DEVONPORT RSA: ANZAC DAY 2021
Devonport honours the RSA spirit As ANZAC Day 2021 approaches and we again gather to remember New Zealanders who died not just at Gallipoli but all those who have served in our armed forces, Channel magazine takes a look at one of our local RSAs to see how it is faring in a very different society and where there is a very different role for our armed forces, decades after it was formed. Christine Young reports. Immediate past president of the Devonport RSA, Howard Mace, says Devonport RSA is especially looking forward to the ANZAC Day commemorations this year, as this is the first year since 2018 that the RSA has been able to hold its traditional ANZAC Day parade down Devonport’s main street to the war memorial overlooking Windsor Reserve. Formal services and parades were cancelled at short notice in 2019 in the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque attacks amid police concern about public safety at large gatherings. Devonport RSA members marked the day quietly at its base in Devonia Hall, though there would doubtless have been some members who would have wished to join members of the community who held a commemoration at the memorial, regardless of police advice. Last year, of course, the first Covid-19 lockdown prevented any parades or public commemorations, but that didn’t stop thousands of Devonport residents responding (with others across the country) to the call to “stand at dawn” outside their houses to mark the occasion. Devonport RSA members are planning for a return to more traditional commemorations this year. This is not to suggest that the Devonport RSA is mired in the past. Far from it. While it proudly upholds the RSA values of Caring, Commemorating and Connecting, it has also recently undergone a strategic review, to ensure that the local society survives and thrives well into the 21st century and beyond. Howard Mace and other members are determined it will not “become an old person’s club…. We are turning it around. It’s time to refresh and position [ourselves] for the future.” Devonport is neither the oldest, nor the largest, of the three surviving North Shore RSAs, but it remains firmly focused on the founding principles that underpinned the formation of the national RSA network. The other North Shore RSAs are now Birkenhead and East Coast Bays; the 80-year-old Takapuna RSA folded in 2014 as a result of declining membership and debt of “tens of thousands of dollars” according to newspaper reports at the time.
Many RSAs (including Birkenhead and East Coast Bays, judging by their websites – we did try to contact them for this story but received no response) now often have a restaurant and offer entertainment to encourage new membership and provide an income stream. Devonport, says Devonport RSA’s Chris Mullane, is happy to welcome members of the community, “but we want to be sure they are joining for the right reasons”, that is, service to the community. And they want to ensure that Associate members don’t out-number service members. But first, let’s take a look at Devonport RSA’s history and structure. The New Zealand Returned Services Association was formed in April 1916. It wasn’t until 1927, as the Great Depression loomed, that a local group of Devonport ex-servicemen and an ex-service nurse met to consider what could be done to support local ex-servicemen unable to find employment. They first met in what was then Ford’s Tearooms at the lower end of Victoria Rd, with a hat taken around to collect money to pay for the room hire. Later that year, the Mayor Mr. E. Aldridge, convened a meeting in the Council Chambers and a formal committee of the Devonport Returned Soldiers Club (Inc) was formed. After meeting in a number of local venues, in 1947 Devonia Hall was leased for £2 a week. In 1954, the building was on the market for £14,500, well above a recent government valuation of £12,600. The society’s coffers boasted just £3,063, but members were optimistic that the bank would advance £11,000 at 4% as an overdraft. But Reserve Bank rules only allowed overdrafts for six months; a permanent loan from non-banking sources was required. The society’s rules were amended to allow it to borrow money, and after a personal guarantee from and several months of negotiations led by Commander Pug Thew, the purchase of the Devonia Building was completed on in August 1954. Back to the present. Joining Howard Mace at the meeting with Channel was Chris Mullane, popularly known as the Druid of Devonport. His service in the military includes time in Vietnam and in the US military. Like many of his fellow soldiers, he experienced years of dealing with the delayed effects of wartime trauma, which led to advocacy on behalf of his fellow veterans. Once president of Devonport RSA and still active in the Paschendaele Society, he is now Chair of Devonport RSA’s Poppy Day Trust, and a strong advocate for RSA’s three Cs of Caring, Commemorating and Connecting. He is also known to many locally as an advocate for the restoration of the graves of soldiers from New Zealand and the Pacific in the O’Neill’s Point Cemetery in Belmont. He commends the members at the time who “had the foresight to purchase the building, with five shops, so it always had an income”. Owning Devonia Building has certainly allowed Devonport RSA financial security that has eluded other RSAs. A separately created Memorial Trust owns the building and receives income from shops beneath the hall, and being sited right in the main street has also meant that Devonport RSA has positive relationships with the local business association, and a prominent place in the
Devonport RSA's immediate past president Howard Mace, and Devonport RSA Poppy Trust chair, Chris Mullane.
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Issue 118 - April 2021 www.channelmag.co.nz
