In 1919 the congregation of St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Hokitika, resolved to commemorate peace by erecting a new church. Although a sod-turning ceremony was held during Hokitika’s peace celebrations, on 19 July 1920, it was some years before work actually began. Scots Memorial Church, as the new church became known, was finally opened on 24 November 1935. A marble memorial tablet, the ‘Westland Scots Memorial’, was unveiled inside the church. This listed the names of 40 men and one woman from the district who had died on active service and who were Presbyterians or otherwise of Scottish descent.
The names included the three sons of Mrs H. Wilson, who unveiled the tablet. The ‘Nurse Jamieson’ whose name headed the list, was Mabel Elizabeth Jamieson, one of the ten New Zealand nurses killed when the SS Marquette was hit by a torpedo on 23 October 1915.
The church later became known again as St Andrew’s. Following the union of the local Methodist (St Paul’s) and Presbyterian (St Andrew’s) parishes in 1970 it became St Andrew’s United Church. The First World War roll of honour from St Paul’s Methodist Church hangs alongside the Westland Scots Memorial.
Sources: ‘Scots’ Memorial: Opening of New Church: Roll of Honour Unveiled’, Hokitika Guardian, 25/11/1935; ‘West Coast News […] Hokitika: Opening of New Church’, Press, 27/11/1935, p. 5; Joy Poingdestre Johnston, Consider the Years: St Andrew’s Presbyterian Parish, Hokitika and Kumara, Hokitika, 1966, pp. 26-34; J.M. Orchard, St Andrew’s United Church, Hokitika: 50th Jubilee Scots’ Memorial Church, 1935-1985, Greymouth, 1985, pp. 7-12; Heritage New Zealand, St Andrew’s United Church, 1990.
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