MISSION CRITICAL
They were the walking wounded – some possibly better described as the living dead: men who returned from World War I but who died of war-related mental or physical injuries and illnesses in the years that followed. There is a growing interest in WWI history and finally the stories of many of these mostly single, damaged and often forgotten men have been researched and verified. More than a century after the end of the Great War, an estimated 2000 are missing from the official New Zealand Roll of Honour, which was published in 1924.
Nearly every city and small town has a war memorial, recording the names of those who died in the service of their country during the two world wars. The nation took a huge hit in WWI. At a time when the population was only 1.1 million, 100,440 served overseas, including 550 nurses and 2000 Māori. The Roll of Honour shows 18,166 were killed and many others wounded. That death toll is now being challenged by Methven farmer and business leader Sir Graeme Harrison, and new information from the New Zealand Military Historical Society (NZMHS) also reveals major under-reporting.
Many of this country’s war dead are buried in cemeteries near where they died, tended by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. There are 959 of these cemeteries on what was the Western Front and New
