Falaoa
I whānau mai i te 1896 - I mate atu i te 27 Sept 1941
- Nama Hōia
- WWI 16/1044 AWMM
- Ingoa kārangaranga
- Frank Falaoa AWMM
- Tosene AWMM
- Falaoa Frank Dawson AWMM
- Polepu AWMM
- Te Ope o Tū / te peka
- Army AWMM
- Te tūnga whakamutunga
- WW1 Private Military personnel file New Zealand (Maori) Pioneer Battalion Military personnel file
- Pakanga
- World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
E pā ana ki
- Taitara
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- Ngā ingoa tuatahi
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- Ingoa whānau
- Falaoa AWMM
- Ingoa
- —
- Ingoa kārangaranga
- Frank Falaoa AWMM
- Tosene AWMM
- Falaoa Frank Dawson AWMM
- Polepu AWMM
- Nama Hōia
- WWI 16/1044 AWMM
- Ira tangata
- Male AWMM
- Iwi / Hapū / Waka / Rohe
- —
- Pono
- Protestant, Christian AWMM
Mātātuhi
Ngā tuhinga
Te whānautanga
- Whānautanga mai
- 1896 Military personnel file
- Rā i whānau mai ai
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- Wāhi Whānau
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- Tuhinga mō te whānautanga
- —
- Wāhi noho i mua i te whakaurunga
- WW1 Pre 02 Oct 1915 AWMM Avatele, Niue AWMM
- Mahi whai muri i te pakanga
- Labourer/Civilian AWMM
- Uri kiritahi
- WW1 Tosene (father), Avetele, Niue Island, Pacific Islands AWMM
- WW1 Tosene (father), Avatele, Niue AWMM
- Mēnā he hoa rangatira tōna
- 1915 AWMM Single/WWI AWMM
- Married AWMM
Falaoa married Eligi Maifala and they had seven children AWMM
Ngā pakanga me ngā whawhai
- Pakanga
- World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
- Kauhanga riri
- 1914-1919 AWMM Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) AWMM
- 1914-1919 AWMM Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) AWMM
- 1914-1919 AWMM Western Front AWMM
- Te Ope o Tū / te peka
- Army AWMM
- Nama Hōia
- WWI 16/1044 AWMM
- Urunga ki te ope taua
- —
- Whakapikinga / Tukunga / Whakawhitinga
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Ngā tohu taumata rau ope taua
- Mētara me ngā Tohu
Te Whakangungu me te Urunga atu
- Whakangungu ope taua
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- Branch Trade Proficiency
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- Te urunga
- WW1 01 Oct 1915 Military personnel file Settler/Civilian Military personnel file
- Pakeke i te whakaurunga
- —
- Mahi i mua i te ekenga waka
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Te maha o ngā ekenga waka
- Taipitopito ekenga waka
- WW1 05 Feb 1916-15 Mar 1916 Military personnel file
HMNZT 44 Military personnel file Vessel was Navua AWMM Private Military personnel file Rarotongans, Attached B Company Military personnel file 3rd Maori Contingent AWMM
Mauhere o te pakanga
- Kia mau ki ngā taipitopito
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- Ngā rā i mauherehia ai
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- Rā i puta ai
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- Ngā kōrero mō te puta i te mauhere pakanga
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- Te rā i whakahokia atu ngā hōia i mauherehia ai
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- Nama motuhake mō te mauhere pakanga
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Whakapapa hauora
- Tuhinga hauora
- 1 Oct 1915 AWMM Height, WWI AWMM
5 foot 6.75 inches AWMM - 1 Oct 1915 AWMM Weight, WWI AWMM
144 pounds AWMM - 1 Oct 1915 AWMM Dental, WWI AWMM
Good AWMM - 18 Apr 1916 AWMM Wounds Diseases Etc., WWI AWMM
Admitted, 12th Casualty Clearing Station, in the Field, France flat feet. AWMM - 1916 AWMM Wounds Diseases Etc., WWI AWMM
Admitted hospital in England, including Hornchurch AWMM - 31 Aug 1916 AWMM Wounds Diseases Etc., WWII AWMM
Invalided to NZ on the HS Marama AWMM - Died from Natural Causes, Cause of Death AWMM
- 1 Oct 1915 AWMM Height, WWI AWMM
Te tūnga whakamutunga e mōhiotia ana
- Te tūnga whakamutunga
- WW1 8 Dec 1916 Military personnel file
No longer physically fit for war service AWMM
Private Military personnel file
New Zealand (Maori) Pioneer Battalion Military personnel file - Te tūnga whakamutunga
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Kōrero taurongo
- Husband of Eligi Maifala. Of Niuean descent.
Named as Frank Falaoa on by BDM, deaths, his death notice and burial details.
