Rededication of Memorial to Tiweka Manuera - Manuel

Standing alone in the Poroporo Valley of the East Coast of the North Island New Zealand is a memorial to a forgotten soldier - Tiweka Manuera, or Manuel as the family is commonly known. Tiweka was one of many Ngati Porou young men from the early 20th century who answered the call to King and Country, crossing the globe to fight someone else's war. There, like so many of these young men, he died of what is likely to be 'trench sickness'.

Tiweka was the second son of Apirana Manuel and Katarina Grant. His father Apirana was the oldest grandchild of Manuel Hose (our family's eponynous ancestor who came from Europe to NZ) and his first wife Tapita te Herekaipuke. His parents had 10 children, their 7th child, Tungake, known as Tuke is my grandfather.

Tiweka signed up at the age of 22 and left NZ for the Suez Canal aboard the Waitemata the week of the 18-26 October 1915. (Source the Auckland War Memoria Museum's Online Cenotaph)

Private Tiweka Manuel, #16/657 is buried in Tidworth Military Cemetary England. He was a member of the 2nd Maori Pioneer Battalion. He is listed as having 'died of disease'. How does a healthy young man in the prime of his life die of disease at the age of only 25?

The cover picture (at the top of this page) of Tiweka was taken at the insistence of his mother Katarina. It is the only picture I know of him that exists.

Tiweka's first memorial of course is his tombstone at Tidworth Cemetary where he is buried. However a 2nd memorial exists for him and stands as a lonely vigil to an ancestor who gave his life 100 years ago. The 2nd memorial is the cover photo at the top of our Facebook page dedicated to him. It stands in the Poroporo Valley next to the now dilapidated homestead where my mother was born. The property consists of little more than shrubs that line the now long gone footpath to the homestead. Fruit trees of plum and lemon that are no longer picked, and a chimney surrounded by metal plates, the remnants of what was once the oven.

It is sobering to know that people lived here, my ancestors.

Barely 20 meters from the property stands the memorial to Tiweka raised by his family in memory to their son who would never come home. Almost one hundred years later, the memorial is in need of repair. In late 2014 I took a scrubbing brush to it and removed much of the lichen and moss growing on it. The brush revealed the date of his death, 25th March 1918. It is nearly one hundred years since that date and we his mokopuna from his brothers and sisters wish to honour him once more to ensure that our own mokopuna remember him.