This roll of honour board for Animal Research Station staff who served in the First and Second World Wars is situated in the Ministry for Primary Industries’ complex in Wallaceville, Upper Hutt. This is a fitting location for the board, as during the First World War horses acquired for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force were stabled here.
Horses based at a remount depot at Upper Hutt were treated for serious injuries and illnesses at a ‘horse hospital’ in the Wallaceville Animal Research Laboratory, which had been built in 1904 for the Department of Agriculture as a diagnostic and research centre for animal health. When shipping shortages ended the despatch of replacement horses (‘remounts’) overseas in 1916, the department’s sole concern became the training camps’ requirements. The remount depot was reduced in size and later moved to the Wallaceville laboratory’s farm. In April 1918 the remount depot was cut further and moved across the Remutaka Range to Tauherenīkau.
Imelda Bargas
