This impressive war memorial stands in Thames Street, Oamaru, an expansive tribute to those from the Oamaru District who died in the Great War. In numbers they would not have been that many but, typically of New Zealand's contribution to the European war, the proportion of population would have been outrageous.
E. Miller designed the soaring obelisk (made for some strange reason of Sicilian Granite - why not Oamaru Stone?); T. J. Clapperton executed the superb bronze and the memorial was unveiled on Anzac Day 1926.
The irony of the bronze is that the 1918 soldier is comforting what was probably a seven year old boy who would have been 28 in 1939. when the next world war began. It seems, in retrospect, that the soldier might be saying, 'There, lad, we've saved you for the next one!'
These war memorials are not only tributes to fallen warriors, they are also sad monuments to human stupidity.
© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
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