Latest News & Our Nelson Community
Lest we Forget
Written by: Anna Loach
Date: April 20, 2022
Anzac Day
Anzac Day is observed on 25 April. It commemorates New Zealanders killed in war and honours returned and serving servicemen and women.
The date marks the anniversary of the landing of Australian and New Zealand soldiers – the Anzacs – on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915. The aim was to capture the Dardanelles and open a sea route to the Bosphorus and the Black Sea. At the end of the campaign, Gallipoli was still held by its Ottoman Turkish defenders.
Thousands lost their lives during the Gallipoli campaign. Among the dead were 2779 New Zealanders, about one in six of those who served on Gallipoli.
Anzac Day was first observed in 1916. The day has gone through many changes since. The ceremonies that are held at war memorials up and down New Zealand, and in places overseas where New Zealanders gather, are modelled on a military funeral and remain rich in tradition and ritual.
The word Anzac is part of the culture of New Zealanders and Australians. People talk about the ‘spirit of Anzac’.
ANZAC is an acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, a grouping of several divisions created early in the Great War of 1914–18.
The Anzac Day ceremony of 25 April is rich in tradition and ritual. It is a form of military funeral and follows a specific pattern. The day’s ceremonies have two major parts: one at dawn and another later in the morning.
The Dawn Service
A typical commemoration begins with a pre-dawn march by returned service personnel to the local war memorial. Military personnel and returned servicemen and women form up about the memorial, joined by other members of the community. Pride of place goes to war veterans.
A short service follows, with a prayer, hymns and a dedication that concludes with the fourth verse of Laurence Binyon’s ‘For the fallen’:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
The last post is then played, followed by a minute’s silence and the reveille. A brief address follows, after which the hymn ‘Recessional’ is sung. The service concludes with a prayer and the singing of the national anthem.
The Anzac Parade
Another ceremony takes place later in the morning of 25 April. Returned service personnel wearing their medals march behind banners and standards. The veterans are joined by other community groups, including members of the armed forces, the Red Cross, cadets, and veterans of other countries’ forces.
The march proceeds to the local war memorial. Another service takes place there, and representatives of various organisations and members of the public lay wreaths. This service is a more public commemoration than the dawn service. It is less intimate and less emotional. The speech, usually made by a dignitary, serviceman or returned serviceman or woman, may stress themes of nationhood and remembrance.
After these services, many of the veterans retire to the local Returned and Services’ Association (RSA) club or a hotel, where they enjoy coffee and rum (after the dawn service) and unwind after an emotionally and, for elderly veterans, physically exhausting event. At the end of the day, the ceremony of the retreat is performed.
APRIL 25, NELSON ANZAC SERVICES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
NELSON:
6.00 ANZAC Dawn parade and service at ANZAC Park
8.00 Wakapuaka Cemetery RSA section – wreath laying ceremony
8.30 Boer War memorial in Queens Gardens wreath laying
11.00 Christ Church Cathedral Nelson – Full Remembrance Service
STOKE:
10.00 Marsden Valley RSA section – small commemoration with Last Post, speaker, and ode
APRIL 25, WAIMEA ANZAC SERVICES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
RICHMOND:
10.45 Parade from Sundial Sq. Richmond
11.00 Service at War Memorial Gardens, Cambridge Street
BRIGHTWATER:
No service, but community and Waimea RSA will lay wreaths at the memorial
WAKEFIELD:
10.00 Service at Wakefield Hall
TAPAWERA:
No service, but community and Waimea RSA will lay wreaths at the memorial
MURCHISON:
11.00 Service at the Memorial in Waller Street
(Murchison Sport, Recreation and Culture Centre if wet)
LAKE ROTOITI:
10.30 Service at the Lake Rotoiti Community Hall, 22 Main Road St. Arnard
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