Statue honours WWI hero

FROM US: The adult family of former soldier Joseph (Louis) Roseingrave with the miniature statue. David Roseingrave (left), Jennifer Greenlees, Charmaine McNeilage and Tony Roseingrave. PHOTO/ANDREW BONALLACK

The Roseingrave family presented the RSA with a miniature of the 3m bronze statue of a kiwi soldier, unveiled in Messines, Belgium last Anzac Day, in recognition of the role kiwi soldiers played in defending Belgium.

Joseph (Louis) Roseingrave survived the war: a veteran of battles at Messines, Passchendaele and the second battle of the Somme in 1918, he returned home and worked for AMP in Masterton.

He died in 1958, aged 69, and is buried in Masterton Cemetery.

The gift to the RSA came about when the former soldier's grandson, Matthew Roseingrave, who works in Brussels, bought the miniature and sent it back to New Zealand for presentation to the RSA.

It will be housed in the RSA history room at the Wairarapa Services and Citizens Club.

Yesterday's presentation involved a small ceremony held at the club attended by four of the old soldier's children Charmaine, Tony, David and Jennifer.

Three of their siblings John, Josephine and Jerome are deceased. He said it was a "very nice idea" by the soldier's grandson to buy and donate the miniature, an exact replica of the original, to Masterton. Joseph Roseingrave, he said, had left New Zealand with the 13th reinforcements after training in May 1916, arriving in England in July of that year and joining the 13th battery in Belgium.

Later he was attached to an Australian field battery.

"He started off as a gunner and a private, became a bombardier and then finished the war as a private again," Mr Hill said.

Past president of Masterton RSA Bevan Hefferen, who is also the history room's curator, thanked the family for the donation.

"It's a real pleasure to get such a fine statue recognising what Mr Roseingrave did overseas.

'Those soldiers went through hell," he said.

Mr Hefferen said the miniature would be given "pride of place" in the history room.