Newmarket railway workshops roll of honour board

Newmarket railway workshops roll of honour board

In mid-1915, members of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants employed at the Newmarket railway workshops in Auckland unveiled a roll of honour board listing fellow members absent on war service in their social hall. Constructed by D.M.A. Bodley, the board was made of rimu and featured a shield surmounted by a crown and flags of the allied nations.

At this point it contained 11 names, with none marked as having been killed. His colleagues were yet to learn that painter Edward Lambert had been killed in action at Gallipoli. The board is pictured in mid-1917, by which time it contained 32 names, four of whom had been killed.

In 1920 the Railways Department considered erecting a board at Newmarket as part of its post-war plans to commemorate all railwaymen who died. It was proposed as one of a group of 15 boards around the country commemorating men from each rail district, the five main railway workshops and head office. A number of these were erected but apparently not the Newmarket board, perhaps because the 1915 board already existed. The Railways Department commemorated all railwaymen who had died in a roll of honour board at the department's head office in 1922.

It is not known what became of the 1915 board.

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