Wairarapa Midweek Wed 9th March

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Wairarapa’s locally owned community newspaper

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2022

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Hunting military history Erin Kavanagh-Hall

erin.kavanagh-hall@age.co.nz

To complete a memorial to the Masterton Drill Hall, historians Alan Fielding (left) and Neil Frances are on the hunt for a badge for the 9th Wellington and East Coast Mounted Rifles unit. PHOTO/ERIN KAVANAGH-HALL

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To help commemorate a significant part of Wairarapa’s military history, two Masterton locals are appealing to the public to have a search through their old family memorabilia. Historians Neil Frances and Alan Fielding have spent the last eight years working on a public memorial to the old Masterton Drill Hall: the headquarters for the two major units of the region’s Territorial Army. These “two military families”, the 9th Wellington East Coast Mounted Rifles and 17th Ruahine Infantry Regiment, consisted of men from Wairarapa and southern Hawke’s Bay who served overseas in World War I. The memorial, which Frances and Feilding propose to erect near the site of the Drill Hall on the corner of Chapel Street and Lincoln Road, will consist of two steel effigies of Wairarapa soldiers, wearing the signature insignia for each territorial unit. However, to complete the project, the organisers need one small, but

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significant item – a unit badge for the Wellington East Coast Mounted Rifles (WECMR) regiment. To craft the insignia for the steel soldiers, Frances and Fielding needed to source the actual unit badges, so that a 3D cast can be reproduced by the sculptor. Frances was able to find a badge for the Ruahine Infantry Regiment (featuring a star

An example of a unit badge for the 9th Wellington and East Coast Mounted Rifles regiment. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

and fern leaves) on TradeMe – but so far has had “no luck” tracking down a WECMR badge – which features a rearing horse. Frances said “many hundreds” of Wairarapa men

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served with the 9th WECMR regiment, all of whom will have had a badge. He and Fielding are confident there will be descendants of these men still living locally who will have their relatives’ badges in storage. “The 9th [regiment] stretched all the way from Cape Palliser up to Gisborne. We reckon there are still many badges around – but [the family] may not be aware they’re from that particular unit,” Frances said. “We’re hopeful one of the grandchildren or great grandchildren will have one we can buy or borrow so we can keep this project moving.” “Often, these items get tossed aside when people are packing up their houses – they’ll end up in a shoebox on the top shelf of the wardrobe,” Fielding added. “If you think you might have seen a badge while doing a clean out, we’d be very grateful if you got in touch.” The Masterton Drill Hall, the subject of the proposed memorial, was first opened on November 23, 1886 – built with funds from both government and community investment. At the time, the 30m by 17m wooden building was used as a base for local volunteer militias and to hold public events, such as “dances, art exhibitions and flower shows”. Continued on page 3

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