Finding the men who served

In the reception area for the Office of the Auditor-General, two wooden plaques sit proudly on the wall. These plaques commemorate the staff who served – and some who died – serving their country during both world wars. The plaques have only the family names and initials of the men who served.

We think they deserve more. With the anniversary of the start of World War One (WWI) coming up next year, we want to − in our own small way − honour the audit employees who served with the New Zealand forces during the 1914-18 war. We’d like to bring the stories of these men to life.

Thanks to National Archives, we’ve found most of their service histories and a sprinkling of other public information about the men. We’ll pull it all together in a book that we’ll keep here at the Office as a permanent reminder of the men’s sacrifice and service. We’ll also publish their stories on our intranet.

We want the stories to touch people – to bring home that wars happen to people like us and change our lives in many and varied ways. To do that, we will need more than their service histories.

Can you help?

We’d really like to hear from the families of people who worked for the New Zealand Audit Office around the time of WWI – particularly relatives of those who went off to serve. If people are willing, we’d be honoured if the commemorative book could include their stories of the men, and copies of photographs or mementos. For the men who survived the war, what was life like afterwards? Did their stories end well?

These are the men from our office who were on active service during WWI:

If you know anything about these men or their families, please contact us.

You can comment on this post, call Tom Haslam on 917 1500, or email [email protected] with information or your details. If you don’t recognise any of these names, you can still help – please spread the word for us by sharing this blog post or talking to family and friends.