History – Wartime memories

In the Warkworth Museum archives can be found three boxes labelled Wartime Warkworth. Amongst such varied items as ration books and knitting patterns for soldiers’ socks and balaclavas, there is a folder containing the records of the Warkworth committee of the Emergency Precautions Service. This was a Dominion-wide organisation set up in 1939 to help communities prepare for a possible enemy invasion. Together with the Home Guard, which had units in all the small centres including Kawau, the E.P.S met regularly and planned for any contingency.

Warkworth was divided into six blocks, each under the control of a warden, whose duties included enforcing the lighting restrictions. All residents’ names were recorded and each household received a circular setting out the steps to take in the event of bombardment. Shelter trenches were built to provide protection for the public in the business area and in Neville Street. Bags of sand and wooden rakes were available to deal with incendiary bombs.

This year we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Warkworth, which proved to be a friendly one, when American forces arrived in New Zealand for training prior to Pacific campaigns, or rest and relaxation after involvement in action. Members of the Home Guard were called upon to meet the troops coming to this area at Waiwera and escort them to the various camps. Under the direction of Traffic Officer Pat Hanna, the Warkworth men were given temporary status as traffic wardens.

A display at the Warkworth Museum includes a map showing the 33 camps in use by the Americans. There are also photographs taken by T. W. Collins and items lent by the Military Enactment Group. Some 50 years after the war, the museum acquired one of the ex-army two-man huts and during restoration of the hut workers were surprised to find pencilled in an interior corner the inscription P F C. Harry Russell, Athens Ohio.

The question was asked: ‘Could Harry have survived the war?’

The museum curator at the time, Nick Davies, wrote a letter to the Mayor of Athens, Ohio, asking if by chance Harry Russell could still be found. The letter was passed on to the Athens County Historical Society and, after some delving by genealogists, Harry was discovered living with his daughter in a small town to the north of Athens County. Harry wrote recounting his memories of coming to Warkworth with the 43rd Division and living in the two-man hut while recuperating from wounds received in battle. He enclosed a photograph of himself and two friends in front of the hut. Harry was just one of the thousands of American servicemen who called Warkworth home for a short time and, by their presence here, became part of our history.