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Cook Islands Online Cenotaph
Preserving Cook Islands Military History
Akara ki mua e akara katoa ki muri
To be able to look forward, you must be able to look back
Brought to you by
Final rank:
Private
First name/s
No first name on enlistment
Last name
ARII
Service number and Regiment/Unit/Corps
16/1139
"D" Coy., New Zealand Māori (Pioneer) Battalion, 1st Rarotongan Contingent
Also known as
Ara ARII
Date of birth
1892
Place of birth
Mitiaro, Cook Islands
Date of death
24/08/1916
Place of death
France
Death registration number
NZ1918/59643
(New Zealand post war death registration)
Headstone/grave location
Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery, Nord, France
Next of kin
Pito Vaine (friend), Rarotonga, Takake (brother), Rarotonga
Archives New Zealand online service record
Additional information
Enlisted 27 September 1915 in Rarotonga. Disembarked from SS Navua at Suez 15 March 1916 and embarked with the New Zealand (Māori) Pioneer Battalion for France 9 April 1916. Admitted to the 50th Northumberland Casualty Clearing Station 19th of August 1916, and declared dangerously ill with pneumonia 21 August 1916. Died 24 August 1916 in France.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission commemoration:
https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/44216/ara-arii/
"Son of the late Taiki and Kainga Arii, of Rarotonga, Cook Islands"
Images and documents (click on images to enlarge)


Image credits and references
Headstone image credit: https://www.nzwargraves.org.nz/casualties/ara-arii
Commemorative certificate image courtesy of Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Further links
N/A
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