Memorial ride honours Tapawera’s mounted troops
It’s been 100 years since a group of young men left Tapawera on horseback, headed for war. In their memory, a Ride to Remember was held yesterday to pay tribute.
Tapawera Armistice Weekend event co-ordinator Sarah Arnold said that of 258 men from Tapawera district who served, 46 of them were in the Mounted Rifles Brigade.
‘‘It was a huge number, being a little rural town. A lot of these young boys jumped on their horses and rode off to war in 1914 with no idea of what they were getting into, and their story doesn’t really get told.
‘‘I really wanted to do something specifically to remember those boys and the sacrifices they made.’’
Members of the Christchurchbased NZ Mounted Rifles Charitable Trust travelled up to Tapawera for the event, and were joined by local riders.
They rode from the Tapawera Village Green to the Kohatu War Memorial, where a dedication service was held and wreaths were laid in honour of the mounted troops. The riders also re-enacted historic photos of the troops.
Arnold was inspired to organise the event because of her family connection to the mounted troops. One of the young men listed on the war memorial in Kohatu is her grandfather’s cousin, Rory Arnold.
A relative she had never met from Wellington attended the event and read out a letter from Rory Arnold’s commanding officer written after his death in Gallipoli, as well as a letter from a friend. ‘‘That was so hard because we didn’t know how he died, and then we found out – it was just very powerful.’’
Arnold said it was important to her that the Mounted Rifles were remembered. ‘‘So many people came up to speak to me after the service and said, ‘Thank you so very much for remembering our men’, and that was incredible.’’