The World War 1 Memorial Beacon is New Zealand’s earliest built monument to World War 1. It was erected on the Auckland city waterfront by the Auckland Harbour Board in 1915 to commemorate enlisted employees and to serve as a beacon to bring them home safely. The memorial was designed by the Auckland Harbour Board’s chief engineer, William Henry Hamer, and first lit up on 17 December 1915. It is an unusual example of a monument erected while World War 1 was in progress.