Stuart Alexander Maireriki Campbell

I whānau mai i te 2 Mar 1923 - I mate atu i te 11 Apr 1945

Nama Hōia: WWII 446853 AWMM
Ingoa kārangaranga: Stuart Alexander Campbell AWMM
Te Ope o Tū / te peka: Army AWMM
Te tūnga whakamutunga: Private AWMM 28 (Maori) Battalion AWMM
Pakanga: World War II, 1939-1945 AWMM

Mātātuhi

Lay a poppy

Stuart Alexander Maireriki Campbell — Portrait of Stuart Maireriki Campbell (C21728). Image kindly provided by the Campbell family. Image has no known copyright restrictions. No Known Copyright Restrictions

Whakaatu mai ngā āpure e wātea ana Hunaia ngā mātāwai kōrero

Kōrero taurongo

Son of John Archibald Campbell and of Teu Campbell (nee Bosini). Brother of Bill, Margaret and Alistair Campbell

"Stuart Alexander Maireriki Campbell was born in 1923 on Tongareva, the northernmost atoll in the Cook Islands also known as Penrhyn Island. He served New Zealand as part of the 28th Māori Battalion in the Second World War. Between 1941 and 1945 he served in Greece, North Africa and finally Italy.

Stuart’s mother Teu Campbell, was a young woman from Tongareva, the eldest daughter of Bosini. Stuart's father Jock (John Archibald Campbell, service number 2/1544) was a papa'a (European) trader from New Zealand who had moved to the comparative serenity of the Cook Islands after his experiences serving in the First World War. He served in Europe and North Africa and was a part of the Gallipoli campaign with the New Zealand Field Artillery.

Stuart was the eldest of four children. His younger brother was Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, who later became a successful poet, novelist and playwright, and was my grandfather. Much of what we know about Stuart comes from my Grandfather’s stories and the poetry he wrote about his memories of his brother, and his impression of the Māori Battalion that his brother was a part of.

Photograph of Stuart's brothers Bill and Alistair (right) taken on their journey to New Zealand in 1933. This picture illustrated a story in the New Zealand Railways Magazine of 1 July 1933.

Taken from the New Zealand Electronic Text Collection.
Alistair wrote about his happy childhood in the Cook Islands and the later experiences of the children during the sad time when their mother Teu became ill and died in 1932 and when a year later, their father also passed away. When he was 9 years old, Stuart and his siblings became orphans and were sent away from the warmth of family life in Tongareva, posted like packages with baggage labels tied to their collars to be looked after by Jock’s grandmother in chilly Dunedin. The children's grandmother was unable to look after them and eventually they were sent to live in an orphanage. It is this address, Glendinning Home, Anderson's Bay, Dunedin that Stuart gave upon enlistment in 1941 at age 18.

Stuart joined the 28th Māori Battalion. The companies were organised on a tribal basis and as a Pacific Islander Stuart was a part of D Company – made up of Ngāti Kahungunu from the Hawkes Bay, South Island iwi and Pacific Islanders.

Stuart was killed in action on the 11th of April 1945 while waiting to cross the Santerno River near Massa Lombarda, Italy. He was killed by what was termed "friendly fire" when an RAF Bomber accidentally dropped a 500 pound bomb near Stuart’s D Company unit. His death came only a few weeks before the Māori Battalion were sent home as the war slowly came to an end.

Despite the odds Stuart was a bright, intelligent young man, remembered for his skill on the cricket field as well as his sharp imaginative mind. Johnson, Ella. Stuart Alexander Maireriki Campbell. Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tāmaki Paenga Hira. First published: 29 November 2016. Updated: 6 December 2016.

Stuart Alexander Maireriki Campbell was born on 2 March 1923 on Tongareva, the northernmost atoll of the Cook Islands, also known as Penrhyn Island. The eldest of four children, he was the son of Teu Campbell of Tongareva and John Archibald Campbell, a New Zealand Field Artillery veteran of World War I.

After the early loss of both parents, Stuart and his siblings were sent to Dunedin, where he later enlisted in the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force in 1941 at the age of 18. He served with D Company, 28 (Māori) Battalion, the company largely composed of South Island iwi and Pacific Island personnel.

Between 1941 and 1945 Stuart served in Greece, North Africa and Italy. He was killed on active service on 11 April 1945 near the Santerno River in northern Italy, only weeks before the end of the war in Europe. He was 22 years old and is buried at Faenza War Cemetery.

Remembered as intelligent, imaginative and gifted on the cricket field, Stuart’s memory endured through the writings of his younger brother, poet Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, who honoured him in verse.

An excerpt from Alistair’s poem To Stuart reads:

As an admiring
younger brother, I celebrate
this image of what you promised
and never lived to fulfil.

(Profile written for “A Flight to Remember”, an Anzac Day 2026 initiative by Online Cenotaph and Air New Zealand). AWMM
Stuart and his siblings arrived in New Zealand in 1933 and went to live at the Glendinning Childrens Home in Dunedin.
Public - Ella - Other relative - 31 January 2017 - Family papers
Teu was the eldest of Bosini's two daughters.
Public - Ella - Other relative - 30 October 2016 - Family papers

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Kua whai mana ngā raraunga a Tāmaki Paenga Hira i raro i te mana o te raihana Āhuatanga a Creative Commons 4.0 Raihana ā-ao

Stuart Alexander Maireriki Campbell

Stuart Alexander Maireriki Campbell

Tuakiri

E pā ana ki

Mātātuhi me ngā tuhinga

Mātātuhi

Ngā tuhinga

Tauoranga kirirarau

Te whānautanga

Ope taua

Ngā pakanga me ngā whawhai

Ngā tohu taumata rau ope taua

Te Whakangungu me te Urunga atu

Te maha o ngā ekenga waka

Mauhere o te pakanga

Whakapapa hauora

Te tūnga whakamutunga e mōhiotia ana

Kōrero taurongo

Kōrero taurongo

Matenga

Te matenga

Ngā maumaharatanga

Maumaharatanga

Ngā mātāwai

Ngā mātāwai

Stuart Alexander Maireriki Campbell

Stuart Alexander Maireriki Campbell

Tuakiri

E pā ana ki

Mātātuhi me ngā tuhinga

Mātātuhi

Ngā tuhinga

Tauoranga kirirarau

Te whānautanga

Ope taua

Ngā pakanga me ngā whawhai

Ngā tohu taumata rau ope taua

Te Whakangungu me te Urunga atu

Te maha o ngā ekenga waka

Mauhere o te pakanga

Whakapapa hauora

Te tūnga whakamutunga e mōhiotia ana

Kōrero taurongo

Kōrero taurongo

Matenga

Te matenga

Ngā maumaharatanga

Maumaharatanga

Ngā tūemi whai hononga

Mea e whai hononga ai

Tangata Ope Tauā

Ngā mātāwai

Ngā mātāwai