Thursday, April 25, 2013

ANZAC Day 2013


For the fallen, and those who came back, and those who stayed home, and those who conscientiously objected...



Many Nelsonians turned out for my local ANZAC Dawn Service this morning and our nearby township of Motueka's service where the Motueka Baptist Church Minister Lyall Scheib told those gathered "May we never take for granted the freedom we enjoy". Amen to that!
I do believe they are mistaken to say, in the article, that this year is the 99th commemoration of Gallipoli.
We do often hear about and associate ANZAC services with Gallipoli as the landing date (25th April 1915) is the date in April that we use for ANZAC Day and NZ/Australia remembrance. I was pleased to hear reports from a few different Dawn Services mentioning lesser known campaigns this year such as the Maori Battalion's efforts to regain Florence, Italy and the Anzacs trek into Ethiopia to oust the guerrilla Italian troups.

We had a lovely service this morning - my only complaint was that the speaker rushed the Ode of Remembrance - a pivotal part of the service and, in my opinion, not to be read without pause.

 I am including the painting below this year. It is by Bob Kerr and depicts NZ conscientious objector, Archibald Baxter, enduring "Field Punishment no.1". You can read more about it here.



This ANZAC Day I have learnt about a very special ANZAC service held at a small memorial at Flock House near Bulls to commemorate extraordinary members of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force whose contributions are often overlooked. Horses, riders, and supporters of the Bess Society, gathered again this morning to pay particular tribute to Bess, one of about three or four New Zealand horses to serve through the entire WWI campaign and return home. Her war service is etched into the stone: Main body 1914, Egypt 1915, Sinai 1916, Palestine 1917-1918, France 1918, Germany 1919, England 1920.




You can find more info here and here. There is also a lot of interesting info here.
Horses in war - a particularly poignant subject for me...

And of course, no ANZAC Day will ever seem complete to me without my 2011 blogpost honouring my ancestors involved with military operations in the 1900s.

Thinking about going to Gallipoli for ANZAC 2015...

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