Currently serving in 2/1 RNZIR, Corporal Whare said she discovered her koro’s service by chance in 2017.
“I looked at the 28 (Māori) Battalion website, typed in the name Whare and it returned with David George Whare, which is my father’s name, but he never served,” Whare said.
“I knew my father was named after my great grandfather Te Iwi Ngaro Whare, who had been in the Army,” she said. “I went back through my father’s whakapapa documents to read that my koro Te Iwi Ngaro Whare was also known as Dave. It was then a process of checking his parent’s names and birth details against archive documents.”
With a little more research she was able to find out more about the military service of her koro, who died before she was born, and learned that in November 1916, the 20-year-old Te Iwi Ngaro Whare enlisted in the NZ Army in Rotorua, and was discharged in February 1919.
He spent just over two years in service, of which more than half was on the Western Front.
“Koro was caught up in the German Spring offensive in 1918,” she said, adding that using papers from the New Zealand Archives she could see he was injured on April 5, 1918, at the Somme.
“I was given the book Whitiki! Whiti! Whiti! E! Māori in the First World War by historian Dr Monty Soutar from a good friend, which then allowed me to trace where koro had been and what he and his battalion were doing.
On April 5, 1918, the Māori Pioneers were near the front line when her great-grandfather was wounded, and others were killed: “His medical documents read ‘gunshot wound left leg’ – he was struck by shell splinter above the left knee”.
“I keep thinking of the things he would have seen and done in his time over there,” she said.
A defining moment of her research was discovering that at the age of 45, Te Iwi Ngaro re-enlisted into the Army for World War II.
“The New Zealand Defence Force’s personnel, archives and medals team returned two regimental numbers with my koro’s name.
“I said that it was only the first number that related to my koro, but I was told that he had two numbers as he re-enlisted during World War II,” she said.
“I was completely shocked and speechless. I was still getting my head around him having served in [World War I], so to say I was proud of him is an understatement.”
It was likely he would have been posted to a reinforcement unit and did not serve overseas again, she said.
Te Iwi Ngaro Whare passed away in 1957 at the age of 60 having lived in Tarukenga, near Rotorua, with his wife and family following the war.
While Corporal Whare said she could not speak for her koro, she will be proud to be standing on parade when Te Hokowhitu a Tū's battle honours are paraded on 2/1 RNZIR’s Colours on October 31.
“For me, it’s going to be pretty emotional seeing the new battle honours being marched onto the parade ground,” she said.
“I would like to think he would be super proud of his three grandchildren who have all served in the Army – myself and my older cousins who have served in the Royal New Zealand Signals Corps and the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment.”
The new King’s and Regimental Colour of 2/1 RNZIR will be the first to be presented to the NZDF during the King’s reign, and the first presentation of colours to any New Zealand unit since 1997.
