We will remember
Hundreds turned out for events in Nelson and Tasman yesterday marking the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting in World War I.
Hundreds turned out at events in Nelson and Tasman yesterday to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the armistice that marked the end of World War I.
Two minutes of silence marked the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, exactly 100 years after peace was declared in Europe in 1918.
At Anzac Park in Nelson, the silence was followed by the Nelson City Brass band performing to mark the celebrations that broke out after peace was declared.
Nelson servicemen and women were first sent off to war by the then-mayor and local MP, and yesterday’s celebration mirrored that with a speech from Nelson MP Nick Smith and deputy mayor Paul Matheson.
Smith, with researcher and former Nelson Provincial Museum director Peter Millward, also unveiled the newly engraved cenotaph in the park.
Nelson’s Wall of Remembrance was recently unveiled, with the names of 3678 people from the region who served in the war, an increase from the 2190 named in an exhibition at the museum in 2014.
Millward said that of those people, 682 – almost one in five – died. Of those, 171 were from Nelson city, but only 91 were remembered on the cenotaph.
With the addition of the 80 men not previously listed, Nelson’s war dead were finally being remembered where they should be, he said.
‘‘Many names have never been recognised on a Nelson memorial, and many not recorded in New Zealand at all; only on a headstone on foreign soil.’’
Millward made special mention of six pairs of brothers who were being reunited for the first time. Brothers who had enlisted in other regions or had otherwise been missed from the Nelson cenotaph panels now have their names engraved on the new cenotaph.
The ceremony was followed by a parade through town to the top of Trafalgar St, where an afternoon of free events and activities was organised, including another performance by Nelson City Brass band, readings of war poetry, and the opening of a poppy memorial.
In Tapawera, where many from the region and around the country spent their last days in New Zealand at a military training camp before shipping out to Europe, the occasion was marked with a parade to the old camp grounds and displays on the ‘‘return to home’’.
People from the area got into the spirit of the centenary, dressing in period costume and demonstrating life at the time. They were encouraged to share their families’ war stories.
The bells rang out, horns blasted – the time for quiet reflection was over.
New Zealanders across the country marked a century since the end of World War I with a mixture of silence and noise.
Wellington did its part yesterday – Armistice Day – to remember the thousands of New Zealanders who died in the Great War with a 100-gun salute from the Wellington Waterfront.
Then at 11am, dignitaries including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and GovernorGeneral Dame Patsy Reddy observed two minutes of silence at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park in Wellington.
Even the children picked up on the occasion’s gravitas, as during the silence the only sound came from a tui.
And in an echo of what happened when the news reached Wellington a century ago that the war was over, the capital erupted into a cacophony of celebratory noise. The carillon bells chimed out, ferries in the harbour sounded their horns, and emergency services were allowed to use their sirens.
Following the speeches at Pukeahu came the choreographed He Wawa¯ Waraki: Roaring Chorus 2018 – a commissioned piece of performance to mark 100 years since the world went into an, albeit brief, moment of peace. It was on November 11, 1918 – at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month – when the guns fell silent in Europe and what would become known as World War I ended.
During the previous four years, the war had claimed the lives of 18,058 of the 98,950 New Zealanders who served overseas. Nine per cent of Kiwis served. ‘‘After fifty-one months of continuous cannon-roar, the enemy war-spirit has flickered away into silence, and throughout the tortured lands of France and Belgium the guns are dumb,’’ The Evening Post said the day after the good news arrived.
‘‘So used had the world grown to the din of warfare, that the ensuing silence is almost stunning; and it may take some little time to get used to peace, just as it did to get used to war.’’
Dame Patsy Reddy told those gathered in Wellington yesterday that by November 1918, New Zealanders had endured four long years of war, and some families had lost two, three or even four sons. When the GovernorGeneral at the time, Lord Liverpool, announced the signing of the Armistice from the steps of the Parliamentary Library, the news spread like wildfire. ‘‘And just as in many other countries – people spilled out into the streets, wild with joy,’’ Reddy said.
In Christchurch yesterday, about 2000 people gathered for a service at the Bridge of Remembrance. And despite rain, more than 1500 people gathered at Auckland War Memorial Museum’s Cenotaph to pay their respects.