Known unto God

In the farthest northern corner of Karori Cemetery lie eight graves whose epitaphs simply read “Known Unto God” died 24.12.1953.
The graves, buried alongside eight whose epitaphs have names, belong to five males and three females – the last remaining unidentified victims of the Tangiwai Rail Disaster - New Zealand’s worst train crash.
The crash, which happened at 10.21pm on December 24, 1953, resulted in the deaths of 151 of the 285 passengers and crew aboard the overnight Wellington to Auckland train.
The story of the accident is well-known in New Zealand. A lahar from Mount Ruapehu slammed into a rail bridge spanning the Whangaehu River at Tangiwai. When the train, which consisted of a locomotive, nine carriages and two vans, began to cross the weakened bridge it collapsed, hurtling the engine and all five second class carriages into the swollen waters. A few minutes later, a first class carriage, which had been left teetering on the edge, followed.
The story of the identification of the victims is less well known. The task was difficult from the start. Firstly, it was not known exactly how many people were on the ill-fated train – let alone who they were. Police had to prepare a passenger list from names suggested by worried friends and family who had contacted authorities. Also, several of the passengers had recently arrived in New Zealand and had no medical or dental records which could be compared to the bodies.
Mistakes were inevitable.
By December 27, three days after the accident, 114 bodies had been recovered of which 73 were identified. The following day 41 of those yet to be named were taken to the mortuary at Wellington Hospital. Relatives, friends or employers of those still missing viewed the bodies – 10 more were identified that day. On December 31, in a service also attended by the Queen’s husband Prince Phillip, the 21 unidentified victims were buried in a mass grave in Karori Cemetery.
Searches of the Whangaehu River continued and bodies continued to be found.
Over subsequent months, six of the 21 Karori victims were positively identified by relatives from detailed descriptions made before burial. Then in March, it was decided to open the graves so further identification work could be done. A further body, that of a woman, had been recovered from the river in March and this was also interred in the plot, bringing the total to 22. Investigations revealed that two of the victims had been miss-identified. In one of these cases the incorrect body had been given to relatives and when the mistake was discovered this body had to be disinterred and swapped with the one from the mass grave.
Of the 22 bodies, 15 were reinterred in the plot at Karori – eight unidentified and seven whose identities were known – seven were returned to relatives and buried again elsewhere.
In May, the body of the woman found in March was identified by her father in England and her “Known Unto God” plaque was replaced with her name, Kathleen Florence Hallam. This left seven victims unidentified.
Almost a year after the accident, on December 6, 1954, the body of a man was found buried in silt in the Whangaehu River. He was buried in the Karori plot under the name “male 5 unidentified”.
A total of 26 named people were never accounted for after the accident. It is likely the eight unidentified bodies are among those named in this list, but, even with DNA testing, there is only a slim chance they would ever be positively identified.