The rescued pulpit that kept a soldier’s memory alive
Tuesday, 26 May 2026
For more than a century, the memory of Sergeant Cecil Nicholson Willis has lived quietly in a piece of polished wood and engraved brass — a young Wellington man carried from Wadestown to the battlefields of Europe, never to return home.
Now, an eagle eyed member of the New Zealand Remembrance Army spotted the wood and brass pulpit which resurfaced unexpectedly in a Trade Me online auction.
Managing director of the New Zealand Remembrance Army, Simon Strombom said they were alerted to the sale of a pulpit dedicated to Cecil Nicholson Willis on Trade Me, went on to bid on it and win.
The WW1 treasure in remembrance of a fallen Kiwi soldier from a prominent Wellington family is to be donated to the Trentham Military Chapel, where his family’s remarkable legacy of service will continue to be remembered.
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Sergeant Cecil Nicholson Willis, of 1st Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade was one of the sons of Amelia Anne and Alexander James Willis of Wellington, where Cecil grew up at 69 Weld St, Wadestown. His father was with the Land Tax department of the government and later secretary of the cabinet.
Cecil had worked as a marine engineer for the Union Steam Ship Company and when WWI broke out, he enlisted.
He first served during the Senussi Campaign in North Africa before later being sent to the Western Front in France and Belgium.
On 7 December 1917, he died of multiple gunshot wounds received in action.
Strombom said it was believed the pulpit had originally come from a church in Johnsonville and had been restored. A plaque at the bottom reads “In Proud and Loving Memory of Cecil Nicholson Willis”.
He said the Willis family’s contribution to service did not end with Cecil.
His sister, Lizzie Ida Grace Willis — later known as Ida Grace Willis OBE ARRC ED — became one of New Zealand’s most distinguished military nurses.
In 1914, she was one of the first six nurses to deploy with the force that occupied German Samoa. She later served aboard the hospital ship Maheno, caring for Gallipoli casualties in Egypt, before continuing service in England and France during WWI.
Following the war, Ida Willis helped shape New Zealand military nursing for decades, eventually becoming Matron-in-Chief of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service.
At the outbreak of WWII, she organised the Nursing Corps for a new generation of conflict.
Strombom said her honours included Associate of the Royal Red Cross (1918), King George V Silver Jubilee Medal (1935) and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Military Division). She is recorded as the first woman in New Zealand to receive an OBE.
He said it was a family of extraordinary service and the pulpit was a reminder of how much the family had given.