Standing solemnly in a corner of the green space in front of the Waiapu Cathedral is a granite cross.  It may be barely noticed by people passing by but it has an important history for the city and 15 June this week will mark its centenary. 

The ‘Memorial to the Fallen of the Great War’ cross was gifted by the parish of St John’s the Evangelist Cathedral and unveiled on 15 June, 1924, which was Trinity Sunday that year, by the Member of Parliament Sir Douglas Maclean. 

The granite cross is the only public memorial that survived the 1931 earthquake.  It originally stood in front of the former cathedral, a brick building which collapsed in the quake with the loss of two lives. What was known as the Cross of Sacrifice became a symbol of hope for cathedral parishioners and other citizens struggling to come to terms with both the war and disaster. 

Waiapu diocese archivist, Jillian King, says that there is a framed photo of the cross in the cathedral ambulatory.  Its caption states that most of the cathedral’s war memorials – including the Altar of Remembrance – were destroyed in the earthquake, and this cross and a memorial to the first Maori military chaplain, The Revd Henare Waipiha Te Wainohu, are all that remain.  

The granite cross has a bronze cross attached on its eastern face and at its the cross is inscribed with the words:

IN HONOURED MEMORY / OF ALL THOSE FROM / HAWKES BAY / WHO SERVED IN THE GREAT WAR / 1914 – 1918 / THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE.

The archives record that within the destroyed cathedral, there had been memorial plaques for three soldiers from the parish killed in that war – Priv. Charles  Keith Kilgour Ward (d. 27 July 1917,) Second Lieutenant Lewis Jardine (d.25 September 1916), and Corporal Roy A. E. Skelton (d. 15 September 1916 ).

A plaque was added to the cross on 9 May 1995 commemorating the 50th anniversary of VE Day and the end of World War II in Europe.

The cross has suffered its own disaster.  When it was being shifted to its current site in 1962 to make way for the new cathedral, the almost two-tonne cross fell as its weight began to lift the wheels of the hoisting crane and the base broke.  The cross stem was shortened before it was re-erected on its pedestal.

The Cross of Sacrifice will soon stand before another new building as offices are under construction for the administration and welfare staff of the Diocese of Waiapu.