A plaque was unveiled to remember Isabel Clark, a nurse who drowned after the ship Marquette was torpedoed by a German submarine 100 years ago this month, on October 23, 1915.
The plaque was unveiled by Laurelle McNee, of Christchurch, whose stepfather, H.
IanClark, was Isabel Clark's nephew. Mrs McNee, also an old girl of Waitaki Girls', said the family did not talk much about Isabel Clark, but when her name came up it was always as ''Auntie Izzie''.
A memorial essay is held each year at Waitaki Girls' remembering Miss Clark. During her time at the school, Mrs McNee won the prize.
She said the family was pleased the memory was being kept alive.
Before the unveiling, three pupils, head girl Naomi Saulala, deputy head girl Hannah Ballantyne and head boarder Kelsey Milne, read a tribute to Miss Clark recalling her life, from her time growing up at Ardgowan, to her schooling at Waitaki Girls', her training as a nurse at Waimate Hospital and then her wartime service which ended with her drowning in the Marquette tragedy.
Ten nurses from the New Zealand Nursing Service drowned when the ship went down in the Aegean Sea on its way from Egypt to the northern Greek port of Salonika. Of the 741 people on board, 163 lost their lives.
Miss Clark and four other nurses who died - Catherine Fox, Mary Gorman, Marion Brown and Nona Hildyard - had strong ties to Waimate and a memorial plaque will be unveiled in Waimate on Friday to remember them.
By Chris Tobin.
