My husband's great uncle Roland Justus Hill emigrated to New Zealand in the early 1900s. He was the son of a noted Victorian artist Justus Hill of Ealing/Acton near London and he was born in 1886 (23/11 I think).
Roland clearly enjoyed life in his new country, and he married Catherine Anne Hughes in Dunedin on 16/5/1910.
He worked as a clerk at the Oriental Hotel, Dunedin and before that he may have been a ship's steward. They had two children, Phyllis Mary (born 1/11/1909 in Wellington) and Roland Justus (born 8/1/1911 in Timaru).
With the start of Word War I, Roland joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in 1914 and served in the Otago regiment as batallion quartermaster. He was promoted to Lieutenant and then to Captain and was a war hero, mentioned in despatches and then awarded the Military Cross in the New Years Honours list 1918.
He was tragically killed in a very sad incident on 3/3/1918 in France. A private of his own regiment who had become demented at the thought of going back to the front line, ran amok with a rifle and shot and killed Roland and another officer, and then turned the gun on himself.
I have tracked Roland's son's (another Roland Justus sometimes spelt Rowland Justice) burial (7/7/1969 in Anderson's Bay Cemetry Dunedin). I have also managed to find the interment of the son's wife's ashes (Jean Alwyn Hill) on 8/1/1992 in the same plot (Block 73S Plot 23). The address given in funeral records is 100, Marlow Street, Tainui, Dunedin.
So, my amateur sleuthing has borne some fruit-but I now really feel I must find out more. I feel sure there must be descendents around Dunedin. This year we are going to France to find and photograph the grave of Roland, and to pay proper respect to a forgotten hero. He is not commemorated in England because he had emigrated, and I suspect, will probably not be remembered in New Zealand, because he was born an Englishman.
I would love to be able to give a copy of the photos we take in France (and a lot of other family history) to any long lost Hill relatives around Dunedin, and I would like to hear of anyone who can add to my story.