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Friday 15 November 2019
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Armistice Day remembrance
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THE GB WEEKLY, FRIDAY 15 NOVEMBER 2019
The flag is raised over Takaka’s memorial gardens at the close of Armistice Day remembrance. Photo: Charlotte Richards.
Exactly 101 years after the guns fell silent at the end of The Great War, and half a world away from the killing fields of the Western Front, Golden Bay paid tribute to its own fallen. In understated acts of remembrance on Monday morning, the Takaka and Collingwood Returned and Services Associations (RSA) held short, dignified ceremonies at their respective memorials. In Collingwood, a crowd of around 25 assembled in front of the cenotaph, where Collingwood RSA president Paddy Gillooly gave a short address before asking for a minute’s silence. After the silence was broken Paddy spoke about the division of Kiwi soldiers who captured the French town of Le Quesnoy from German occupiers in November 1918, just a few days before the end of the First World War. “It was New Zealand soldiers’ last action in the war.” Several of the casualties of that attack had already been through some of the most horrific battles of the war, said Paddy. “Some of those who died had survived Passchendaele and the Somme.” If they had made it through those final days, they would have joined 58,000 of their comrades who were alive and in Europe at the time the armistice was signed. Such is the enduring connection between New Zealand and the French town that a trust has been established with the aim of buying the mayor’s old house. Paddy explained that there was also a very personal link to the Collingwood community that had inspired Golden Bay RSA to make a donation. “A Collingwood man was there – Reg Hird.”
In fact, sergeant Hird was a highly courageous soldier who scaled the assault ladder, and later recalled the brutal and complex attack in one of his many letters written to his sweetheart Nellie Dean, a teacher at Ferntown School. Four years of war took its toll on local combatants. “Forty-six Collingwood men never made it home,” said Paddy. While he read out the names of each lost soldier, Nora Becker and Courtney Riordan from Collingwood Area School placed poppies on a memorial cross before placing it at the base of the cenotaph. Tessa Gillooly then laid the RSA’s wreath, and was followed by CAS students Holly Dixon and Taylor Scott. With all tributes paid, Mike Prystie bugled The Last Post while Vincent Andrew and Michael Gillooly lowered the flags. The short ceremony then closed with the Lord’s Prayer. After the Collingwood crowd dispersed, Paddy explained the significance of remembrance to the township. “For a place the size of Collingwood, it was a huge loss to the community, and it’s right that those who live here acknowledge that.” In Takaka, 30 members of the public gathered to the sound of the WW1 battlefields echoing around memorial gardens as recordings of heavy artillery were piped through the public address system. At exactly 11am, these virtual guns fell silent, just like their real counterparts a century earlier. Referring to the simulated gunfire, Golden Bay RSA (GBRSA) president Noel Baigent asked all present to place their minds amongst the trenches. “Imagine that 24 hours a day, every day, for over four years – imagine what that would do to your spirit.”
Tributes laid at the Collingwood cenotaph. Photo: Jo Richards.
Speaking of the purpose of Armistice Day, Noel noted that it means different things to different people and that the meaning has changed with the passage of time. “It’s not just about remembering those who were brave enough to risk and give their lives for the state of the modern world, but also to remember and prevent such atrocities from being spread across the globe.” The act of remembrance is very personal for Noel who, for the first time in public recounted a deeply moving experience. “On this day 15 years ago, I was fortunate to be part of a very significant event in New Zealand’s history – the repatriation of the remains of an unknown NZ soldier from the former battlefields in the Somme to the National Memorial in Wellington. “This is an event I will never forget, and I encourage anyone who visits Wellington to take a moment to visit and reflect on what he and his compatriots did to save our nation all those years ago.” Showing that Armistice Day still holds... Continued on page 2 1