Matiu (Matthew) Waru Blackburn

Private 801894 · D Company, 28th (Māori) Battalion · Wounded in Italy

Artist’s impression based on a later-life photograph on his headstone at Aramoho Cemetery, Whanganui, aged down.

Early life

Matiu Waru Blackburn, known in army records as Matthew, was born on 14 April 1920. His parents were Waru Blackburn and Ka Marutuna. He grew up with his brothers and sisters Paora Kātera (Jimmy), Jack, Heni, Hiria, Liza and Doreen. Before the war he worked as a labourer at Rāetihi. He was single when he enlisted, and he gave his brother J. Kātera Blackburn of Rāetihi as his next of kin.

War

Matiu sailed for the Middle East in 1943 on the Nieuw Amsterdam and joined D Company in Italy. The Whanganui papers reported him wounded three times: on 3 January 1944, 30 March 1944, and again on 23 December 1944 under the headline “Raetihi Man Wounded”. Those dates match the battalion’s fighting at Orsogna in late 1943 and Cassino in early 1944, then the advance through northern Italy late that year.

After the war

Matiu came home and married Te Aorangi Gilbert. They raised six children: Kuini, Lynne (Bub), Matthew, Heeni, Arama and Gilbert. Their names live on in the Matiu Te Aorangi Whānau Trust. Matiu died on 1 July 1994, aged 74, and was buried at Aramoho Cemetery in Whanganui under a military headstone. Te Aorangi died in 2017.

Sources: Auckland Museum Online Cenotaph C120295; Aramoho Cemetery records and headstone; Wanganui Herald 3 Jan 1944, 30 Mar 1944; Wanganui Chronicle 23 Dec 1944; Blackburn whānau whakapapa; Te Aorangi Blackburn death notice, 2017.