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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:
Corporal
First name/s
Tapapa
Last name
KURAIA
Service number and Regiment/Unit/Corps
19252
2nd Rarotongan Contingent
Also known as
Kuraia TAPAPA
Date of birth
1886
Place of birth
Atiu, Cook Islands
Date of death
30/08/1924
Place of death
Atiu, Cook Islands
Death registration number
ATIU19240201
Headstone/grave location
Areora, Atiu, Cook Islands
Next of kin
Tapapa (father), Areora, Atiu, Cook Islands
Archives New Zealand online service record
Additional information
Enlisted 1 July 1916. Arrived Suez 27 December 1916 and posted to the New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade Training Regiment and Base Depot. Posted to the Rarotongan Company 7 April 1917. Promoted to Corporal 6 December 1917. Admitted to the 27th Stationary Hospital Abbassia 24 July 1918 until 4 August 1918. Medically boarded and returned to New Zealand on SS Wiltshire 29 August 1918. Discharged 1 March 1919. Died 30 August 1924 in Atiu of Tuberculosis.
While in Atiu in April 2019, Lucy Kautai Mateariki guided us to his unmarked gravesite behind her house. Lucy informed us that Corporal Tapapa KURAIA previously had a military headstone on the grave and this headstone could be located under the ground close to his grave.
Cook Islands Roll of Honour Board records his name as 'K. TAPAPA'.
Listed on the Atiu Cenotaph as Private KURAIA TAPAPA.
Images and documents (click on images to enlarge)
Image credits and references
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Further links
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