Ted d'Auvergne's great-nieces visit his war grave in Crete
Private Ted d'Auvergne's great-nieces have paid an emotional tribute to their great-uncle as they travel around Greece to honour him.
Rosa Westgarth, of Timaru, and her Wanaka-based sister Jan Gibson travelled across the world to visit the grave of d'Auvergne, whose legacy has been immortalised by a bottle of beer he left at the Waihao Forks Hotel, near Waimate.
D'Auvergne is remembered for leaving the bottle behind 78 years ago, intending to open it upon his return from war. However, d'Auvergne, born in Rangiora as La Tour Mollet d'Auvergne in 1906, was killed in Crete on June 2, 1941, aged 35.
His story has become somewhat of a legend in New Zealand and has been the subject of an episode of TVNZ's Epitaph, and was turned into a play Ted's Bottle in 2010.
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"We brought over a bottle of Speights, stones Jan picked up at Waihao Forks and we left five poppies for Ted representing his five siblings," Westgarth said.
Ted d'Auvergne, formerly of Waihao Forks.
Westgarth and Gibson's father, John Richards, was the nephew of d'Augvergne.
Emailing from Greece on Thursday morning Westgarth said the sisters managed to locate the family of Yakovos Kalionzakis who found d'Auvergne with a bullet wound to the chest.
"Yesterday we discovered Yakovos died four years ago," Westgarth said.
"We met his son, daughter-in-law and two children - a boy, 14, and girl,12. They welcomed us into their home and were lovely. The boy got on the computer and looked at Timaru, Wanaka and Auckland. The whole family were fascinated with all things kiwi."
A letter to d'Auvergne's parents, from Kalionzakis, says that he found their son and took him to his house to care for him.
"... after a little time he died. In his last time he wrote a letter and he told me to 'please send it to my parents'," the letter said.
The letter was delayed as Kalionzakis became a prisoner of the Germans and in the meantime they destroyed the letter.
D'Auvergne was buried by Kalionzakis with other English soldiers and later moved to the Suda Bay cemetery in Crete, along with the thousands of other British and Commonwealth servicemen who lost their lives.
The sisters' visit to the cemetery was "emotional", Westgarth said.
"It was emotional to be there with all those fallen solders. Some graves had no name, they just said 'unknown'."
"Ted was very lucky to have Yakovos to tell the authorities were he had buried him. He was exhumed and named correctly in the Souda Bay Cemetery."
She said the cemetery included two pohutakawa trees which were flowering now.
"The cemetery is beautifully kept," she said.
"There is a book at the entrance to look up the soldiers' name which are in alphabetical order with the parents' name and where they were from and the date of birth and death, then which aisle he is buried in. It was easy to find Ted."
Westgarth felt the trip has been a success.
"We feel we have accomplished what we set out to do."
- Stuff
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