The Clive First World War memorial was unveiled by General Sir Andrew Russell on Anzac Day 1921. The memorial was a life-size statue of a New Zealand infantryman, carved from Coromandel granite and mounted on a 14-ft high pedestal. According to the report of the ceremony published in the Hawkes Bay Tribune, the figure was ‘believed to be the first granite figure ever made in New Zealand’. The sculptor was Richard Gross and the work was designed and constructed by the Hawke’s Bay Monumental Works, Napier.
The main inscription reads:-
FOR / HONOUR & GLORY / THIS STONE WAS ERECTED / TO THE MEMORY OF / THE CLIVE BOYS / WHO FOUGHT / IN THE GREAT WAR / 1914-1918.
There follows the names of 135 men, mostly listed in order of embarkation. Twenty-five of the men were killed in action.
After the Second World War, four additional panels were placed on the memorial:
THESE PANELS WERE ERECTED TO PERPETUATE / THE MEMORY OF THOSE IN THIS DISTRICT / WHO SERVED OVERSEAS IN THE 2ND WORLD WAR / 1939 – 1945.
These listed the names of 15 men who had been killed and another 121 men who had served (six in the Navy, 90 in the Army, nine in the Maori Battalion, and 16 in the Air Force), as well as two nurses. The panels were unveiled on 6 March 1948.
Sources: ‘In Other Places’, Evening Post, 26/4/1921, p. 4; ‘Clive: Unveiling of War Memorial’, Hawkes Bay Tribune, 26/4/1921, p. 5.
Main image: Jock Phillips and Chris Maclean, c. 1986; other images and text: Bruce Ringer, Auckland Libraries, 2015