St Mary's Church memorials, Levin

View of brightly coloured stained glass window View of brightly coloured stained glass window View of brightly coloured stained glass window View of wooden roll of honour board with names inscribed on brass plaques Detailed view of brass plaque with inscribed text about the service of Trooper George Van der Graaf Burlinson

Two sets of stained glass windows were installed in St Mary's Anglican Church in Levin after the South African War. One set, erected in memory of Trooper John Frederick Hugh Saxon, who had died of malaria at Beira on 9 June 1900, was unveiled on 25 April 1901; the other, in memory of Trooper Henry Strawbridge, who had been killed at Caledon River on 27 September 1901, was installed in 1903.

St Mary's also came to house two First World War memorials. On 8 December 1917 a substantial brass plaque was unveiled in memory of Trooper George Van der Graaf Burlinson, who had died on active service in Egypt in 1915. On 9 February 1918, a congregational Great War roll of honour was also unveiled. This was an oak tablet with the inscription: TO THE GLORY OF GOD / AND IN MEMORY OF THE MEN FROM THIS PARISH / WHO SACRIFICED THEIR LIVES / FOR KING AND COUNTRY / ALSO THOSE WHO SERVED IN THE GREAT WAR 1914 - 1918. By the end of the war it listed ten men who had given their lives (J.B. Foss, H.D. Andrews, J. Hughes, W.J. Stratton, J.D. Gordon-Glassford, M.H. Gorringe, G.G. Hogan, J.A. Stansell, S.J. Palmer and M. Beckett) and 52 men who had also served.

These items were all incorporated into the new St Mary's Church when it was opened in December 1956. However, the new church was closed because of earthquake risk in July 2017, deconsecrated in June 2019, and demolished in December 2019. The stained glass windows, plaque and tablet are currently in storage.

Trooper Saxon's and Strawbridge's names were added to an extension of the Levin war memorial, rededicated on 24 April 2010.

See: 'Memorial service', Feilding Star, 1/5/1901, p. 2;  "The tablet presented to St Mary's Church" [untitled article], Levin Chronicle, 12/12/1917, p. 4;  "On Sunday morning" [untitled article] , Levin Chronicle, 14/2/1918, p. 2; The Anglican Parish of Levin: Celebrating 100 Years, ed. Mervyn Collins, Levin, 1997, pp. 31, 33-4; Linda Fletcher, Horowhenua and the Great War, 1914-1918, Levin, 2014, pp. 30, 75, 160, 162-8.

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