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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
Willie
Last name
RUKA
Service number and Regiment/Unit/Corps
19303
New Zealand (Māori) Pioneer Battalion
Also known as
Date of birth
1885
Place of birth
Pukapuka, Cook Islands
Date of death
28/01/1917
Place of death
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Death registration number
Unknown
Headstone/grave location
Rookwood Necropolis, Sydney, Australia
Next of kin
Ikara (mother), Puka Puka
Archives New Zealand online service record
Additional information
Enlisted at Rarotonga 1 July 1916. After embarking he developed pneumonia on the troopship and was put into hospital in Sydney. Mrs Williams, Secretary of the New Zealand Soldiers Reception Society, promised to look after him in convalescence. He died 28 January 1917 at Coast Hospital, Sydney, Australia and was buried in the military section of Rookwood Necropolis, Sydney, Australia 30 January 1917. He is the only Cook Islands WWI soldier who enlisted in the Cook Islands and died while serving to be buried in Australia.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission listing:
https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2745380/willie-ruka/
Images and documents (click on images to enlarge)
Image credits and references
Headstone image source: The Onward Project
https://www.facebook.com/174295589391337/posts/1287958004691751/?d=n
Newspaper article source: Sydney Morning Herald
Commemorative certificate courtesy of Commonwealth War Graves Commission:
https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2745380/willie-ruka/
Further links
N/A
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