N.Z.E.F. Roll of Honour

The ‘Big’  Roll

The Freedom’s Call 2nd N.Z.E.F. Roll of Honour can be viewed HERE. When you click on the link, the roll will automatically download.

It had never been my intention to have J-Force here but these embarkations were part and parcel of the World War II rolls, so it seemed sensible to also include them. You will see that quite a number of those who went away with J-Force had earlier seen service between 1940-1945.

There is a lot of content on this page but it is important that it be read, so that you can a full understanding of all of the entries on this roll and exactly what they mean.

What you see here stems from two complete trawls through the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Nominal rolls,  two trawls through the Cenotaph database to match entries to the ever-growing Roll of Honour, cross-checks to entries in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and New Zealand War Graves Project websites; reviews of all WWII roll entries on the Maori Battalion website and the N.Z.A.N.S. and W.A.A.C. rolls; trawls of all RSA plots in the Whangarei and Districts and Far North cemetery indices and a full trawl through the Maunu, Mount Wesley (Dargaville)  and other Northern cemeteries, in Find a Grave; a subsequent trawl of that site and Billiongraves, coupled with an exhaustive Google check of many of the names and research in genealogical websites, this  resulting in blocking in many of the blanks in Column AC and adding content to other columns, notably Column AJ, researching casualty and Prisoners of War listings in Papers Past; a check of Birth and Death Indices for each and every one of the names listed on the Roll; checks of other cemetery databases, crosschecking of the paper entries to names recorded on the spreadsheet (roll),  … and so much more.

When the first of two complete trawls of the nominal rolls was undertaken, fewer criteria and  a narrow search area was chosen. But, with the passage of the years and more and more information becoming available online, when a second trawl was undertaken, both the selection criteria and the search area were widened. From just a small area comprising Whangarei and surrounds we were now opening up to everything from the North Cape down to Wellsford.

When it came to extracting all of the data, not being comfortable with a laptop, I opted to record everything manually into journals. Having done that, once back at home, I then set to entering them into an Excel spreadsheet. They say there is no fool like an old fool!

The two trawls involved many weeks spent in Auckland’s Central Library sifting through the microfiches and then in more recent years Ancestry records, to glean the information I needed.

IMPORTANT: Information contained on the Nominal Rolls must be taken at face value. My two trawls have shown that errors abound and some of the recording has been sloppy to say the least. For example, a name on a Roll may show up differently on the Cenotaph Database, or in Birth and Death Records. That does not mean that what comes up in the latter is necessarily correct, either, though. 

It is essential therefore that on finding a name and regimental number of interest on the Roll of Honour that you also immediately look at the alias column K and scroll across to the ‘Details’ column AO, to check for any notes which may assist you with your search, or which may correct these initial entries.

Another point I must make, is that even on the Cenotaph itself, some of the information there is inadequate in establishing whether a name should be included on the Roll or not. Possibly some of these names should be here, but I have no way of knowing, e.g nothing has been recorded to show they served overseas, or indeed if so, in which branch of the services.

As I’ve mentioned, over time, the parameters which I originally set myself for name inclusion were widened.  I ended up settling on the following criteria, as regards the region.

In order to be included, the soldiers and nurses had to have, either:

– + enlisted there

– lived there when enlisting

– had next of kin residing there

– been born there

– died post war there

– been laid to rest in this area of Northland

– been memorialised there

– been known to have otherwise lived, worked, trained or studied there, before enlisting and post war.

 – had tribal affiliations to Northland, i.e. members of A Company 28 Maori Battalion

+this including some whose association may have been tenuous to say the least, e.g. they may have been just passing through, when deciding to enlist.

28 Maori Battalion A Company, was drawn from Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Whātua and other northern iwi, and was known as the Gum Diggers (Ngā Kiri Kapia) due to the long history of kauri gum digging in the north. For this reason and irrespective of whether there were any known associations with the northern area north of Wellsford, it is my intention to ensure that all members of the company are recorded on the 2nd N.Z.E.F Roll of Honour and that such association is duly noted.. 

At the foot of the roll are a further 11 entries, set aside from the rest – one for a civilian NZ Coastwatcher executed by the Japanese and posthumously awarded the honorary rank of Corporal, one not on the roll but killed in the course of training for overseas service and 9 whose gravestones showed they served in the N.Z.E.F. but whom I could not find on the Nominal rolls. One whose family had stated (per the Cenotaph record) he had served with the N.Z.E.F. has not been entered, as he was not on the rolls. He apparently served in the army and also in the navy. He is to be found on the Freedom’s Call Other Forces roll.

