Porirua War Stories initiative hits 1000 stories
Local military historian Allan Dodson shares the progress of this important project.
Porirua War Stories started in 2009. When I was part of the Plimmerton Residents’ Association team working on the restoration of Plimmerton Railway Station I researched stories about Plimmerton to keep those involved in the project interested!
One of those stories was about a US Marine returning to camp in 1940. He smelt smoke at the recently-built Plimmerton Railway Station. He called the local Emergency Precautions Scheme (EPS) to open the station and put out a switch board fire, so saved the station … for the first time.
I have always had an interest in history and it made me think there must be stories about men and women from Plimmerton who left from Plimmerton Railway Station to go to war.
Looking ahead I realised that 2014 was the 100th Anniversary of the beginning of World War One, so I researched those from this district who had left to serve… starting with the Plimmerton area. One of the first stories was about a father and son who both served on the Western Front. Sadly, only the father came home.
Thomson family – Sunset Parade, Plimmerton 1916.
Father 27993 Private Frank Thomson, 1st Battalion, Canterbury Infantry Regiment
Son 18719 Lance Sergeant Leslie Thomson, A Company, 1st Battalion 3rd NZ (R) Brigade – KIA 16th July 1918 (Aged 19)
Orviss, Maggie (Mother), Francis, Rubina
The father, Frank Thomson, to commemorate his son, Leslie, made stone walls on his Sunset Parade, Plimmerton home inscribing his son’s regimental number, name and date of death. It was his way of remembering his son. It is one of my favourite stories.
Because of the interconnection of Plimmerton to Paremata, Pukerua Bay and Pauatahanui the area of the stories expanded and later included the broader Porirua basin. Then I had to decide which conflicts to research so I started with the Second Anglo Boer War, which became a focus.
These young men, mainly farmers, were among the first New Zealanders to leave to serve overseas. The Gestro family of Paremata had two sons Leo and Joe serve in the NZ Mounted Rifles.
Paremata c1901
4657 Trooper Leonard Lewis (Lou or Lulu) Gestro, 7th Contingent, NZ Mounted Rifles, 2nd Anglo-Boer War.
To ensure that the growing number of stories were available I set up the Facebook Page Porirua War Stories (short term) and www.poriruawarstories.com (long term).
As 2014 was close the focus was then WW1 using the same criteria as the Boer War. Men and women who had a close connection to the wide Porirua Basin when they served, or later made Porirua their home. These stories included Gunner Plimmer,( our village is named after his grandfather) and the Boulton brothers from Paremata.
Right: Gunner Charles (Charlie) Daryl Boulton
Left: Private Kenneth (Ken) Henry Boulton
(Photo from Pataka Museum, Porirua P2-207)
It was fortunate that this work was well underway as I was asked to join a Porirua RSA-based group wanting to install a Memorial Wall at the Porirua Peace Memorial. Porirua is a new city and while there are small memorials in some villages there was no central memorial in Porirua.
In 2015 I was given the task to produce a list of service people with a strong connection to the district who had lost their lives, or died as a result of serving during various conflicts. While I had the Second Anglo-Boer War and WW1 well researched I now had to look at WW2, Malaya, Korea, Vietnam and more modern conflicts. No pressure! I had until Armistice Day 2018 to complete and publish the list and stories.
The Memorial panels at Te Rauparaha Park, dedicated to those who served and those who loved them, contained 28 names with two more added later.
Since 2018 I have continued to research Porirua Cemetery and with the assistance of NZ Remembrance Army and Veteran’s Affairs we have installed headstones on unmarked veteran’s graves and prepared stories on all known veterans interred there. The cemetery was used by Porirua Mental Hospital and many of the veterans interred were badly impacted by combat or their time as a POWs.
Porirua War Stories is also researching the RSA Section of Whenua Tapu Cemetery where there are over 1000 veterans interred. While the veterans are mainly New Zealand many Allied nations servicepersons are also interred there.
May 2025, the 80th Anniversary of the end of the War in Europe, Porirua War Stories has now completed 1040 stories.
The 100 years Commemoration of the start of World War Two is only 14 years away – who knows how many stories will be completed by then!
