William Herewini

Forenames

William AWMM

Surname

Herewini AWMM

Also known as

Bill AWMM

Service number

4281 AWMM

Gender

Male AWMM

Iwi / Hapū / Waka / Rohe

• Iwi Māori, Māori AWMM
• Ngāti Maniapoto, Māori AWMM

Date of birth

b. 1915

Public - Lorraine Mona - Researcher - 3 September 2025 - https://knowledgebank.org.nz/person/william-herewini-1914-1986/

Place of birth

Oparure, Te Kuiti, King Country

Public - Lorraine Mona - Researcher - 3 September 2025 - https://knowledgebank.org.nz/person/william-herewini-1914-1986/

Birth notes

Son of Herewini & Moana HIRIAKA

Public - Lorraine Mona - Researcher - 3 September 2025 - https://knowledgebank.org.nz/person/william-herewini-1914-1986/

Address before enlistment

Unknown AWMM 26 Caledonia Street, Hawera, Taranaki, New Zealand AWMM

Post war occupation

Public Servant AWMM

Next of kin

Mrs M. Herewini (mother), Oparure, Te Kuiti, New Zealand AWMM

Relationship status

• Unknown AWMM Single AWMM
• 1949 William HEREWINI married Alisa Craig MORRISON
  Public - Lorraine Mona - Researcher - 3 September 2025 - https://knowledgebank.org.nz/person/william-herewini-1914-1986/

War

World War II, 1939-1945 AWMM

Armed force / branch

Army AWMM

Service number

4281 AWMM

Military service

19 Infantry Battalion AWMM

Enlistment

WW2 Unknown AWMM Clerk AWMM

Embarkation details

WW2 Second Lieutenant AWMM 28 (Maori) Battalion, Headquarters AWMM Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force, Second Echelon AWMM

Capture details

• WW2 POW - Greece AWMM
• WW2 POW - Oflag V-A, Weinberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany AWMM
• WW2 POW - Oflag VII-B, Eichstaett, Germany AWMM

Last rank

Captain/Military AWMM
28 (Maori) Battalion, D Company AWMM

Death

23 Mar 1986 AWMM
Age  70 AWMM

Obituary

Bill Herewini by Judith Martin
Poroporoaki
Wiremu “Bill Herewini Ngati Maniapoto kaumatua, Maori Battalion captain, & once one of New Zealand’s top Maori public administrators, died suddenly on March 23, aged 70.
Born in Oparure, near Te Kuiti, Bill attended Te Aute College. He worked for a short time in a Taranaki real estate office & in 1939 enlisted. He started off in the Taranaki Company of the 19th Battalion before eventually joining the Maori Battalion.
He travelled to England & Greece, & was a Prisoner of War for four years before returning to NZ in 1945.

Later that year he joined the public service, & a career which would see him become one of the pioneers of the welfare services division of the Maori Affairs Department.
Bill began that career as Maori rehabilitation officer for the Hamilton district. In 1947 when the government
set up the Maori Welfare division of the department, Bill was appointed Maori welfare officer in Hamilton. 4 years later he was doing this work for the whole district.
In the mid-1950s he moved with his family to Wellington to become assistant controller of Maori welfare. 2 years later he was controller.
In 1973 he became executive director of social services in what was then the Department of Maori & Island Affairs.
Bill Herewini was president of the Porirua RSA for 13 years until 1984, and was the second Maori ex-service-man to receive the coveted RSA gold star award.
He represented the NZRSA at a War Veterans Federation general assembly at the Hague, and also attended a reunion of the African Korps at Stuttgart.
Bill was extensively involved with community groups in Porirua, where he lived, & was known as a “peacemaker” on the local authorities on which he served.
He became a member of the Porirua District Licensing Trust in 1974, a Porirua city Councilor in 1980, & deputy-mayor of Porirua in 1983.
Bill Herewini’s tangihanga was held at Takapuahia Marae, Porirua, & his funeral service

Public - Lorraine Mona - Researcher - 4 July 2025 - Bill Herewini
Tu Tangata, Issue 24, 1 June 1985, Page 14

Memorial name

WWII Roll of Honour, Ngāti Maniapoto's Memorial Flag Pole, Te Tokanganui-a-Noho, Te Kūiti AWMM

Related objects

External links

• 28th Maori Battalion Website 1941-1945
  http://www.28maoribattalion.org.nz/
  Sources Used
• Obituary: originally published in April 1986, The Battalion Remembers. Poroporoaki - Obituaries. Digital transcript: 28th Maori Battalion Website 1941-1945. URL:
  http://www.28maoribattalion.org.nz/soldier/william-herewini
  Further Reference
• Cody, J. (1956). 28 (Maori) Battalion. Wellington: Dept. of Internal Affairs, War History Branch. Digital copy.
  https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/webarchive/20210104000423/http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2Maor.html
  Further Reference
• Great Britain Army. (1945). Germany and German occupied territories : imperial prisoners of war alphabetical list : section 4. London, U.K.: Government Printer. Zenodo Record.
  https://zenodo.org/records/3955186
  Further Reference
• Elborough, Sophie. Upholding Māoritanga: Stories of Māori Prisoners of War in WWII . Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tāmaki Paenga Hira. First published: 16 April 2025. Updated: 17 April 2025.
  https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/features/maori-pow
  Further Reference
• Sinclair, D. (1954). 19 Battalion and Armoured Regiment. Wellington, Dept. of Internal Affairs, War History Branch.
  https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/webarchive/20210104000423/http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2-19Ba.html
  Further Reference
• MAORI PRISONERS OF WAR: Maori officers at the German prison camp Oflag VB. From left, back row: Lieutenants G. Bennett (Wellington), H. Wiremu (Auckland), and T. Rangi (Rotorua). Front row: Lieutenants H. Hokianga (Porangahau), W. Herewini (Taranaki), and H. K. Ngata (East Coast), New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24243, 8 April 1942, Page 7
  https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19420408.2.124
  Further Reference

References

• Cody, J. (1956). 28 (Maori) Battalion. Wellington, N.Z.: Department of Internal Affairs, War History Branch.
• Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. (1941). Nominal Roll Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force No. 2 (Embarkations to 30th June, 1940). Wellington, N.Z.: Govt. Printer.
  WW2 2: WW2 86
• 28th Maori Battalion Website 1941-1945
• List of 2NZEF Prisoners of War. 1941-1945. Auckland War Memorial Museum Library. MS 2009/8.
• Great Britain Army. (1945). Germany and German occupied territories : imperial prisoners of war alphabetical list : section 4. London, U.K.: Government Printer.
• Sinclair, D. (1954). 19 Battalion and Armoured Regiment. Wellington, N.Z.: Department of Internal Affairs, War History Branch.
• Mason, W.W. (1954) Prisoners of war. Wellington, N.Z.: Department of Internal Affairs, War History Branch.
• Joint Council of the Order of St. John and the New Zealand Red Cross Society. Prisoners of War Enquiry Office. (1941–1944). The New Zealand prisoner of war pamphlet: Official pamphlet of the Prisoners of War Enquiry Office of the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and the New Zealand Red Cross Society. Wellington, New Zealand.
  Special, June 1943, p.1
• McClymont, W. (1959). To Greece. Wellington, N.Z.: Department Internal Affairs, War History Branch.