Eskdale War Memorial Church

Eskdale War Memorial Church

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Eskdale War Memorial Church, on State Highway 5 north of Napier, was dedicated on 3 December 1920. The interdenominational church was built by local landowner Thomas Clark and his daughter Annie in memory of Annie’s husband, Lieutenant Percival Moore Beattie, who had been killed in action at Le Quesnoy on 4 November 1918. Two granite commemorative tablets were installed in the church; the larger lists the names of 26 other men from the district who gave their lives. Over the years, various mementoes of Lieutenant Beattie’s service, including the wooden cross that originally marked his grave in France, were put on display in the church foyer.

On Anzac Day 1925 a French regimental flag was installed in the church, along with a brass plaque inscribed: THE ABOVE REGIMENTAL FLAG WAS PRESENTED TO / THE ESKDALE MEMORIAL CHURCH BY THE GOVERNMENT / OF FRANCE IN MEMORY OF NEW ZEALANDERS WHO / FOUGHT SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE FRENCH DURING / THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918.

On 27 April 1947 a memorial tablet was unveiled in honour of the men from Eskdale and Bayview, and the old boys of France House (a local home for teenage boys), who gave their lives during the Second World War. The church also displays a memorial tablet for Marcus G. Smith, killed at El Alamein on 16 July 1942.

The roughcast and tile church was designed by W.E. Finch. It was damaged during the Hawke’s Bay earthquake of 1931, but reopened after restoration on 27 September 1931. It was inundated by floods in 1938 and 2023.

Sources: ‘Eskdale War Memorial Church’ (framed information sheet displayed in the church); Linda Burgess, Historic Churches, Auckland, 2015, pp. 116-119; Bill McKay and Linda Burgess, Worship: A History of New Zealand Church Design, Auckland, 2015, pp. 164-7.

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