WW1 Armistice Day
11th November 2018
St Aidan’s Church
ARMISTICE DAY 2018 — Sunday 11th November 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. To mark this event and to join with nationwide activities, St Aidan’s Church Remuera invite you to meet at the Parish war memorial at 10.45am for prayers and readings. We will then move to the church at 11 am to observe a 2 minute silence before joining in the roaring chorus.
The St Aidan’s memorial cross records the names of 35 Remuera men who served and died in World War One. The Remuera Primary School gates commemorate the names of the 31 men who died in WW1. Their names are commemorated on the Remuera Heritage website with biographies outlining amazing stories of the young men who went to St Aidan’s Church, Remuera Primary School, King’s College, Auckland Grammar School, and College Rifles, as well as the Remuera nurses who also served close to the front line in Gallipoli, Egypt, France and in England. They were in the infantry, artillery, signals units and the flying school run by the Walsh brothers. They all lived in Remuera – they would all have known one another at school, church, sport and social functions. Let us remember them.
Below are the names of the men on the brass tablets in St Aidan’s Church Remuera who were involved in the church.
Edgar and Arthur Boucher
Edgar (known as Teddy) Woodward Boucher enlisted in New Zealand’s first military operation in World War 1 in Samoa and died in New Zealand’s bloodiest battle on the Western front of Europe when 846 young New Zealanders were killed in the Battle of Passchendaele. He was the eldest son of Ernest Woodward and Anna Augusta Vercoe Boucher of Westbourne Road, Remuera, born 15 November 1893. His father Ernest who was on the St Aidan’s Church Committee from 1905-06 and the vestry in 1914, was the son of the Rev A. F. Boucher, of Kempsey House, Worcester, England.
Edgar was educated at St John’s School at The Pah in Onehunga from 1900 to 1910 and at Kings College. At school in 1910 as head prefect, he passed the matriculation and solicitors’ general knowledge examination, as well as winning the prize for Character, scholarship, leadership, and athletics. He also won prizes for elocution, Shakespeare and having the best drilled section in the cadet corps. He attended Auckland University College from 1912-1914. Edgar was also a senior cadet at College Rifles for four years in the Territorial Reserve.
Teddy was killed in action at Passchendaele on 12 October 1917. Angela Caughey wrote in her 2005 book about St Aidan’s Church’s history of the community being deeply distraught at the deaths of church members: ‘Teddy’ Boucher, the son of a former vestryman, was killed. People came in large numbers to the special Gallipoli commemoration service, to the Easter services and to Holy Communion. …The dedication of the Edgar W Boucher memorial plaque saw cadets in uniform, carrying handsome silk flags, standing at attention by the memorial, as the bishop unveiled it.” Edgar is also remembered on the Rolls of Honour at Kings College and College Rifles.
Edgar, however, was not the only Boucher son to fall in WW1. His brother Arthur Francis Boucher, born 20 August 1895, was also a Sapper with the New Zealand Engineers, Divisional Signals Company in France but died of pneumonia in England in 1919. Arthur is also remembered on the brass plaque at St Aidan’s Church and on the Rolls of Honour at College Rifles and Kings College. A memorial to Edgar was dedicated at St Aidan’s Church, Remuera by the Bishop of Auckland Dr A W Averill on 1st September 1918, in the form of a Gothic brass, with the following inscription:
Edgar Woodward Boucher A brave soldier who sought God’s grace in the Ministrations of His Church to Help him to live and to do his duty Faithfully to God and King.
He obeyed the call of his country in the first week of the Great War and Fell in Action 12 October 1917 Aged 24 .
Also Arthur Francis Boucher Who died on active service 6 February 1919 Aged 23 .
John Stewart Dagg
John Stewart Dagg was killed at the Battle of the Somme on 15th September 1917. He was the son of Robert and Rosalind Dagg of Ascot Avenue, Remuera, Robert being on the Vestry from 1916-1918. John was a Sunday School teacher at St Aidan’s. When he enlisted on 13 March 1915, he was working as an architect for Leonard Bidwell of Whitianga. On the 31 August 1917 the New Zealand Herald reported: A memorial tablet has been placed in St. Aidan’s Church, Remuera, to the memory of Lieutenant J. S. Dagg, of the 6th, Hauraki, Regiment. It has been erected by the Sunday-school children and church workers, and will be dedicated by the Bishop of Auckland this evening, St. Aidan’s Day.
The tablet, which is of brass, is engraved with the badge of the regiment, the garter star with lion centre, and bears the following inscription:— “Remember John Stewart Dagg, Second Lieutenant, 6th, Hauraki, Regiment, who rendered faithful service to his Church and his King. He fell in the battle of the Somme, 15th September, 1916, aged 25. ‘A good soldier of Jesus Christ.” Erected by Sunday School children and fellow workers.
Henry John Innes Walker
Jack Walker, as he was known, was born on 12 Feb 1890, the eldest son of Henry (1859-1918) and Cecilia Walker (nee Taylor 1868-1942) of ‘Glen Innes’, Victoria Avenue, Remuera. He attended King’s College in Remuera from 1899 to 1909 and St Aidan’s Church in Remuera. He was a professional soldier who joined the British Army and rose to become a captain with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment’s 1st Battalion. Captain Walker, aged 25, was killed in action on the 25th April 1915 in Flanders, Belgium. 100 years later his remains were discovered by Belgian archaeologists – he was identified by a medallion with the initials HJIW which was found in the ground. In April 2018 a burial service was held at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s New Irish Farm Cemetery in Belgium for Captain Henry John Innes Walker, Royal Warwickshire Regiment and six unknown soldiers of the First World War. The service was attended by members of Captain Walker’s family, including his great nephews, Allan and Alistair Innes-Walker, who travelled from New Zealand and Australia respectively.
His plaque reads: For God & King And Country Remember Henry John Innes Walker Captain Royal Warwickshire regiment A soldier of that little British Army which in the early days of the Great War so bravely resisted the rush of the German Advance through Belgium. He fell in action April 25 1915 Aged 25 “He lived an upright honest gentleman And died the bravest of Britain’s Sons.
Thomas Ernest (Service number 21235) was born on 13 August 1895, the youngest son of Thomas and Anne Ernest of 48 Gillies Avenue, Auckland. He attended Auckland Grammar School from 1912. He was a keen marksman and took a prominent part in the School competitions at Penrose. On leaving school he joined the staff of the National Bank of New Zealand at Onehunga. Thomas Ernest was acting scout-master of St Aidan’s Church scout troop until he went to Trentham where he enlisted on 2 May 1916. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Messines on 7 June 1917 and died the next day at the British Expeditionary Force No. 2 Casualty Clearing Station near the front line, age 21, although newspaper memorials put his age at only 19.
ERNEST— loving memory of Tom Ernest (212J5). 16th. Waikato, Company, 2nd A.1.B, died at Bailleul on June 8, 1917 of wounds received at Messines: aged 19 years. ROLL OF HONOUR, New Zealand Herald, 8 June 1920
Read more here about the men and women who served in WW1 on the Remuera Heritage website.