Mystery as soldier's headstone discovered

By MATT RILKOFF matt.rilkoff@tnl.co.nz - Taranaki Daily News | Friday, 25 April 2008

Emma Crofskey and 5th Battalion Cadre NCO Stephen Muschamp examine the headstone of World War II soldier C.D. King.

Who is C.D. King and why was this old soldier's headstone recovered miles from any cemetery in New Plymouth yesterday?

The headstone of the World War II veteran who died in 1981, aged 67, may have remained hidden for years, had the new owners of the house on Sycamore Gr, where it was found, not decided to whip their property into shape.

Only days after moving in to the house, Joe Govier and Emma Crofskey were clearing their section of debris when they found the headstone among trees and ferns down a steep bank.

"It was just lying there, down the bank, on top of a lot of other rubbish.

"It wasn't like I unearthed it or something. I didn't think it was a grave site. I just thought someone had dumped a headstone," Mr Govier said.

Once they had found it, the couple were stumped as to what to do with it.

After two days, Miss Crofskey decided to call police, who directed her to Stephen Muschamp, Cadre NCO of the 5th Wellington, West Coast and Taranaki Battalion Group.

Mr Muschamp was on the scene in a jiffy and identified it as an RSA headstone, also noting that the usual brass cross inlay had been removed.

He said it was hard to determine how long the headstone had been in the bush, but he would be particularly interested to know just how it had come to be there.

"And I thought, well, on the eve of Anzac Day, what a way to start the day, to recover this headstone of an old soldier," he said.

Graeme Lowe, senior vice-president of the New Plymouth RSA, had a different reaction to the headstone.

"It's from the Te Henui cemetery. You can tell that because of the design, and it's been removed because you can see where it sat in concrete.

"But you know what this reminds me of - it reminds me of what those damn hoods did to the Jewish cemetery in Wellington, and then that other time in Auckland."

He said if the family of C.D. King did not live in Taranaki, they might not know his headstone had been removed.

"He's served with the 2nd NZEF as a driver, and some of them went straight to England when there was the invasion threat, but when that went away after the Battle of Britain, they went into North Africa."

Mr Lowe said he would not like to guess how many old soldiers' graves were at the Te Henui cemetery, but the sexton would be able to give them more details about this particular headstone on Monday.

The headstone reads: 2nd NZEF, 35896 DVR, C.D. King, NZ Army Service Corps, 14-10-1981. Aged 67 years.