School’s fallen finally remembered
Forty-six years ago, the construction of the Wellington urban motorway relegated the Clifton Terrace Model School’s World War I memorial to the recesses 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 gave their lives in World War I.
On November 11, 2018 the school, in conjunction with the RSA and Thorndon man Brett McKay, will reveal a three-metre high triangular concrete column with a separate plaque listing those pupils and staff killed in WWI.
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 in history.
The then Clifton Terrace School had 750 of its former pupils and staff go to war over four years. Families paid a heavy price as one in six of the former pupils never returned, two of them sons of prime ministers.
Two teachers, a former school committee member and 118 former pupils never came home.
Governor-General John Jellicoe recognised the school’s sacrifice and dedicated a cenotaph to the community in 1924.
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 an 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.
Acting Clifton principal Jenny Austin says the 148-year school history is full of achievements, and this experience has 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. They have written stories to identify what each design represents.