Historic Graves and Monuments
New Zealand and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission: Second World War memorials to the missing
Commonwealth service personnel of Second World War who have no known grave are commemorated on memorials to the missing. The main memorial to the missing bearing New Zealand names is found in Bourail, New Caledonia, however there are also significant numbers of New Zealanders commemorated at El Alamein, Egypt (859), Athens, Greece (480), Cassino, Italy (55), Malta (85), Singapore (61) and Runnymede, England (576).
Bourail Cemetery and Memorial, New Caledonia.
New Caledonia lies about 1,600 kilometres north of New Zealand. Bourail, on the west coast of the island, was the headquarters of the 3rd New Zealand Division in the Second World War. In 1943 the New Zealand authorities established a war cemetery about 8 kilometres south-east of Bourail for the burial of those who had died in the area. After the war, the remains of New Zealanders who had died in other islands in the South Pacific were brought here for reburial and the cemetery now contains 235 New Zealand graves.
Situated in the war cemetery, the memorial commemorates 280 men of the New Zealand Armed Forces and Merchant Navy who lost their lives during the 1942-44 campaign in the Solomon Islands and New Britain or on operations conducted from bases in New Caledonia, Fiji, the Ellice Islands and elsewhere in the South Pacific theatre of war. It takes the form of a curved screen wall with pierced wing walls of brick, erected on a circular platform behind the Cross of Sacrifice at the northern end of the cemetery.
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