This roll of honour board commemorating 56 members of the Dunedin section of New Zealand Railways (NZR) who lost their lives during the First World War was unveiled at Dunedin Railway Station in about 1921. The brass plaque is more elaborate than the simple oak boards installed in Invercargill and Greymouth. It is still on display at the railway station.
The board was intended to be one of 15 boards erected around the country to commemorate men from each rail district, the five main railway workshops and head office. The Railways Department listed all railwaymen who had died on a roll of honour board at the department's head office in 1922.
Among those listed on this memorial is NZR clerk Antonie Beekman, who was killed in a training accident at Trentham Camp on 15 June 1916. The 42-year-old Captain Beekman, who had earlier been invalided home from Egypt, was the Engineers' chief instructor at Trentham. He was demonstrating bomb throwing in front of a crowd including the Governor and senior military officials when he was killed by an explosion.
Another of those named on the roll, 31-year-old Seacliff surfaceman Thomas Downes, must have been one of the first NZR employees killed in action during the war – he died at Gallipoli on 26 April 1915.
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