Historic Graves and Monuments
New Zealand and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission: First World War memorials to the missing
Commonwealth service personnel of World War One who have no known grave are commemorated on Memorials to the Missing. The main Memorials to the Missing bearing New Zealand names are found at Gallipoli and on the Western Front , but there are also significant numbers commemorated at Mikra, Greece (31) and Jerusalem (60).
Gallipoli
The 31 war cemeteries on the Gallipoli Peninsula contain 22,000 graves, of which only 9,000 could be identified after the war. Twenty-six of these cemeteries contain a total of 520 burials identified as New Zealanders.
New Zealand No 2 Outpost Cemetery, Gallipoli
The 13,000 casualties who rest in unidentified graves, together with a further 14,000 whose remains were never found, are commemorated individually by name on memorials to the missing. Among these are 1,922 New Zealanders, whose names are recorded on the following memorials:
Chunuk Bair Memorial to the Missing
Chunuk Bair Memorial to the Missing, Gallipoli
On the north-west side of Chunuk Bair Cemetery, on the ridge which runs north-east from Brighton Beach, is a road leading to Battleship Hill on one side and Koja Dere on the other. On the further side of the road is a bank surmounted by a long screen wall with a cross engraved on its raised centre. On panels of Hopton Wood Stone set in this wall the names of 852 New Zealanders are commemorated. They lost their lives in the heroic assault on the heights of Sari Bair, 6-10 August 1915, in the capture of Chunuk Bair, and in subsequent battles and operations from August to December 1915.
A little further north-west is the New Zealand National Memorial, Chunuk Bair, which bears the words: "In honour of the soldiers of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. 8th August, 1915. From the uttermost ends of the earth."
Hill 60 Memorial to the Missing
Hill 60 Memorial to the Missing, Gallipoli
The Hill 60 Memorial takes the form of an obelisk some 7 metres high, rising from a stone platform placed in the centre of Hill 60 Cemetery. It commemorates the names of 182 men of New Zealand who fell in the actions of Hill 60 in August and September 1915. Hill 60 Cemetery is situated in the northern part of the Anzac area of the Peninsula, bordering on the Suvla area.
Lone Pine Memorial to the Missing
This memorial stands at the east end of the Lone Pine Cemetery. Built of limestone from the Ulgar Dere quarries, it is a massive pylon in plain ashlar, about 14 metres square and 14 metres high. Panels of Hopton Wood stone fixed to the memorial record the names of 709 New Zealand casualties who fell in the Anzac area, but have no known grave, or, fighting elsewhere on Gallipoli in 1915, died from wounds or sickness and found burial at sea. Lone Pine Cemetery stands on the plateau at the top of Victoria Gully, on the road from Gaba Tepe to Chunuk Bair.
Twelve Tree Copse Memorial to the Missing
The New Zealanders commemorated here, numbering 179, fell in the Second Battle of Krithia, in early May 1915, or elsewhere on Gallipoli in July 1915. The memorial takes the form of panels placed in the wall flanking the Cross of Sacrifice, standing at the centre of the north-west side of the cemetery of the same name. This is situated in the Helles area, nearly one kilometre south- west of the village of Krithia.
The Western Front 1914-18
Buttes New British Cemetery Memorial to the Missing , Belgium
This memorial, which is composed of two shelter buildings of Euville Marbrier stone linked by a colonnade, stands at the south-west end of the cemetery after which it is named, situated in Polygon Wood, Zonnebeke. It commemorates 378 officers and men of New Zealand who fell in the Polygon Wood Sector between September 1917 and May 1918 and have no known grave. The cemetery contains the graves of 162 New Zealanders.
New Zealand National Memorial to the Missing, s'Gravenstafel, Belgium
The memorial commemorates the New Zealand Division's participation in the Battle of Broodseinde on 4 October 1917. Its design is similar to that of the Messines Ridge Memorial (see below) and it is situated off the road from Zonnebeke to Langemark, one kilometre down the turning to the right leading to Passendale.
