Joseph William Murphy (NZ424993) who was in the Air Force Bomber Command in WWII filled out a questionnaire for the D Day Oral History Project. He wasn’t interviewed but he included an essay he wrote for the local RSA about his service with the questionnaire. In it he talks about how his uncle was saved by John Kereopa during WW1. Joe wrote: “My mother’s eldest brother was left for dead in France with horrific head injuries. It was only the fact that Johnny Kereopa from Ohingaiti, a member of the Maori Pioneer Battalion who were charged with the burying of the dead, decided to give a good burial to the young lad from Mangaweka. My uncle survived, but had a cleft forehead for the rest of his life”.

Attested twice, in 1915 and again in 1916.

On the Nominal Roll as 12th Reinforcement to Maori Contingent AWMM