Great granddaughter honours koro in historic First World War battle honours recognition

Corporal Paddy Whare, from Napier, is the great granddaughter of Private Te Iwi Ngaro Whare who served with New Zealand Maori (Pioneer) Battalion, 15^th Reinforcements. 

The New Zealand Army will see eight additional battle honours emblazoned onto the new Regimental Colour of 2^nd/1^st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment (2/1 RNZIR).

Six of the battle honours have never previously been emblazoned onto any New Zealand Army infantry colours, of which two - Hill 60 (ANZAC) and Deville Wood - are unique to Te Hokowhitu a Tū. 

Corporal Whare is currently serving in 2/1 RNZIR and said she discovered her koro’s service by chance in 2017.

“I looked at the 28 (Maori) Battalion website, typed in the name Whare and it returned with David George Whare, which is my father's name, but he never served,” Corporal Whare said.

“I knew my father was named after my great grandfather Te Iwi Ngaro Whare, who had been in the Army. I went back through my fathers whakapapa documents to read that my koro Te Iwi Ngaro Whare was also known as Dave

“It was then a process of checking his parent’s names and birth details against archive documents.”

With a little more research Corporal Whare was able to find out more about her koro – who died before she was born -- and his military service.

In November 1916, a 20-year old Te Iwi Ngaro Whare enlisted in the NZ Army in Rotorua, and was discharged in February 1919.

He spent just over two years in service, of which more than half was on the Western Front.

“Koro was caught up in the German Spring offensive in 1918. Using papers from the New Zealand Archives I could see he was injured on 5 April 1918 at The Somme,” Corporal Whare said.

“I was given the book Whitiki! Whiti! Whiti! E! Maori in the First World War by historian Dr Monty Soutar from a good friend, which then allowed me to trace where koro had been and what he and his battalion were doing.

“On 5 April 1918, Maori Pioneers were wiring near the front line where sadly some were killed or wounded, him being one of them. His medical documents read ‘gunshot wound left leg’ – he was struck by shell splinter above the left knee.

I keep thinking of the things he would have seen and done in his time over there.

A defining moment of her research was discovering that at the age of 45 years-old Te Iwi Ngaro reenlisted into the Army for the Second World War.

“The New Zealand Defence Force’s Personnel, Archives and Medals team returned two regimental numbers with my koro’s name.

“I said that it was only the first number that related to my koro, but I was told that he had two numbers as he reenlisted during World War II.

“I was completely shocked and just looked at her speechless. I was still getting my head around him having served in the First World War, so to say I was proud of him is an understatement,” she said.

Then in his 40s, it was likely he would have been posted to a reinforcement unit and did not serve overseas again, she said.

Te Iwi Ngaro Whare passed away in 1957 at the age of 60 having lived in Tarukenga, near Rotorua, with his wife and family following the war.

While Corporal Whare said she could not speak for her koro, she will be proud to be standing on parade when Te Hokowhitu a Tū’s battle honours are paraded on 2/1 RNZIR’s Colours on 31 October.

“For me, it’s going to be pretty emotional seeing the new battle honours being marched onto the parade ground.

I would like to think he would be super proud of his three grandchildren who have all served in the Army – myself and my older cousins who have served in the Royal New Zealand Signals Corps and the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment.

The new King’s and Regimental Colour of 2/1 RNZIR will be the first to be presented to the NZDF during the reign of His Majesty King Charles III, and the first presentation of Colours to any New Zealand unit since 1997.