Messines Ridge Memorials to the Missing, Belgium
The New Zealand Division is commemorated at Messines by a national memorial, erected to bear witness to its share in the Battle of Messines, in June 1917. Erected by the New Zealand Government, it is a white stone obelisk surrounded by a small terrace and garden in a woodland setting. It stands on the south-western outskirts of the village of Messines.
A memorial to the missing records the names of its dead whose graves are not known. It is immediately within the entrance of Messines Ridge British Cemetery, a little further north. It consists of a circular rubble wall, nearly two metres high, built round a mound on which the Cross of Sacrifice stands. The names of 828 soldiers of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force who fell in or near Messines in 1917 and 1918 are recorded on the Portland stone panels let into the circular wall.
128 New Zealand casualties are buried in the cemetery.
In addition, the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, in Tyne Cot Cemetery, Passchendaele (Passendale), Belgium, includes the names of 1,166 New Zealanders among the 34,857 missing Commonwealth casualties it records, while the cemetery itself contains 520 New Zealand graves.
Caterpillar Valley Memorial to the Missing, France
About half a mile north-west of the village of Montauban, in the Department of the Somme, is a long, narrow wood twisting like a caterpillar and known to the army as Caterpillar Wood. A deep valley runs to the east as far as Guillemont, and on the high ground on the northern edge of this valley, about 450 metres west of Longueval village, is Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, with 125 New Zealand graves.
This cemetery contains the memorial to those missing men of the New Zealand Division, 1,205 in all, who fell in the Battles of the Somme in 1916. The memorial stands on a terrace behind the Stone of Remembrance and takes the form of a screen wall bearing eleven Portland stone panels on which the names of the missing are inscribed.
To the north-east, away on a rise between High Wood on the left and Delville Wood on the right, is the New Zealand National Memorial, Longueval, which can be reached from the Longueval to Flers road. It is similar in design to the national memorial at Messines and marks the position which the New Zealand Division gained as their original objective in the first Battle of the Somme, and from which they launched the successful attack on Flers on 15 September 1916.
Cité Bonjean Memorial to the Missing, France
This memorial, erected in Cité Bonjean Military Cemetery, consists of a semi-circular screen wall to which are fixed panels bearing 47 names of casualties of the New Zealand Division lost in 1916-17 in the neighbourhood of Armentières and who have no known grave. The cemetery itself is west of the town of Armentières, in an industrial suburb on the north-west side of the Estaires road. It contains 452 New Zealand graves.
Grévillers Memorial to the Missing, France
Grévillers Memorial to the Missing, France
The memorial in Grévillers British Cemetery relates to the defensive fighting of the New Zealand Division in the Battles of the Somme from March to August 1918, and their share in the advance to victory between 8 August and 11 November. 446 casualties who have no known grave are named on the memorial, carved on stone panels fixed to a stone screen wall behind the Cross of Sacrifice at the north end of the cemetery. There are 151 New Zealand graves in the cemetery, situated north of the Grévillers-Bapaume road.
Le Quesnoy, in France, 18 kilometres south-east of Valenciennes, was for four years a German garrison town. On 5 November 1918 it was attacked by men of the New Zealand Division who scaled the high walls of the outer ramparts and seized the German commander and his garrison of over 1,000 men. On the face of the walls scaled by the New Zealanders is Le Quesnoy National Memorial, commemorating their success.
Marfaux Memorial to the Missing, France
Marfaux is a village in the Department of the Marne, on the right or north-east bank of the small river Ardre, 18 kilometres from Reins and 16 kilometres from Epernay. Marfaux British Cemetery, containing 15 New Zealand graves, is nearly a kilometre south-east of the village. The memorial which it contains takes the form of a panel in the stone shelter, recording the names of one sergeant and nine privates of the New Zealand Cyclist Battalion who fell in July 1918 and whose graves are lost.
For more information contact:
Heritage Operations Unit
Ministry for Culture and Heritage
PO Box 5364
Wellington
Telephone (04) 499-4229
Fax (04) 499-4490
Email: info@mch.govt.nz