The New Zealand Cricket Museum has a new wall display commemorating those New Zealand first class cricketers’ killed in World War I and World War II.
During these two wars New Zealand cricketers’ redirected their sporting energies and passion towards the war effort. A large number of them were never to return. The display panel will list the names of all of those men who sacrificed their lives in the two World Wars.
Amongst them were two New Zealand representative players, namely D.A.R. Moloney and W.N. Carson. ‘Sonny’ Moloney was a bespectacled all-rounder whose three test appearances came during the New Zealand Cricket Team’s 1937 tour to England. He was wounded and taken prisoner during the first battle of Al Alamein while serving as a lieutenant in the 20th Battalion, New Zealand Infantry, and died in captivity on 15 July 1942, aged 31.
W.N. (Bill) Carson was a very talented batsman who also toured England in 1937 and was a great personal friend of ‘Sonny’ Moloney. A Major in the Fifth Field Regiment of the NZ Army, he died of wounds at sea on board the hospital ship evacuating him from Bari in Italy to Egypt on the 8th of October 1944.
The memorial display panel will add to an existing display showing a substitute cricket ball made and used by New Zealand and Australian prisoners of war in P.O.W. Camp 57 Udine, Northern Italy 1942.
