This is one of four Taranaki churches built as War Memorials - one commemorating the NZ Wars (Whiteley Memorial Methodist Church, New Plymouth) - and the others memorialising the fallen soldiers of The Great War and WWII which are St Andrew's Memorial Church, Inglewood, and St John's Peace Memorial Church, Kaimata.
The Anglican Bishop of Auckland, Dr A W Averill, laid the foundation stone of the memorial church at Uruti on 19 November 1924, congratulating the congregation upon their choice of a memorial [church] to the soldiers who gave their lives for freedom.
The church later became known as All Saints Church, was dedicated on 4 March 1925.
In 1939 the Uruti community began raising funds to erect a centennial gateway as its contribution towards the New Zealand Centennial. The wartime years intervened, and the gate was not erected on the chosen site in front of the church until 1949. By this time it had also been designated a war memorial gate and incorporated tablets with rolls of honour for both world wars. They list 13 and 4 names for the respective wars. The Uruti Centennial and War Memorial Gate was dedicated on 29 May 1949.
Today the church is no longer regularly used as a place of worship and its original function as a war memorial has largely been forgotten.
Source: NZ History (Ministry for Culture and Heritage); Uruti War Memorial Church and Gate.
URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/uruti-war-memorial Updated 17-May-2017. Retrieved 24/02/2019.