Soldier’s family sought so grave repairs can begin
Gunner Rayner Harris was just 23 when the Last Post sounded for him at the Sandon Cemetery on the outskirts of Sanson.
The young man had joined the Expeditionary Forces at the beginning of World War I, travelling overseas in 1915.
He served in Egypt and on the Western Front, earning the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
But in France in June 1917 he was critically injured, ending his fighting days, with shrapnel to his spine, abdomen and foot.
He was invalided out of the army and sent home to New Zealand.
He was nursed at Rotorua Military Hospital where, in November 1918, he died from his injuries.
More than a century later, his grave has fallen into a state of disrepair, to the point it needs significant restoration.
That is a task that would be undertaken by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, but only if its staff could find a relative.
Ministry grave inspector Becky Masters-ramsay said keeping headstone inscriptions clean and clear was part of routine maintenance undertaken to honour fallen servicemen and women.
But when serious interventions were needed to repair cracks and gouges, staff were reluctant to act without making every effort to contact the family.
‘‘If they do not want the work to happen, then we would never insist and will leave the grave in the condition they wish.’’
Master-ramsay said the work would be carried out at no cost to the family.
But as years passed, it was becoming increasingly difficult to find relatives.
The fact Harris was buried in a shared family plot made the project even more sensitive and complicated.
‘‘There would be no point doing just his.’’
So far records searches have found Harris was the son of John George and Beatrice Ellen Harris, and was one of eight children.
He was born in 1894 in Kimbolton.
The ministry had placed public advertisements calling for relatives who recognised Harris’ name to get in touch.