A Waipara County roll of honour committee was formed in August 1916. On 5 August 1917 the Waipara County roll of honour was unveiled by the wife of Major P.J. Overton, whose name was the first listed. At the time the roll of honour listed 235 names (22 deaths); by the end of the war it listed 278 names (63 deaths).
After the roll of honour had been produced, the Waipara County Council agreed to build a memorial hall to house it. The Waikari War Memorial Hall, formally opened on 8 December 1917, was one of a small handful of war memorial halls erected in New Zealand before the Great War actually ended, being preceded only by the Darfield and Lakeside soldiers' memorial halls.
See: 'Waikari', Sun (Christchurch), 7/8/1917, p. 4; 'Memorial hall opened at Waikari', Lyttelton Times, 11/12/1917, p. 4.
Images: Francis Vallance, 2014
Text: Bruce Ringer, 2024