184 Messines Street Leeston, street view 2018
Reason for the name
Messines Street was named by the Ellesmere County Council in the early 1920s to commemorate and honour soldiers from the county who served in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and died during the battle of Messines on the Western Front in Flanders, Belgium in June 1917. The street is adjacent to the majestic Leeston War Memorial Cenotaph that dominates the centre of High Street (the main thoroughfare of the town). The naming of the streets by the memorial was seen as reinforcing the memory of sacrifice and loss suffered by the community in the Great War.
Messines Street, Leeston is located in the centre of Leeston township in the Selwyn District, 43 kms south-west of Christchurch. It is approximately 400 metres in length, running in a south-east direction from the intersection with Selwyn Street, intersects with High Street, and ends at the intersection with Station Street. The street runs parallel to Gallipoli Street.
Author: Wayne Stack – Historian: wayne.stack@selwyn.govt.nz
The origins of Messines Street lie with the erection of the Leeston war memorial in 1924 to commemorate soldiers from Ellesmere County who lost their lives during the First World War. The district had a proud history of providing civilian-soldier volunteers for the defence of New Zealand. The Ellesmere Mounted Rifles and the
Ellesmere Guards Volunteer Rifles were militia units established in the area circa 1898, from which a number of members had volunteered for overseas service in the New Zealand Contingents that served in South Africa during the Second Anglo-Boer War. The units were then incorporated into the Canterbury Mounted Rifles and Canterbury Infantry Regiments when the New Zealand Territorial Force was established in 1910. Numerous Territorial soldiers from the Ellesmere district volunteered to serve in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force when it was established at the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. It was these initial volunteers, and those who followed in the reinforcement contingents up to mid-1917, who fought in the NZ Division during the battle of Messines. The advance of the NZ Division during the battle was meticulously planned, leading to the division capturing all its objectives. However, this came at a significant sacrifice, with 3700 casualties, of which 700 were fatal. The cenotaph and the naming of Messines Street have provided the people of the district with a permanent focal point to remember and commemorate the sacrifice members of their community made during the battle.
