On 6 June 2012 a memorial headstone to nine soldiers who had died of ‘non-battlefield causes’ (accident or disease) between 1862 and 1864 was unveiled in the churchyard of St John’s Anglican Church, Drury. Six of the soldiers, privates in the 2nd Battalion 18th Royal Irish Regiment, had been buried in the churchyard between September and November 1863; it is believed the three others may have also been buried there between 1862 and 1864.
The memorial stone was placed beside a 1st Waikato Regiment New Zealand Wars memorial, erected in 1867 to honour officers and men of the militia and volunteers who had died in action at the Battle of Titi Hill on 23 October 1863. Lieutenant J.S. Perceval had disobeyed orders by ambushing a large Kīngitanga raiding party. By the time his small force was extricated from the predicament it soon found itself in, two officers and six men had been killed.
Sources
- ‘Memory of NZ Wars soldiers lives on’, Franklin County News, 19 June 2012, p. 2
- ‘Memorial pays tribute to soldiers’, Manukau Courier, 19 June 2013, p. 7
Images and information: Bruce Ringer, Auckland City Libraries, 2013