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Adrienne Miller has been retelling the stories of the 20 men on the Matakana War Memorial role of honour, including Walter Stevens (pictured centre).
George Driver
A Matakana resident who has spent two years researching the harrowing experiences of the 13 local men who died during WWI is retelling their stories on Facebook.
Adrienne Miller has published photos and stories in a timeline on the Matakana War Memorial Facebook page, including a story about Matakana resident Susannah Stevens, who lost three sons in the war.
Ralph, Walter, and Harold Stevens all survived the battlefield and returned home, but later died of diseases they contracted while serving.
“Her husband was ill and died in 1902 and the family struggled financially, but her son Walter got a job as a labourer at Tongue Farm near Matakana,” Ms Miller says. “He must have worked hard and saved money because in 1913 he bought a farm at the intersection of Wrights Road and Matakana Road.
“When he came back from the war he was so ill he couldn’t farm, so the local community got together and farmed it, but eventually he died of the illness he contracted on the battlefield.
“But I’ve found every single man on that list was sick.”
Using online military records, the Papers Past online newspaper archive and the archive of the Auckland Weekly News at the Warkworth Museum, she has been able to paint a relatively detailed picture of the Mahurangi veterans, including photos of some of the overseas graves and memorials where the men were killed. She is now researching the seven men on the memorial roll of honour who died in WWII.
“They all have an interesting back-story,” she says. “For years they’ve just been a name.
“Getting control of my emotion has been the hardest part.
“One of the most interesting stories I have discovered was of Major Sydney Ashton, who is the oldest on the role of honour and was in his 40s when he was killed. He was a career soldier and enlisted with the Rodney Mounted Rifles at the turn of the century and was already a lieutenant during WWI. He was responsible for training the Auckland Mounted Rifles at first, before going to the front.
“He did something incredibly brave when he died. He was looking after a squadron and his responsibility was to take the hill of Tel el Saba during the battle of Beersheba in Palestine in 1917. His squadron left their horses and ran up a sand hill against Turkish machine guns. They were the first up and a lot of them were mown down. Major Ashton was killed leading the third squadron, which was mainly made up of men from Rodney.
“It was all senseless though, when you think about it.”
Ms Miller is willing to help others discover the stories of the men on other Mahurangi memorials.
