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Father James Joseph McMenamin paid the ultimate sacrifice as a Catholic chaplain to the Armed Forces in the Great War.
He endured the dreadful conditions to give spiritual aid to the New Zealanders.
Chaplain captain McMenamin landed at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915 to serve at the frontline.
Later he went to the Western Front.
On July 9, 1917, after the Battle of Messines in Belgium, McMenamin was conducting a funeral service for fallen soldiers when the enemy fired a shell into the congregation.
Six soldiers were injured, and McMenamin was killed.
He was buried originally in Belgium, but was reinterred at the Nieppe Communal Cemetery in France.
His parish in Petone erected a new church dedicated to his memory in 1934.
Although this church was demolished in the 1990s because it was an earthquake risk, the original stained glass windows were retained and rededicated to his memory.
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News category: New Zealand, News Shorts.