I give no guarantee as to the accuracy or otherwise of the records contained either in the rolls themselves or in the resulting N.Z.E.F. roll, although every effort has been made to faithfully reproduce all entries exactly as they appeared on the rolls; even where clearly an error in the entry was obvious. Some obvious misspellings I have corrected, though.

Example: Occasionally one finds details such as name incorrectly recorded in the rolls. As an example, Ronald Charles Hardaker is incorrectly listed as Richard Charles Hardaker in the J 40-M 41 roll.

OK .. let’s go take a walk across the columns of the worksheet. There are 37 in all.

Column A ; A ‘Y’ highlighted in green means that at time of compilation this person also appeared on the Auckland War Museum Cenotaph Database. An ‘N’ means that they didn’t.

I do not expect you to now see any ‘N”s as I believe all entries now appear on the Cenotaph database.

Column B ; This person is shown (either on the rolls or on the Cenotaph database) as having served with the Maori Battalion.

Column C ; This person who served with the Maori Battalion was found (or not found)  on the roll on the 28th Maori Battalion website. Y=found. N= not found. It should be noted that some in this column, while not on the main 28th Maori roll, are instead recorded either in the 15th Reinforcements or J-Force listings. The former are annotated as the 15th, the latter as J.F.

It is important that you conduct your search using all name variations. My checks were based on known names but there is a possibility that someone is shown as not being on the Maori Battalion website, even though he may appear there under a different, but unknown name.

Column D; This person is known to have served with “A” Company, 28 Maori. Many more will have also served with”A” Company, but that association has not yet been found. 

Column E ; This person appears on either the N.Z.A.N.S. or the W.A.A.C. rolls to be found on the New Zealand Military Nursing website, or does not, as the case may be.

Column F ; This person was captured as a Prisoner of War, (POW).

Column G ; Records the place of capture.

Column H ; Surname. Two points. (a) This may not have been recorded correctly on the Nominal Rolls. See the notes attached to Column J below. (b) Where the surname is hyphenated the name after the hyphen appears here.

Column I ; Christian Name. There is every possibility too that this was not recorded correctly on the Nominal Rolls. See the notes attached to Column J below.

Column J ; Unit to which deployed at time of embarkation. An explanation of the abbreviated units is to be found here.

Column K ; Alias or nickname or name variation. This is a vitally important column and should always be checked, as it may well show the person’s CORRECT name, or a more common name under which he or she was known. Often, details of surname and christian name and indeed other information as recorded on the Nominal Rolls was either misspelt or downright incorrect. The same can be said for some of the entries in the Cenotaph database.

You will see that where an alias exists for a person which differs markedly from the name shown on the Nominal Roll, on the separate line created for that alias entry I have endeavoured to always refer back to the original Nominal Roll entry, even though it may not always be correct. For example, you will see in the Alias Column – Column K,  the words .. ‘See Katene, Taka’ .. or such like.

Servicewomen who were known to have subsequently married, have an entry under their married name separately recorded which is cross-referenced. This has been done to assist researchers who do not have a pre-marital surname to work with.

Many of the aliases have been drawn from genealogical records.

Column L ; Records the Regimental Number.

Column M ;  Displays Rank at time of enlistment or deployment. A listing denoting the Rank abbreviations is here.

Column N ;  Shows the the Nominal Roll in question. As an example, J40-M41 indicates the embarkation occurred between the beginning of July 1940 and the end of March 1941.  The roll entries have been colour coded. Further information is to be found about this is in the Quickstart guide.

As mentioned earlier, there are multiple entries for some names, but I make no guarantees that all embarkations are shown. For example, if a serviceman embarked twice, but the data on one of the rolls points to no connection to Northland whatsoever, while the other shows a connection, then only the one may have been entered on the spreadsheet, i.e. the one where the connection was established.

Column O ; Indicates marital status at time of embarkation/deployment. The entries should be self-explanatory.

Where a husband or wife’s details  enlarge on the entry, this simply shows that at some point in time (either pre, during or post war) the serviceman (woman) was married to that person. Spousal details may be in the Next of Kin column, or the Details column. 

Column P ; Denotes Place of Enlistment.

Column Q ; Lists Occupation at time of enlistment/deployment.

Column R ; Records Address at time of enlistment/deployment.

Column S ; Details Next of Kin at time of enlistment/deployment. This may show the next of kin as a parent (father or mother), a sibling, another relative, a friend, a guardian or a legal representative. Sometimes the relationship is not recorded. An explanation of the abbreviations is here.

