Marking Anzac Day in the lockdown
Even with services cancelled, there’s still plenty people can do to mark Anzac Day in their bubble, writes Lawrence Watt.
Just as he does every Anzac Day, Sir Tim Shadbolt will stand at dawn in solemn tribute to his late father Donald this Saturday. Rather than joining the usual parades and services, this year the Invercargill mayor will be joining in the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association’s virtual Stand at Dawn service.
Shadbolt will stand at his front gate, as many plan to do.
‘‘I will be wearing my father’s ribbons. I always think of him on Anzac Day,’’ he says.
Lieutenant Donald Shadbolt served as a pilot with the Fleet Air Arm during World War II, became a schoolteacher, then signed up again during the Korean War.
Donald Shadbolt died when his Firebrand plane crashed in a training flight in England in 1952. Shadbolt was just five at the time.
His mother later brought Shadbolt and his brother home to New Zealand.
Shadbolt believes his life would have panned out very differently had his father survived, and that he has always felt his father is looking over his shoulder.
‘‘Dad had many close shaves on Anzac Day, that’s why he is looking after me.’’
Thousands of other New Zealanders are making plans to come together on the day, while remaining in their bubbles.
Chris Mullane, a Vietnam War veteran and author of the popular song Poppies and Pohutukawa, has arranged with his immediate neighbours to listen to Stand at Dawn on their phones.
He emphases they will be at least two metres apart. ‘‘I don’t want Jacinda ringing me up to tell us off,’’ he jokes.
He has also written a children’s poem, called Anzac Kids, which is on the Devonport RSA’s Facebook page.
At the now-shut Devonport RSA, they have instigated a phone-tree to enable seniors to keep in touch.
If the rules allow, historian and author Glyn Harper and his wife Susan will will place a poppy at a nearby war memorial, after listening to the Reveille and the Last Post at dawn on their phones. RNZRSA president Karen Rolleston too will stand at her gate with her extended family of 10.
She advises against visiting memorials unless it is part of daily exercise or shopping routines – whether the country is under level three or four.
Rolleston estimates there are 41,000 Kiwis who served overseas since and during Vietnam, so there are still plenty of modern Anzacs.
With libraries and RSAs closed, the best ways to connect this Anzac Day is in the virtual world.
NZ On Screen has a special Anzac section with material both new and old. The archive includes a huge range of Kiwimade films, documentaries. For example film director David Blyth’s interviews with Kiwis who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
You can research your relatives who served, on the Auckland Museum Cenotaph Database. Here you can also post comments, information and photographs on this site, or lay a virtual poppy. Many records link directly to military records, which previously you had to write away to get.
Among their stories is one Thomas Horton, aged 100, a former Royal New Zealand Air Force World War II pilot who has just celebrated his 100th birthday. He lives in the United States.
Highlights of the National Army Museum site include a wide range of individual stories, including many for children. This site also contains one of the best collections of World War I photos, searchable by name. New Zealand History, a Government site, has many easy to read summaries about New Zealand at War.
‘‘I will be wearing my father’s ribbons. I always think of him on Anzac Day.’’ Sir Tim Shadbolt