War memorial at the RSA in Greerton, Tauranga. The memorial plaques list the names of servicemen from the district who died in the First and Second World Wars.
Above the plaques are the crests of the Royal New Zealand Navy, the New Zealand Army, the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the Merchant Navy. Between the plaques is a metal work of art with the following inscription, 'Remember the tears for the fallen | For the fallen shall live on in those | Who remember them'.
On pillars to the left and right of the memorial are 10 plaques, each listing one of the overseas campaigns in which New Zealand has participated, from the South African War to United Nations deployments.
The two First World War memorial tablets preserved here were presented to the Borough of Tauranga by Mayor C.E. Macmillan in 1918. Together, they list a total of 91 names. They were originally installed in the Tauranga Town Hall. In 1921 war memorial gates were also erected at the Tauranga Domain.
In 1955 the Tauranga RSA built new clubrooms in Cameron Road. Three years later it erected a concrete cenotaph outside the clubrooms. This incorporated marble tablets listing the names of 68 local servicemen who had died during the Second World War. In 1988 the two First World War tablets, which had been in storage since the demolition of the town hall the previous year, were added to the RSA cenotaph.
The memorial tablets were transferred to a new memorial when the RSA moved to Greerton. The new memorial was dedicated on 9 August 2009 and first used for an Anzac Day service on 25 April 2010.
Sources: Joan Mirrielees, ‘Returned Soldiers Association’, Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society, no. 62, December 1978, pp. 18-20; ‘Plaque Restores Memory of Fallen’, Bay of Plenty Times, 23/4/1988, p. 3; ‘Dawn Service Enters New Era for Tauranga RSA’, Bay of Plenty Times, 23/4/2010.
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