The entries in the above columns directly reflect what was recorded in the Nominal Rolls, although in some instances, in more recent times, I have worked directly from the roll data uploaded to the Cenotaph. That has posed some risks, in that there is no guarantee that the name mirrors  that in the Nominal Roll. For example, it may have been ‘corrected’ when data was first uploaded to the Cenotaph database, or subsequently. This is why it is so important you pay attention to any other name entries in Column J.

Some of the remaining columns derive from either the Commonwealth War Graves or the War Graves Project websites, most notably Columns S, T, U and X and relate to those who were killed or who otherwise died on active service. Some information may stem from the Cenotaph record. 

In the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Roll of Honour  you will see the names of 613 servicemen and women listed as having been killed or who otherwise died, while on active service* or where likely as a result of wounds sustained in wartime, or where listed on the CWG website. The youngest mentioned  – of whom there were two – were aged 20, the eldest, also two; 43. A number of families lost two or three sons. But see note below regarding the 2 not on the roll.*.

Column T ; Records the Place of Death.

Broken down by place of death:

North Africa  – 255 (including Tunisia, Libya, Palestine, the Western Desert, Egypt). 72 were killed during the months of June and July 1942 alone.

Italy – 170

Crete – 69

Greece – 35 (including the Aegean Is.)

At sea – 31 (including off Tobruk, off Tonga, unspecified). 19 of these were recorded as on the fateful voyage of the SS Nino Bixio as POWs when it was torpedoed by a British submarine, 8 on the HMS Chakdina, torpedoed by an enemy aircraft and 6 as POWs on the SS Sebastiano Venier (Jason), also torpedoed by a Royal Navy submarine.

Pacific – 10 (including Solomon Is, Mono Island, Gilbert, Treasuries and unspecified). This includes a civilian executed by the Japanese and given honorary rank.

New Zealand – 18 (* Note: this included one soldier training for overseas service and one who was said to have served overseas but was not on the Nominal Rolls).

Germany – 6

England – 4

Australia – 2

Holland – 1

Poland – 1

Yugoslavia – 1

Austria – 1

Column U ;  Shows either the cemetery where the soldier lies or where he is memorialised. West. Des. stands for Western Desert.

Column V ; Provides us with the grave reference or where recorded on a memorial.

Columns U and V showing the cemetery and grave reference assist you in seeking more information via the websites of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the NZ War Graves Project.

Column W ; Last Known Rank. Sources for these entries are the Cenotaph database, the Find a Grave website and the Billiongraves website.

Column X ; Date of Birth. A birth search can only be undertaken on the BMD website, for those births which occurred at least 100 years ago. Every month, over the next few years, I intend undertaking searches as and when I am able. A full check of the Birth Index has been undertaken for all those, where the 100 years has passed since date of birth.

You are strongly advised to read the detailed notes about this column. You can access these via Menu 3 (Births, Deaths, Marriages).

Column Y ; Date of Death. You can search for death records on the BMD website if the death occurred at least 50 years ago, OR the deceased’s date of birth was at least 80 years ago. As at 6 Jnauary 2023, a check for date of death has been made for most entries listed on the Roll of Honour. Dates highlighted in yellow are for those who died or who were otherwise killed on active service, between 1940 and 1945, or as regards J-Force soldiers, 1945-1948.

Again, you are strongly advised to read the detailed notes about this column. You can access these via Menu 3 (Births, Deaths, Marriages).

Column Z ; Age at Death. The age entered may sometimes differ with that shown on certain websites. More often than not, these do not tie up. Age has been calculated having regard to the dates of birth and death entered. This explains why the age entered for some of those who died on active service, differs from the age recorded on for example the Cenotaph database or in the case of returning vets, on death or cemetery records.

Column AA; Records whether the deceased was buried or cremated. There may be a few errors here, as I recently discovered that both cremations and burials in the Hamilton council area are all shown as burials.

Column AB ; Has either the date of cremation OR the date that ashes were interred/sprinkled, where known. 

Column AC ; Provides us with the name of the cemetery and the plot number where known. When you see the words ‘see note’ here this may point to us only having a record of cremation, or to a possible place of burial  and we are directed to the all important ‘Details’ column AO.

Where the actual plot number is known this is shown, otherwise just the cemetery name is shown.

A cemetery description does not necessarily suggest that the deceased is buried there or that ashes are interred there. He/she may have been memorialised there, but interred somewhere else. Some plaques are mounted on walls.

Column AD ; The name of the Funeral Director is provided as a source of contact if one is trying to track down the deceased’s last known address.

Column AE ; Shows whether an entry for this person was found when a search of the BDM Birth Index was undertaken. ‘N’ indicates ‘No’. Otherwise, it can be assumed an entry was found.