Correspondence dated July 1948 filed on his Military personnel file, suggests other names Tosene; Dawson Falaoa; Falaoa Tosene.
Falaoa (also recorded as Falaoa Frank Dawson and Falaoa Tosene) (16/1044) was born about 1896 at Avatele, Niue. He enlisted at Alofi on 1 October 1915 and served with the 3rd Māori Contingent, later attached to the New Zealand (Maori) Pioneer Battalion during World War I.
Raised in Niue with strong fishing, diving and plantation skills, Falaoa was accustomed to physical labour, yet the conditions of the Western Front were unlike anything he had known. His brother Corporal Dawson Fasene (16/1034) who also served and had trained as a student teacher, had learned English. Falaoa, however, did not speak English, which made communication during his service and hospitalisation more difficult.
While labouring in France, he developed severe trench foot from prolonged exposure to cold, wet conditions and tight military boots. Hospitalised in England, he struggled to understand the seriousness of his condition. In Chelsea Hospital he was visited by former Niuean missionaries Frank and Sarah Lawes. Speaking to him in Niuean, Sarah helped him grasp the risk of gangrene and the need for careful daily treatment. He survived and was invalided back to New Zealand in 1916.
His experience has since been brought to wider public attention through the research of historian Margaret Pointer and the documentary Great War Stories 4 – Falaoa Tosene (2017), directed by Anna Cottrell.
Falaoa later married Eligi Maifala and they had seven children. Their third child, Dawson “Don” Falaoa (810740), served with the New Zealand Army during World War II and died of sickness in 1946, aged just 19. Falaoa died on 27 September 1941, aged 47. Their service reflects the enduring contribution of Niuean families to New Zealand’s wartime history (Profile written for “A Flight to Remember”, an Anzac Day 2026 initiative by Online Cenotaph and Air New Zealand). AWMM
Te matenga
- Matenga
- 27 Sept 1941 Military personnel file
Age 45 AWMM - Rā i mate ai
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- Pakeke i te matenga
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- Wāhi Mate
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- Te momo matenga
- Died from Natural Causes AWMM
- Tuhipoka mō te matenga
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- Urupā
- Waikumete Cemetery, Glen Eden, Auckland, New Zealand AWMM Soldiers Burial G Row 4, Plot 35 AWMM
- Ingoa o te urupā
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- Tohutoro kōhatu urupā
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- Pānui Matenga
- Death notice: New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24082, 29 September 1941, Page 1 AWMM
- Ingoa maumaharatanga
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- Tohutoro maumaharatanga
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Maumaharatanga
- Ingoa maumaharatanga
- Alofi National Memorial, Niue AWMM
- Avatele War Memorial, Niue AWMM
Tangata Ope Tauā
Ngā mātāwai
- Hononga ki waho
- Military personnel file
https://collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search/#/entity/aims-archive/R21001820
Sources Used - Death notice: New Zealand Herald, 29 September 1941, Page 1
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=NZH19410929.2.5
Sources Used - Avatele War Memorial, Niue
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/memorial/avatele-war-memorial-niue
Further Reference - Alofi National Memorial, Niue
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/memorial/alofi-national-memorial-niue
Further Reference - Pacific Islanders in NZEF. Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/pacific-islanders-nzef
Further Reference - Vekula-Moonen,M (2018) GranddaughterPublic - Mel - Direct descendant - 15 July 2018 - melb@globe.net.nz
- Military personnel file
- Ngā tuhinga
- New Zealand Army Expeditionary Force. (1917). Nominal Rolls of New Zealand Expeditionary Force Volume II. Wellington, N.Z.: Govt. Printer.
25: 3 - Pointer, M. (2000). Tagi tote e loto haaku - My heart is crying a little : Niue Island involvement in the Great War, 1914-1918. Alofi, Niue ; Suva, Fiji: Government of Niue ; Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific.
- Pointer, M. (2015). Niue 1774-1974 : 200 years of conflict and change. Dunedin, New Zealand : Otago University Press.
- Weddell, H. (2016). Soldiers from the Pacific : the story of Pacific Island soldiers in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in World War One. Wellington, New Zealand : Defence of New Zealand Study Group.
- Soutar, M. (2019). Whitiki! Whiti! Whiti! E!: Maori In the First World War. New Zealand: David Bateman Ltd.
- Pugsley, C. (1995). Te Hokowhitu a Tu : the Maori Pioneer Battalion in the first World War. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed.
- This record was part of “A Flight to Remember”, an Anzac Day 2026 commemorative partnership between Online Cenotaph and Air New Zealand, where service stories were shared onboard a dawn flight from Auckland to Sydney.
- New Zealand Army Expeditionary Force. (1917). Nominal Rolls of New Zealand Expeditionary Force Volume II. Wellington, N.Z.: Govt. Printer.
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