Voices of Armistice Day

“In this hour, for the first time since facing the enemy, my mind allows itself to really believe that I shall see you all again.” George Tuck, captain in 2nd Auckland, writing to his parents "Suddenly it was all over. The nursing staff staged a little party in each ward and expected us to warm up to some pitch of enthusiasm. We couldn’t do it. We were too tired, mentally and physically, and too full of memories to let ourselves go. We remembered all those good comrades who would never return, the flower of New Zealand’s youth cut down in its prime.” Bill McKeon in Brockenhurst Hospital “Our Captain Todd gave it to us as official news that an armistice would be signed at 11 o’clock. Half a dozen joyful souls performed a haka, but the remainder, for the most part, took it with the same stolidity as if it had been an extra picquet.” Driver Ernest Looms “The joy bells of the peace with Turkey rang out when we had probably 12 to 20 severe influenza cases in our region of 10,000 people. But no one had authority to stride down the street shouting ‘do not foregather, do not celebrate – death is round the corner.’ So collectively we celebrated and danced in the town hall on a warm November night and within 24 hours nearly a third of the revellers were rigoring.” Doris Gordon, a doctor dealing with the influenza pandemic in Stratford, Taranaki