Anzac Day 2024: Remembering a son of Katikati

Head girl Leilani Rooks and head boy Hamish Tanner of Katikati College remember Russell Walford on his street for Anzac Day this year. Photos / SunLive

Russell Walford was 29 years old when he died during the Battle of Sangro River in Italy. It was World War II and one week before Christmas.

It’s a Katikati tradition for the college head boy and head girl to offer some youthful insights at the local Anzac Day service. The iconic clock tower in Katikati’s Memorial Square was put up by his family to remember him, Walford also has a street named after him. “This one will be very different for me,” ponders Katikati College’s head boy, Hamish Tanner.

“Because many of the local men who went and fought would have gone to Katikati College. And I will be standing here on Anzac morning representing them.” Including Lt Russell Freeland Walford.”

This year, four Katikati College students met at the crossroads of Walford and Work Rds, down Apata Way. They have a tiny red leather-bound book – Walford’s diary sent home from Italy. Leilani Rooks, head girl at Katikati College tries to put herself in Russell’s standard military-issue boots and struggles with it.

Head girl Leilani Rooks and head boy Hamish Tanner of Katikati College remember Russell Walford on his street for Anzac Day this year. Photos / SunLive

“Imagine – in just a matter of days all the male figures in my life going off to war, and me going as a nurse. I can’t get my head around that – way too crazy for me,” Rooks said.

The diary: Tuesday, March 12, 1940: “Chap Hughes suffering concussion takes violent fits and it needs four or five men to hold him down.” An observation from a military hospital bed in Italy 84 years ago.

“he diary makes me feel like I am living through him,” Flett said.”

“The diary makes me feel like I am living through him,” Flett said.

A symbol of the passage of time. Katikati’s clock tower ticks in memory of a lost son, Russell Walford.

Tuesday, March 19, 1940: “Rained very heavily today.” But a weather report set against the backdrop of enemy tank and artillery shells raining down just up the road.

“Selfish and heroic,” Tanner says of Walford in the moment. “I am not sure they truly understood they might die because it was such a huge adventure,” Tanner said.

“But had they understood I don’t think it would have changed anything. We are just proud of ... and, yes, very, very grateful to them.”

- SunLive