TE AWAMUTU NEWS | 1
THURSDAY APRIL 18, 2024
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APRIL 18, 2024
A time to remember Uncle Frank
One of the fallen 15 By Viv Posselt
Like many for whom Anzac Day brings family into sharp focus, Len Hatwell’s thoughts turn at this time to the trials faced by his forebears. The Te Awamutu man’s uncle Frank, or Frances Aloysius Ligouri Hatwell, was born in Hawke’s Bay in 1893 and was killed in action at the Somme in April 1918, aged just 24. His name is included on the World War One cenotaph in Te Awamutu, one of the 58 fallen WWI soldiers who are central to an ongoing research project being undertaken by the NZ Society of Genealogists Te Awamutu. It was a recent story in The News that alerted Len to the project and triggered the family’s decision to disclose Frank’s details. There is another side to Frank’s story. He was married in 1915 to Annette Selina Smith, said to have lived at the time in Te Awamutu’s Park Rd – which by happenstance is the very street in which Len lives today. The young bride, who was also known in the records as Elizabeth, died in the Spanish influenza epidemic that claimed thousands of Kiwi lives in late 1918, drawing a tragic line under that branch
of the Hatwell family tree. Frank’s loss is also noted on the cenotaph in Woodville. Where Frank entered the overseas WWI arena after a 31-day posting to Samoa followed by a stint with the Canterbury Regiment, Len’s father Peter Channel Hatwell took a more direct route to that conflict. He was part of the Wellington Mounted Rifles and served overseas for just three days short of four years, including with the Anzacs at Gallipoli. He survived to enlist in World War II but was not posted overseas. Len said last week: “My father came back, and I saw first hand how what he had witnessed and experienced affected him all his life.” Len was somewhere in the middle of 12 children born to Peter and his wife. He finds it interesting to note that most of Peter’s service had been in the Middle East, including in the Gaza region – an area that is
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today going through another searing conflict. Len, who was raised in Gisborne, has now been in Te Awamutu for 56 years. He and his late wife Joyce used to run an antiques business in Cambridge and Tirau – Cartwell Antiques.
LEFT: Len Hatwell’s father Peter Hatwell, seen here with Fred Barwick manning their machine gun on WWI duty in the Sinai. Photo by Gordon Williams CENTRE: Te Awamutu man Len Hatwell looking through the official papers relating to his father’s and uncle’s military service. Photo: Viv Posselt RIGHT: Neither Len’s uncle Frank, nor Frank’s wife, survived to raise a family.
Anzac Plans
Te Awamutu’s commemoration of Anzac Day starts tomorrow with Poppy Day. The annual appeal being marked this year on April 19 will see the sale of poppies swell funds for New Zealand’s Returned Servicemen Association in support of the country’s veterans and their families. At 11am on Sunday, there will be the annual Anzac Day service at the Pukeatua War Memorial Church, to be attended as usual by members of the Hauraki Chapter of the Patriots Defence Force Motorcycle Club. Following that will be a memorial service at Tokanui Hospital Cemetery near Kihikihi. Te Awamutu RSA’s Lou Brown said research showed that among those buried there are veterans of the Boer War and the world wars, with many having suffered lifelong trauma because of their experiences. On Anzac Day itself, April 25, the dawn parade will start at 6am from the RSA building in Alexandra St and make its way to the Te Awamutu Memorial Park Sunken Cross. That will be followed by a flag-raising at the RSA cemetery. The main Anzac Day Civic Parade will take place 11am at Anzac Green in Teasdale St. Anzac Day will be marked in Kihikihi at a service at the cenotaph outside the Kihikihi Town Hall, starting at 8.45am.
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