Manurewa War Memorial Park was dedicated on 3 December 1955.
The memorial entrance off Browns Road consisted of a pair of red-brick walls and a concrete pillar. The left-hand wall bore the lettering ‘War Memorial Park’. A bronze plaque was attached to the right-hand wall:
World Wars I and II, 1914-1918, 1939-1945.
Dedicated to the memory of the men and women of the Manurewa District who gave their lives in the cause of freedom.
‘They shall not grow old
As we who are left grow old
Age shall not weary them
Nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun
And in the morning
We shall remember them'
A grandstand was opened in the grounds in March 1961.
In recent years, the walls and pillar on the Browns Road entrance have been painted over (more than once) and the plaque has been removed. Its whereabouts is unknown.
Sources: 'Memorial Park at Manurewa: Dedicated on Saturday', NZ Herald, 5/12/1955; 'Manurewa Remembers: Memorial Gates Dedicated', Ribbon, 7/12/1955, p. 1; Gwen Wichman, Soaring Bird: A History of Manurewa to 1965, Manurewa, 2001, pp. 95, 123.
Images and information: Bruce Ringer, Auckland Libraries, 2014