New memorial mends a school’s story

Forty-six years ago, the construction of the Wellington urban motorway relegated the Clifton Terrace Model School’s World War I memorial to the recess of staff and students’ memories.

But, on the 99th anniversary of Armistice Day, it has unveiled plans to commemorate the 121 pupils and staff who died in WWI.

The school, in conjunction with the Returned Services Association and Thorndon man Brett Mckay, will reveal the three-metre high triangular concrete column with a separate plaque listing those killed in WWI on November 11, 2018.

It will mark the centennial anniversary of Armistice Day, 100 years since the Allies and Germany signed the cessation of one of the deadliest global conflicts.

The then Clifton Terrace School had 750 of its young men go to war over four years. The families paid a heavy price as one in six pupils never returned. Two of them were sons of prime ministers and another was one of the school’s four Rhodes Scholars. Two teachers, a former school committee member and 118 former pupils never made it home.

Then Governor-general John Jellicoe recognised the school’s sacrifice and dedicated a cenotaph to the community in 1924.

There it remained on the edge of the school grounds for 47 years until the 1970s, when motorway work began pushing towards Shell Gully, near the school.

While negotiations were held about the taking of school land, the memorial crashed some 20 metres down the excavated slope.

The then Ministry of Works reported that the memorial was safe and had been stored for later re-erection, but years later it was revealed the memorial had been irreparably damaged. It is unknown what happened to its remains.

Acting Clifton principal Jenny Austin said the 148-year school history was full of achievements, and the experience had been an authentic learning opportunity.

‘‘The new memorial will restore the dignity of a generation and a chapter in the school’s history which was lost with the collapse of the original memorial.’’

Students have designed sculptures that will be cast in bronze and set into the memorial.

PHOTO: JAMES PAUL/STUFF Clifton Terrace Model School students Tommy Athfield and Micah Ulu, with acting principal Jenny Austin, stand where the old war memorial was first erected 47 years ago. Inset: The unveiling of the memorial in 1924.