Wigram air base memorial. The airbase is now closed and used as a Air Force Museum.
The flying field at Wigram was privately owned and originally called Sockburn Airport. It was purchased by the Government for an Air Force base in 1936 and was in use up until 1995 but then vested in Ngai Tahu as part of their Treaty Settlement. There is a Royal New Zealand Air Force supported museum on the site.
The war memorial is an extensive landscaped reserve with a semicircular amphitheatre focused on a large plinth at its centre bearing a bronze and stainless steel relief map of the world showing the theatres of war in which the Royal NZ Air Force has been in action and places where humanitarian assistance has been rendered. The polished granite plinth carries the Air Force motto Per Ardua ad Astra and the words 'Lest we Forget'.
About 40 bronze tablets record and pay tribute to the flyers of numerous branches, affiliated air forces, allied air forces and individuals and squadrons who served in all world wars and in service actions around the globe.
Bruce Comfort, 2010