Efforts honoured at Clutha services
The Anzac Day service at Tapanui marked Jakob Savigny’s first foray into documentary making.
The 17-year-old Blue Mountain College pupil recorded the day by following World War II veteran Bill Roulston.
‘‘He’s one of a few veterans we have in this town, so I can show my respect to him by making this.’’
Jakob said it was important that the stories from veterans like Bill aren’t forgotten, a sentiment West Otago RSA chairman Horace McAuley told the crowd at Tapanui’s service.
That message was echoed by guest speaker Mark McKenzie, who talked about the West Otago theatrical Society’s production Lest We Forget, which followed some of West Otago’s soldier’s experiences in the trenches.
In Balclutha, South Otago High School head boy Dylan Crawford talked about the medals he wore to the service, which belonged to his great-grandfather Alfred Albert Gaze, a British soldier in WWII. It was important to pass on the stories from generation to generation, he said.
At the Clinton service, journalist and historian Ron Palenski gave an ode to the humble sock.
Not just to the foot covering, but to Clinton women, and women throughout New Zealand, who knitted socks for soldiers in world wars.
The soldiers’ young descendents, who spoke at the Clinton service, painted a picture of what it was like in the close-knit Clutha district community during both wars.
Waiwera South boasted a training camp for Otago Mounted Rifles. The Waiwera South School grounds were used as a shooting range.
Every year, pupils commemorate the six Anzacs who went to the school.
Waiwera South School pupil Holly Richardson, 12, said the soldiers’ suffering meant, ‘‘us never having to go through what they went through’’, and our families never having experience such grief and loss.