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Final rank:

Private

First name/s

Beni

Last name

BANABA

Service number and Regiment/Unit/Corps

19236
New Zealand (Māori) Pioneer Battalion, Rarotongan Company

Also known as

​

Date of birth

1890

Place of birth

Manihiki, Cook Islands

Date of death

16/09/1917

Place of death

Auckland, New Zealand

Death registration number

NZ1917/2902

Headstone/grave location

Devonport (O’Neill’s Point) Cemetery, Bayswater, Auckland, New Zealand

Next of kin

Mrs Apii Banaba (wife), Marairenga, Rarotonga

Additional information

Enlisted 1 July 1916. Disembarked at Suez 27 December 1916. Admitted to 26th Stationary Hospital, Ismailia 4 April 1917 and 27th General Hospital Cairo on 8 April 1917 with tuberculosis in the neck. Embarked for New Zealand 21 June 1917 and admitted to Auckland Hospital. Died 16 September 1917 at Auckland Hospital.

Promoted to Corporal 30 July 1916. Attained rank of Sergeant 27 August 1916. Relinquished rank to Private April 1917.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission commemoration:
https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/642908/beni-banaba/
"Husband of Api. B. Banaba, of Marairenga, Rarotonga. Born at Manihiki, Cook Islands."

Images and documents (click on images to enlarge)

Image credits and references

N/A

​Further links

Our team assisted Heritage New Zealand with our research for their report regarding the Cook Islands WWI soldiers and other notable people connected to the Cook Islands who were buried in O’Neill’s Point Cemetery, Auckland New Zealand. The cemetery is now listed as a ‘Heritage Place Category 1’ with ‘Heritage New Zealand’.
“The cemetery contains Niue’s first casualty in the conflict; and the largest number of Cook Islands soldiers to be laid at rest while serving in the NZEF.”:
https://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/9394

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