Sombre services were held earlier this week in Pukeatua and Te Awamutu to mark Armistice Day – the day in 1918 that ended World War 1.
Te Awamutu Armistice parade commander Daniel van der Hulst, at left, takes the salute with Te Awamutu RSA members Lou Brown, president David Bowler, and Adan Te Huia standing by. Photo: Viv Posselt
Te Awamutu News 14 November 2024
The area’s commemorations started with a service on Sunday morning at the Pukeatua War Memorial Church.
The tiny place of worship is one of just two special churches in New Zealand, built in 1955 by the Pukeatua farming community as a memorial to local men who died in the two world wars.
The second such church was built in 1954 in Tutira, north of Napier.
Both churches have historic covenants over them.
Because of its military links, Pukeatua War Memorial Church has had a long-standing relationship with the Patriots Defence Force Motorcycle Club, and several of their Hauraki Chapter members attended Sunday’s service.
Standing to attention at Pukeatua. At front are, from left, Jackson August of the Patriots Defence Force Motorcycle Club (Hauraki), and Te Awamutu RSA members Daniel van der Hulst, Graham Smith and Alan Patterson. Photo: Viv Posselt
At the service, RSA padre Rev Murray Olson said it was important to mark Armistice Day ‘because it reminds us not to forget why we have the freedoms we have today’.
“It was freedom that was not bought cheaply,” he said. “Not only did the soldiers suffer, but so did the whole nation, particularly their relatives. Those who came back were never the same again because of fighting in the atrocious conditions they were serving in.”
A commemorative service at Anzac Green in Te Awamutu was well-supported and was followed by a veterans’ lunch at the RSA.
Margaret Main and Te Awamutu RSA’s Lou Brown, at left, listen to The Last Post, played by Peter Leslie of the Patriots Defence Force Motorcycle Club (Hauraki). Standing to the side is piper Craig Wards of the Te Kuiti and Districts Pipe Band. Photo: Viv Posselt
The Dedication was read out by Brigadier Jon Broadley of the Cambridge RSA on behalf of Waipā Mayor, Susan O’Regan.
Broadley said the New Zealand Expeditionary Force had received their ‘baptism of fire at Gallipoli in 1915 and went on to drench the soil of France and the Western Front with the blood of young New Zealanders for the next three years.
“The total number of New Zealand troops and nurses that served overseas during the First World War was 103,000 from a population of just over a million people. Forty-two percent of all men of military age served in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Of these 16,697 were killed and 41,317 were wounded. That represents a 58 per cent casualty rate.”
“We remember their sacrifice, and those of all New Zealand war dead today.”
Margaret Main, chair of the church committee, laid a wreath on behalf of Pukeatua War Memorial Church. Photo: Viv Posselt
Te Awamutu RSA president David Bowler and RSA member Lou Brown, left, pictured after laying a wreath at the cenotaph. Photo: Viv Posselt
Musical Allsorts led in the singing of the National Anthem at the Te Awamutu commemoration. Photo: Viv Posselt
Pictured at the Te Awamutu Armistice Day commemoration are, from left, Te Awamutu-Kihikihi Community Board chair Ange Holt, Brigadier Jon Broadley of the Cambridge RSA, Te Awamutu RSA president David Bowler, Te Awamutu RSA’s Adan Te Huia, RSA padre Rev Murray Olson, and Cambridge-based Winston Hart, who laid a wreath on behalf of fallen Rhodesians. Photo: Viv Posselt
RSA bugler Doug Rose plays the Reveille as the flag is raised by Don Ramsay. Photo: Viv Posselt
RSA padre Rev Murray Olson gives the blessing at the end of the service at Pukeatua War Memorial Church. Photo: Viv Posselt
