Stuart Alexander Maireriki Campbell

Stuart Alexander Maireriki Campbell was born in 1923 on Tongareva, the northernmost atoll in the Cook Islands also known as Penrhyn Island. He served New Zealand as part of the 28th Māori Battalion in the Second World War. Between 1941 and 1945 he served in Greece, North Africa and finally Italy.

His younger brother was Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, who later became a successful poet, novelist and playwright.

To Stuart by Alistair Te Ariki Campbell

Early spring, and a cold wet morning.
The wind mooches about outside,
planning a home invasion.
It’s Mary’s birthday, our Mary whom
you’d have loved had the Fates
spared you. I take you back
five years before you joined
the Maori Battalion, and six before you
died. I have many questions to put
to you, many that may not even have
an answer. Why being blessed with
enviable gifts did you abandon
your studies after only a year?
You could have made your mark
in any field that calls
for passion and imagination.
As a boy I followed you about
from match to match marvelling
at what you created with a
cricket ball. Your bowling
action and the flight of the ball,
gathering speed as it flew
towards its target, were to me
a work of art. As an admiring
younger brother, I celebrate
this image of what you promised
and never lived to fulfil.
‘Nature,’ wrote William Blake,
‘has no Outline, but Imagination has.’
I see you turn and run up
to the crease. I see your
arm swing over. I see the
ball in flight – and that is all.