‘Unknown warrior’ gets headstone
A World War I veteran has been given a headstone after lying anonymously in a cemetery for a century.
Gallipoli veteran William Snelgrove was promoted to corporal and given special mention in military dispatches.
But his life ended in relative anonymity and he was buried in a row beside seven other victims of the Spanish flu.
On Saturday evening, amid the cacophony of cannon and bugle, a headstone marking Snelgrove’s service was unveiled at Porirua Cemetery in a ceremony run by New Zealand Defence Force personnel.
The discovery of Snelgrove’s anonymous grave was a surprise to living relatives who never knew he existed.
Denise Liddle, his great-niece, who lives just five minutes’ drive from where her great-uncle was buried, said William was the ‘‘unknown warrior in the Snelgrove family’’.
‘‘None of us actually knew he was here,’’ Liddle added.
And William’s great-nephew, Denis Snelgrove, went to work every day within 200 metres of his gravesite.
‘‘There he is buried up there, all forgotten about, and here I am, driving past every day for 20 years.’’
William Snelgrove’s existence was discovered by historian Allan Dodson, who runs the website Porirua War Stories.
It chronicles the history of servicemen and women from the Porirua district who served in conflicts from the Boer War right through to the modern day.
The location of the gravesites of every person buried at Porirua Cemetery, even those in unmarked graves, are kept on file by Porirua City Council but their military service records and commendations are not recorded.
‘‘I was doing research into flu victims – the people who died in 1918 – and I always crosscheck any names against whether they were a veteran or not and Willy Snelgrove popped up as a veteran, which quite surprised me because I thought we had everyone listed.’’
The find led to the discovery of other veterans buried in similar circumstances.
At the time, their plots likely would have been marked by crosses but now those crosses had disintegrated, leaving just bare patches of grass, Dodson said. The headstones of others buried in unmarked gravesites will be unveiled on Armistice Day. Snelgrove, who was nicknamed ‘‘Willie’’, was one of 10 children born in Bromley, England. Two of his brothers also served at Gallipoli. Snelgrove served as a driver during the conflict but was evacuated in August 1915 with dysentery and defective vision.
He was then ruled as being medically unfit to serve, before moving to Wellington. On December 3, 1918, William died of the Spanish flu.