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Sunday marks the 80th anniversary of Aotearoa's worst naval tragedy, the sinking of HMS Neptune during the World War II. Of the 764 men who lost their lives on 19 December 1941, 150 were New Zealanders.
Bridget Geoghegan/SUPPLIED
Philip Gannaway is buried on Sant Tysilio in Wales. According to Geoghegan’s research, Gannaway married a woman called Alice Muriel Chitty in Hamilton shortly before travelling to the United Kingdom. Gannaway is remembered on Auckland Museum s Online Cenotaph which says he was the son of Fred and Annie. The researcher has found references to him living in Dunedin, where he had his medical exam before enlisting. “I have researched the lives of many of these men, but their stories belong to the families. He is remembered each Remembrance Day – usually the graves get a spruce up and a poppy cross, but this year they have a stone painted with a poppy.”