Church of St John the Baptist memorials

A First World War roll of honour is displayed on the eastern wall of the nave in the Church of St John the Baptist, Waimate North. Unveiled in 1920, the wooden memorial tablet incorporates brass panels inscribed with the names of 45 men from the district who gave their lives during the war. In the church and churchyard there are also several memorial items relating to the first New Zealand War (or Northern War) of 1845-6.

The Church of St John the Baptist itself was dedicated on 19 April 1871. It was the third church on the site, following chapels erected by the Church Missionary Society in 1831 and 1839. The stone lych-gate at the entrance to the churchyard was built to celebrate the centennial of the Waimate mission, and on 12 January 1930 was unveiled and dedicated to Samuel Marsden and other missionaries connected with the opening of the mission.

However, it is the memorial objects with military associations that concern us here. British troops were stationed at Te Waimate during the first part of the Northern War, and five of the men who fell or were fatally wounded at the Battle of Ōhaeawai in 1845 were buried in the graveyard: Captain William E. Grant, Lieutenant Edward Beattie, Lieutenant George Philpotts, and Privates William Stewart and Matthew Hodgkins. The wooden grave marker from the Stewart and Hodgkins graves in recent years  was moved to the lych-gate to ensure its preservation. The inscription reads: IN MEMORY OF / WM STEWART / AND / MAT HODGKINS / PRIVATES 58 REG. / DIED FROM WOUNDS / RECEIVED IN THE ASSAULT / ON HEKE'S PA / OHAEAWAI / JULY 1, 1845.

It is accompanied by another grave marker recording a comrade's accidental death: IN MEMORY OF / JOHN INGATE / PRIVATE 58 REG. / ACCIDENTALLY SHOT / BY A COMRADE / SEPT. 13 1845.

In 1902 the Vestry of St Mary's, New Plymouth, presented the  hatchment of the 58th Rutlandshire Regiment to the Church of St John the Baptist as a memorial to all the men of the regiment who fell in the Northern War. This also hangs on the wall of the nave.

See: W.E. Bedggood, History of St John Baptist Church, 1831-1968, Te Waimate, Kaikohe, 1968, [pp. 20, 22]; Church of St John the Baptist (Anglican) and Churchyard, Heritage New Zealand, 1984; A Short History of and Guide to the Church of St John the Baptist, Waimate North, Whangarei, [nd].