also has several memorial trees. The three oak trees in front of the church were planted in memory of young men from St Lukes who died during the Second World War: Kenneth Neil Campbell, Alec Ian Miller and James Withers Watters.
In 1946 the church’s minister, Robert McDowall, planted three silver birch trees alongside the church in memory of the Allied prisoners of war who had been interned in Stalag IVB. Rev. McDowall had volunteered for service as a military chaplain, been captured in North Africa in 1941, and imprisoned first in Italy then in Germany. He served chaplain and senior officer at Stalag IVB from September 1943 to April 1945, when the camp was liberated by the Russians. Four additional silver birches were planted in 1990. In 2009 the earliest silver birch trees were replaced, at which time a new memorial plaque was installed.
See: St Luke’s Presbyterian Church, Remuera: Jubilee Souvenir, Auckland, 1925, pp. 23-4.
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