Pages tagged with: death

Just over ninety years ago, in November 1918, New Zealand was in the grip of its worst-ever disease outbreak. A lethal influenza pandemic killed more than 8600 people in two months. No other event has claimed so many New Zealand lives in such a short time.

Acknowledging the sacrifices of those who served or died was an important way for communities, including schools,  to make sense of the human cost of war.

The following roll lists the names of seafarers who died while serving on New Zealand merchant ships and New Zealanders known to have been lost while sailing under the flags of other countries (mainly Britain).

Many people believed that the second wave of the 1918 influenza pandemic arrived in New Zealand in the form of ‘a deadly new virus’ on board the RMS Niagara.

Identifying victims is a major task following any mass tragedy. A number of circumstances made this process particularly difficult at Tangiwai.

The end of the American invasion was a gradual process which started in the last months of 1943. For some New Zealanders it was a relief to see the men go; for others it was an occasion of sadness and, before long, grief as many Americans died, especially in the invasion of Tarawa Island.

Cemetery for New Zealand soldiers, Bangaranga, Vella Lavella

A soldier looks at dead bodies on a Pacific beach

Grave of Maori leaders killed at Mahoetahi

Between May and June 1860, Richard Foreman lost his wife and three of their children to scarlet fever. Their grave lies in St Mary's Church, New Plymouth.

Grave of Thomas Millard who was killed at Waireka in 1860

John Edmund Sarten was the first official fatality of the Taranaki War

Nightcaps in Southland suffered one if the highest death rates in the country during the 1918 influenza pandemic – 45.9 per 1000 people died.

Jacquie Baxter and Stephanie Baxter at the unveiling of the gravestone of James K. Baxter at Jerusalem, Whanganui River, photographed in October 1973.