Southland Footballers Memorial Gates

Southland Footballers Memorial Gates

The Mayor of Invercargill, Mr A. Bain, unveiled the Southland Footballers Memorial Gates at Rugby Park, Invercargill, on 7 September 1924. These were a memorial to the more than 200 Southland rugby players who had been killed during the First World War. The gates consisted of eight concrete pillars interspersed with lengths of wrought iron. The two main pillars were surmounted with a cross; two others bore memorial tablets, one inscribed with the main theatres of war (Egypt, Gallipoli, France, Belgium and Palestine), the other with the dedication TO THE / HONOURED MEMORY / OF THOSE / SOUTHLAND PLAYERS / WHO FELL IN THE / GREAT WAR.

After the Second World War, the dates 1939 – 1945 were added.

See: ‘Invercargill Notes’Lake Wakatip Mail, 16/9/1924, p. 12; Lynn McConnell, Something to Crow About: The Centennial History of the Southland Rugby Football Union, Invercargill, 1986, p. 276; Imelda Bargas and Tim Shoebridge, New Zealand’s First World War Heritage, Titirangi, 2015, pp. 180-1.

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