Column AF : Shows whether an entry for this person was found when a search of the BDM Death Index was undertaken. ‘N’ indicates ‘No‘. Otherwise, it can be assumed an entry was found.

Column AG ; Informs us whether (a) the cemetery features on the Find a Grave website and (b) if so whether a profile of the deceased exists up there. A few more notes about this column also exist in Menu 3.

Column AH ; Goes one step further and records whether a photo of the headstone/memorial exists on the Find a Grave website. Again, refer to Menu 3.

Column AI ; Records whether there is an entry on the Billiongraves website. This will always be accompanied by a photo of the headstone/memorial unless otherwise stipulated in Column AI.

Column AJ ; Records whether this person appears on the Familial Roll. Note: If the entry on the 2nd N.Z.E.F roll is listed under the alias name, the alias is not to be found on the Familial Roll, even though the * shown in this column is recorded against the alias entry.

Column AK ;  Lists names of Husbands/Wives/Partners, including where the status of the partner is separated, legally separated or divorced. No attempt has been made to determine whether marriage or the relationship occurred pre-war, during the war or post-war. Sometimes more than one partner is listed. It is possible that  a partner may be listed twice, just under another alternative name.  There is no way of knowing.
Note: it is possible that SOME of these entries may be incorrect, given that they’ve been derived from multiple sources, including genealogical sites which are known to be notoriously unreliable. 

Column AL ; Details Place of Birth. Again, it is possible that SOME of these entries may be incorrect, given that they’ve been derived from multiple sources, including genealogical sites which are known to be notoriously unreliable. 

Column AM ; Details Place of Death. As with Place of Birth, it is possible that SOME of these entries may be incorrect, given that they’ve been derived from multiple sources, including genealogical sites which are known to be notoriously unreliable. 

Column AN : should have a ‘Y’ against each entry. This is to show that unless it was not deemed possible to run a check against the Ancestrylibrary.au site, due to insufficient detail, then the name has been checked against the site. It does NOT MEAN that any information was necessarily derived from the Ancestry site. 

Column AO ; Is the ALL IMPORTANT Details column.  When undertaking  a search for a name ALWAYS check out the information in this column. Frankly you will be amazed at what is recorded there. Some of the information to be found here at the present time is also to be found in Columns AK, AL, AM and AN, but may be removed in due course. 

Note: In the course of my research I found that wives of some of the servicemen had served in the W.A.A.C. In many cases, I have not been able to create a separate entry for these women because the surname pre-marriage is not known. If more information comes to hand, I may end up adding some of these names. Meanwhile I have included this information (highlighted in blue) in the Details column (Column AO). 

If the person was a POW, was awarded gallantry medals and citations, military long service and good conduct medals, other service medals, civic awards and honours, etc. this has been highlighted in blue, immediately at the beginning of the relevant entry.

Other family members who served (whether in NZ, or overseas), are also highlighted in blue in this column.

Column AO may include the likes of  family and marital details, much of which has been taken from genealogical websites, electoral rolls, any gallantry medals awarded or special awards (not including war service medals), details of place of death, details of month and year of death, details of any name variation from that shown on the Nominal Rolls, whether a Prisoner of War (POW), possible variations in dates of birth and dates of death from those shown in the BMD Indexes or cemetery databases, (although not necessarily correct), incongruities, any subsequent service pre or post war, (regular army and territorials) and any other special notes, e.g. ex the Maori Battalion website, etc.

The words “Credit: ———‘ denotes that that person has contributed SOME of the content in this column, on that row, even if only a snippet. It does NOT mean that all content in the column may be attributed to that source.

A notation such as  .. ‘brother of  … who also fell’ is loose and refers to a sibling who did not return from the war, not just one who may have fallen in combat.

You will also find added notes, relating to the deaths of those who did not return, e.g. whether died of wounds, whether died as a POW, whether accidentally drowned, spouse and/or parents details,  etc. The words ‘who also fell’ are a little loose in that they refer to any servicemen who did not return; not just those killed in action.

Quite a lot of the information to be found here, has been derived from genealogical records.

Unless otherwise stated, likely cause of death is ‘killed in action.’

I wanted to include as much data here as I felt might be helpful, so have not bothered always to confine myself to the maximum width of the column (256 characters).

When reading an entry which exceeds the column width, be aware that the unseen content can be viewed, even if that is not immediately apparent. Just look to the top of the page in the edit bar where the entry is displayed, place your cursor there and scroll across as far as necessary.

Don’t forget to download the Quickstart Guide to make the most out of your research.