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Cenotaph record

Tau Kopungaiti

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  • Service number
    WWI 16/1207 AWMM
  • Also known as
    Tauiti Kopungaiti AWMM
  • Armed force / branch
    Army AWMM
  • Last rank
  • War
    World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
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Roll of honour, listing World War 1 soldiers from the Cook Islands. Ref: 1/1-006732-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. This is one of two honours boards. The second relates to the Fourth and Fifth contingents. Both are now housed in the Pioneer Lounge of the Cook Islands RSA. The Two boards originally stood in the old courthouse, but were moved just before a fire destroyed the building. (Information from Henry Wichman of Rarotonga, 2010). /records/22480864

Roll of honour, listing World War 1 soldiers from the Cook Islands. Ref: 1/1-006732-G. Alexander Tur …

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Identity

About

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  • Title
  • Forenames
    Tau AWMM
  • Surname
    Kopungaiti AWMM
  • Ingoa
  • Also known as
    Tauiti Kopungaiti AWMM
  • Service number
    WWI 16/1207 AWMM
  • Gender
    Male AWMM
  • Iwi / Hapū / Waka / Rohe
  • Religion

Civilian life

About birth

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  • Birth
    19 June 1878 AWMM Mangaia, Cook Islands, Polynesia, Pacific AWMM
  • Date of birth
  • Place of birth
  • Birth notes
  • Address before enlistment
  • Post war occupation
  • Next of kin on embarkation
    Miria (adopted father), Oneroa, Mangaia, Rarotonga, Cook Islands, Pacific Islands AWMM
  • Relationship status

Service

Wars and conflicts

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Military decorations

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  • Medals and Awards

Training and Enlistment

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  • Military training
  • Branch Trade Proficiency
  • Enlistment
    WW1 Labourer/Civilian AWMM
  • Occupation before enlistment
  • Age on enlistment

Embarkations

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Prisoner of war

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  • Capture details
  • Days interned
  • Liberation date
  • Liberation Repatriation
  • POW liberation details
  • POW serial number

Medical history

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  • Medical notes

Last known rank

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  • Last rank

Biographical information

Biographical information

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  • Member of the Maori Pioneer Battalion attached to the New Zealand Tunnelling Company.

    43 members of the NZ (Maori) Pioneers served with the New Zealand Tunnelling Company and assisted in the late 1916 early 1917 preparations of the Arras caverns for the Battle of Arras.

    In April 2023, Mama Tangata Tako took Cook Islands Online Cenotaph researchers to the burial site where Private. T. RAIVARU 84565 is buried and told them that Private. T. KOPUNGAITI is buried in this site in an unmarked/unknown grave. AWMM
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Death

About death

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  • Death
    22 February 1949 AWMM
    Mangaia, Cook Islands AWMM
  • Date of death
  • Age at death
  • Place of death
  • Cause of death
  • Death notes
  • Cemetery
    On the left side of the road driving from the airport to Oneroa near Atuakoro Landing, Oneroa Road, Mangaia, Cook Islands AWMM
  • Cemetery name
  • Grave reference
  • Obituary
  • Memorial name
  • Memorial reference

Memorials

Memorial

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  • Memorial name
    Cook Islands Roll of Honour Board, RSA Rarotonga AWMM

Roll of Honour

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Sources

Sources

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  • External links
  • References
    • This record was partially compiled from information kindly provided by Bobby Nicholas, Paula Paniani and Cate Walker, Cook Islands WW1 NZEF ANZAC Soldiers Research Project AWMM
    • New Zealand Army Expeditionary Force. (1917). Nominal Rolls of New Zealand Expeditionary Force Volume II. Wellington, N.Z.: Govt. Printer. AWMM
      25: 2 AWMM
    • Soutar, M. (2019). Whitiki! Whiti! Whiti! E!: Maori In the First World War. New Zealand: David Bateman Ltd. AWMM
    • 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. AWMM
    • Pugsley, C. (1995). Te Hokowhitu a Tu : the Maori Pioneer Battalion in the first World War. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed. AWMM
    • Neill, J.C. (Ed.). (1922). The New Zealand Tunnelling Company, 1915-1919. Auckland, N.Z.: Whitcombe & Tombs. AWMM
    • Annabell, N. Official History of the New Zealand Engineers during the Great War 1914–1919. Wanganui: Evans, Cobb & Sharpe, 1927. AWMM

The development of the Online Cenotaph is an ongoing process; updates, new images and records are added weekly. In some cases, records have yet to be confirmed by Museum staff, and there could be mistakes or omissions in the information provided.

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