Waru Adamson

Private 801873 · D Company, 28th (Māori) Battalion · Died on active service, Italy, 20 July 1945

Early life

Waru Adamson came from Karioi, near Ohakune, where his parents, Te Rohana and Kuini Te Whetu, lived. Before he enlisted he was working for the Public Works Department in Nelson, and he gave his aunt, Mrs W. R. Pohe of Taihape, as his next of kin. She was the wife of Whatarangi Ropoama Pohe, whose son was the airman Johnny Pohe, so Waru and Johnny were cousins.

War

Waru sailed on the Nieuw Amsterdam in July 1943 and joined the battalion in Italy. He was wounded early in 1944, probably in the fighting at Cassino, and his name appeared in a casualty list in April that year. Within weeks the family had worse news, when Johnny was named among the airmen shot by the Gestapo after the Great Escape.

Waru died on 20 July 1945, aged about 35, two months after the fighting in Italy had ended, while the New Zealand Division was stationed in and around Trieste. His service record gives his death as on active service from natural causes, but a year later his family’s memorial notice said he was “killed in Trieste”. The notice was inserted by “mum, dad, and the Pohe family” and ended simply, “Ever remembered.”

Remembered

Waru is buried in Udine War Cemetery, in north-east Italy (grave IV.F.5). He is remembered by his whānau at Karioi.

Sources

Online Cenotaph C20270; Commonwealth War Graves Commission; Wanganui Herald, 18 April 1944, p. 13; Commonwealth War Graves Commission record for F/O P. P. Pohe; Wanganui Chronicle, 20 July 1946, p. 1 (In Memoriam).

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