John Paul College's WW1 soldier mystery has been solved.
The mystery of the unknown soldier has been solved, but the quest to reunite a 100-year-old photograph of him with his family in Wales continues.
Last week, the Rotorua Daily Post published a story about Year 7 students from class 7WJ at John Paul College who had been given a project to identify a soldier whose photograph had been found in the Rotorua Hospice Shop.
Their teacher, Paulene Walsh, thought it would be a great way to help her students learn about World War I after she spent $20 on the framed photograph of one Private E.H. Thomas, Royal Welsh Guard, dated 1916.
At the time, it was not known how the photograph found its way to Rotorua, or what had happened to Private Thomas, so the students embarked on a challenge to track him down and find his family so they could return the photo to them.
Yesterday, the students, much to their surprise and excitement, found out where the photo was from and who brought it to New Zealand.
The mystery was solved by Welsh-born Rotorua resident and former science teacher turned artist Martyn Evans, who told the class he and his wife Joy brought the framed picture from Wales to New Zealand in 1976 with a load of furniture.
He said the photo of Private Thomas sat in pride of place above the fireplace of his cousin's neighbour in the small village of Cwmbach, South Wales.
"The old lady had died and her family did not want any of her furniture so we took some of it, including the framed photograph, with us to New Zealand.
Rotorua's Martyn Evans tells Year 7 students from John Paul College about where the photograph of their mystery soldier came from. Photo/Ben Fraser
"That photograph hung on our wall in Gisborne and then when we came to Rotorua in 1988, hung on the wall here."
Cutting a long story short, the photo was sold to a local secondhand dealer in the late 1990s and found its way to the class and back to Mr Evans.
"I was delighted to see it in the paper and recognised it right away," Mr Evans said.
"I never knew the man in the picture, that sort of picture was pretty common because most soldiers had them taken before they went to war."
Mr Evans said he had contacted his cousin, who in turn was making contact with Private Thomas' family back in Wales.
Both Mr Evans and the students of class 7WJ said they wanted it returned to his family.
According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Private EH Thomas, 8th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers, died on June 12, 1916 and was buried in Amara War Cemetery in Iraq, he was just 24.
He was the son of Edward and Catherine Thomas, of Aberfawr, Abertridwr, Cardiff.
Private Thomas was probably wounded elsewhere and sent to Amara where a large hospital centre had been set up on the banks of the Tigris River. The cemetery contains the remains of 4621 people who died during World War I.
The students said the project had opened their eyes to the horrors of war and all of them wanted to attend Anzac Day commemorations this month.
They said they did not expect anyone to know who he was, let alone his family.
"It's really exciting," Liam Adams said.
"For quite a while we were looking for the owner and when we found out it was a real surprise."
Mrs Walsh said the next step was to make contact with Private Thomas' family, try and restore the photo and add some information, before having it blessed at a special ceremony with Mr Evans.
"It's so amazing this has happened," Mrs Walsh said.
"We feel it has been such a worthwhile project and to solve it was just the icing on the cake."
