19 April 2024, Issue 1206
“Dear Jessie…” More than 11,000 New Zealanders were killed on active service during WW2. And today, just before the ANZAC bugles prepare to break the dawn silence, The Weekend Sun celebrates one of those 11,000 who went, gave, and did not come home.
It’s the story of unfulfilled love, a love mystery, involving a Katikati soldier who regularly wrote home from the battle front to a woman called “Jessie.” But who was “Jessie”? To this day no-one seems to know. We take a peek inside the soldier’s personal diary.
And in our second ANZAC story, senior Katikati College students unravel the soldier’s back story - a man who has been immortalised on a street sign, whose war memorabilia holds precious place in the local museum, and whose monument ticks every second of every the day for
passersby up and down Katikati’s main street. The legend and legacy of Lieutenant Russell Newbank Walford is on page 4-5, Katikati College students reflect on page 6-7, and ANZAC services are listed on Photo: John Borren. page 9.