Tokoroa has two civic war memorials: the Tokoroa Memorial Sportsground, which was opened in 1953, and the memorial wall outside the South Waikato District Council offices, which is pictured here. The memorial wall has three rolls of honour and a number of individual plaques. The First World War roll of honour lists the names of seven men who served in the war (one death); the Second World War roll of honour lists 39 names; the South East Asia (Malaya and Borneo) roll of honour lists 34 names. On 7 April 2014 plaques were added to commemorate Private Leonard Manning, killed in East Timor in 2000, and Corporal Douglas Grant, killed in Afghanistan in 2011.
Unfortunately, the date the memorial wall was unveiled can not now be ascertained (although it is built of the same materials as the council offices behind it, which were opened on 18 March 1989). It evidently took over the commemorative functions of the former Tokoroa War Memorial Hall. Tokoroa's first memorial hall was opened on 3 August 1920. It burnt down in February 1946, but a replacement hall was opened on the site in May 1948. In 1949 the hall was handed over to the Tokoroa Memorial Hall Society. This successively opened a picture theatre in 1950, a new library in February 1962, and a new war memorial hall - formally opened by Minister of Internal Affairs Leon Gotz - on 1 December 1962. In 1965 Tokoroa Borough Council took over control of all three facilities. At some stage the war memorial hall was converted into a cinema, although South Waikato District Council didn't actually sell the building until 2010 (it is still a cinema today). More information to fill the gaps in this story would be welcome.
Sources: ‘Tokoroa’, Matamata Record, 29/7/1920, p. 2; ‘Memorial Hall Opened at Tokoroa’, Waikato Times, 9/8/1920, p. 6; ‘New Theatre Opened at Tokoroa’, NZ Herald, 24/9/1954; ‘New Memorial Hall at Tokoroa’, NZ Herald, 17/6/1960; ‘Start Made on New Library’, South Waikato News, 19/1/1961; ‘From a Small Hall to a Large Library’, South Waikato News, 8/2/1962; ‘Mr Gotz to Open New Hall’, South Waikato News, 22/11/1962; ‘Memorial Hall’ [photograph], NZ Herald, 24/12/1962, p. 6; K. Clegg, ‘Tokoroa Memorial Hall’, Building Progress, vol. 28, no. 3, March 1963, pp. 67-8; Dolina Lory, Early Tokoroa, Rotorua, 1977, pp. 29-31; ‘Fallen South Waikato Soldiers Remembered’, Waikato Times, 10/4/2018.
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