Lone French soldier honoured

Tetiamana Atea has been dead for 100 years, but he remains the only French soldier to be buried in New Zealand.

In honour of the 100th anniversary of his death, a small group gathered in the Little Chapel at Karori Cemetery to hear mass and lay wreaths at the foot of his grave.

Atea lies in the first row of a cemetery full of World War I veterans, buried between a 25-year-old Aucklander and a 31-year-old Wellingtonian.

However, for nearly 100 years, a spelling error on his headstone meant the French Government had no record he was there.

It also meant his headstone was missing the mandatory phrase awarded to French soldiers who die in combat, ‘‘Mort pour la France’’ meaning ‘‘died for France’’. It is a statute under French law that every soldier to die while serving has the phrase on their grave.

Olivier Schille´, the delegate of a French non-profit dedicated to maintaining the graves of French soldiers buried overseas, first discovered Atea was a member of the French armed forces. In 2015, Schille´ had a new headstone inscribed with the phrase.

After the mass, the Consul of France Se´ bastien Lallement and Schille´ laid the flag of French Polynesia and flower wreaths at Atea’s grave. Afterwards, the small group gathered around the grave and sang La Marseillaise, France’s national anthem.

Schille´ said the ceremony was very emotional. ‘‘The last time Marseillaise was sung here was 100 years ago. It’s very special to be here.’’

He has since discovered the bodies of three French soldiers who served in New Caledonia and are buried in Australia. He is working to have their bodies exhumed and reburied in military cemeteries. Atea’s remains will not be moved, Schille´ said.

‘‘Here [he is] among his Anzac brothers-in-arms who, like him, have donated the most precious gift so that we are allowed to live in a world of law and freedom.’’

Atea’s remains lie thousands of kilometres south of the tropical island he called home – Moorea in French Polynesia. He worked as a farmer until he was 29. The day after he enlisted in the Colonial Infantry Company of Tahiti in 1916, he embarked for New Caledonia, never to return.

Poor sanitary conditions led to outbreaks of leprosy and tuberculosis on the island. Atea’s health deteriorated and in August 1918 he boarded a ship that stopped in Wellington. After it docked in the capital, he died from pneumonia on September 8, 1918.