100 years ago the guns fell silent
Armistice centenary recalls the sacrifice made by so many young New Zealanders
The World War I memorials that dot the New Zealand countryside are important as places where relatives can at least “touch the names” of soldiers buried overseas, Euan Noble says.
He was the guest speaker at Armistice Day commemorations in Whanganui yesterday.
About 150 people were at the cenotaph in Queen’s Park to mark the moment 100 years ago when the guns of World War I fell silent.
The sheer number of New Zealanders who suffered during the four-year conflict is unimaginable — but important to acknowledge, attendees Louise and Geoff Follett said.
The war ended the lives of many young men of promise including the designer of Whanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery, Donald Hosie.
Speakers at the ceremony included the Reverends Stephan van Os and Rosemary Anderson.
The cenotaph was ringed by crosses, bearing the names of the dead.
Brass Wanganui and piper Alistair MacKenzie provided music, and there was a flyover by a replica Spitfire fighter aircraft and three other small planes during the twominute silence at 11am.
Defence and other organisations laid wreaths at the Whanganui Cenotaph. Individuals laying wreaths included Lesley Torrey, who laid a purple one for the animals caught up in all wars, and another for her husband Kevin’s family.
The ceremony remembered those who died in the war, and its prayer asked those living to be worthy of that sacrifice.
Guest speaker Euan Noble said 525 men from the Whanganui District were killed in World War I, some only teenagers.
During the last week the media has reflected on the 1914-18 war, asking questions, he said.
“Was it worth it? Did we do the right thing? Would our best contribution have been to decline this collective act of insanity?”
Regardless of that, families left behind in New Zealand grieved for their dead. They had no bodies or funerals to focus on. Instead they put up war memorials to serve as “de facto headstones”, a place where they could at least “touch a name”.
Those memorials are in every small settlement, Noble said, even places where people no longer live. Heading toward the Whanganui River from Owhango, there’s a memorial at Kaitieke.
Noble’s grandmother lost two brothers at the Somme, and a memorial still stands in their little North Otago town of Herbert.
Whanganui has the cenotaph, the Durie Hill Tower and the Ma¯ ori World War I memorial at Pa¯ kaitore/ Moutoa Gardens. These memorials are important and should be looked after, Noble said.