On 14 November 1921 the Minister of Lands D.H. Guthrie unveiled the Rangiwāhia soldiers’ memorial alongside the Rangiwāhia hall. The dignified granite obelisk was mounted on a stepped concrete base and inscribed with the following text:
IN MEMORY / OF SOLDIERS OF RANGIWAHIA AND / SURROUNDING DIST- / -TRICTS WHO FELL / IN THE GREAT WAR / 1914 – 1918. / FOR KING AND COUNTRY
There followed the names of 21 local men who had given their lives.
After the Second World War another tablet with eight names was set into the base. A community war memorial building was also erected on the other side of the road. This was formally opened by the Minister of Internal Affairs Sir William Bodkin on 28 April 1954. It was dedicated to local men who had fallen in both world wars.
Two First World War rolls of honour from neighbouring schools are also on display in the old hall. The Ruahine School roll of honour is a wooden tablet which lists eight men who died in the First World War and 26 others who also served, as well as one nurse (Miss G. Guthrie). The Mangarimu School roll of honour is a marble tablet which lists a total of 18 men within the following categories: ‘killed in action’, ‘missing’, ‘died of wounds’, ‘died of sickness’, ‘returned sick’, ‘returned’. Mangarimu School was closed in 1937 and Ruahine School in 1944.
See: ‘Soldiers’ Memorial’, Hawera & Normanby Star, 15/11/1921, p. 5; Ken and Lucy Grover, Rangiwahia and District, 1886-1986, Rangiwahia, 1985, pp. 60-1, 63, 83.
Images: Glennis Austin, c2005; other images and text: Bruce Ringer, 2016