Community
Four new street signs featuring poppies to honour servicemen who fought for New Zealand have been put up in Invercargill.
The Poppy Places Trust launched the Places of Remembrance Project on 11 November 2014 to identify and record NZ streets and other places that are directly related to people and events from our overseas military history.
The Trust works with local authorities to identify these places and develop the story behind the naming. The project involves including the RSA poppy symbol on road sign blades.
Invercargill City Council has registered four streets and a park. They are Mepal Place and Lancaster Street, Checketts Place, Hinton Court, and Russell Square park.
With council approval, the street signs for the four streets, which feature poppies, are now in place.
The stories behind the signs have been uploaded onto the Trust’s website poppyplaces.nz
The sign for Russell Square has not yet been placed.
The stories behind the names:
Mepal Place and Lancaster Street were developed by Southern Equities Ltd in the early 1970s. Ivan Carroll, Arthur Diack and Louis Crimp were the directors. Carroll and Diack chose the street names based on their World War II experience as bomber pilots. Flying Officer Ivan Sylvester Carroll RNZAF NZ Bomber Command 75 Squadron was based at Mepal in England where he flew Avro Lancasters, a British four-engined WW II heavy bomber. Flying Officer Arthur Francis Diack 626 Squadron was based at Wickenby Lincolnshire, England, where he also flew Lancasters on operations.
Checketts Place is named for Wing Commander John “Johnny” Milne Checketts, RNZAF WW II Fighter Pilot. Checketts was born in Invercargill in 1912 and died in 2006 aged 94. He is buried in Christchurch. Checketts was credited with destroying 14 enemy aircraft. He was awarded the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross), DSO (Companion of the Distinguished Service Order) as well as the Silver Star (USA) and Cross of Valour (Poland).
Hinton Court is named for Corporal John “Jack” Daniel Hinton VC of the 20th Infantry Battalion. Hinton was born in 1909 at Colac Bay. He died in 1997 aged 87 and is buried in Christchurch. When he enlisted for World War II, Hinton was 30 and working as a foreman driver in Greymouth. Hinton received the VC (Victoria Cross), which is the highest award for gallantry “in the face of the enemy” that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces, for his actions at Kalamata on 29 April 1941 during the Battle of Greece.
Russell Square was named by a group of Returned Serviceman after the NZ Soldier’s Club which was at 17 Russell Square, London. In the early 1920s the Invercargill RSA approached the council with a proposal to subsidise the wages of unemployed returned servicemen if the council would give them work. The council agreed and the men were employed by the reserves department. One group cleared, levelled and formed Russell Square Park asking that it be named after the club in London.