On 10 April 1954 the MP for Tamaki E.H. Halsted formally opened the Waiheke War Memorial Hall at Ostend (also referred to as the Ostend War Memorial Hall). The hall had been built with significant contributions from volunteers. A memorial plaque listing the names of ten local men who had given their lives during the war was dedicated on the day by the Rev. W.R. Castle, chaplain of HMNZ Tamaki.
A plain concrete cenotaph was later erected in front of the hall.
In 2015 this cenotaph was refaced with polished granite. One side was reinscribed with commemorations of VE Day and VJ Day and a dedication to all service personnel in other theatres of war. On another side the names and serial numbers of the five Waiheke Island soldiers killed during the First World War were added (H.B.W. Barter, I.P. Hayhoe, F.T.L. O'Brien, M.D. Pegler and W.D. Voysey). Plans to engrave Second World War names on a third face have not yet been realised.
The hall is currently administered by the local RSA. Inside the adjoining clubrooms are various war mementos including a framed handwritten list of 14 men from Waiheke who enlisted during the First World War, and a wooden memorial tablet erected by the children of Waiheke in memory of Corporal W.D. Voysey and Lance Corporal M.D. Pegler. The tablet includes photographs of both men and a fine example of a trench dagger. Photographs of the list and the tablet respectively can be found on the Auckland War Memorial Museum's Cenotaph Database. We would welcome photographs of the Second World War memorial plaque for the NZ Memorials Register.
See: ‘Waiheke’s Memorial Hall Opened’, NZ Herald, 12/4/1954, p. 14; ‘New plinth for Anzac Day’, Gulf News, 23/4/2015, p. 6; ‘RSA’s call for hall answered’, Gulf News, 16/6/2016, p. 24.
Images: Jim Reed, 2015; Bruce Ringer, 2018; Christime Clement, 2019
Text: Bruce Ringer