RSA Review Winter 2014

Winter 2014

v8s music to rsa ears

RSA national president Don McIver may prefer to block out the roar of the V8 Supercars at Pukekohe, but the RSA is not closing its eyes to the continuing prospects offered by the Anzac partnership after a highly successful entree. Reaction and photos: pages 4-5.

News

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02

Remembering

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16

Health/Well-Being

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27

What’s New

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Standing ovation for winning speaker

Hastings VC Room ‘one of a kind’

Veteran fights for ‘forgotten victims’

On-site visit inspires winning work

Jack Potaka won the ANZ RSA Cyril Basset VC speech contest – and then scored a standing ovation at Gallipoli.

An seven-year project to set up a tribute to New Zealand’s Victoria Cross winners has come to fruition in Hastings.

Jack Moore is campaigning for greater recognition of the wartime suffering of those left at home.

A trip to Gallipoli inspired a Sydney landscape painter towards winning a major art prize.

Visit us online at www.rsa.org.nz | www.facebook.com/RSANational | https://twitter.com/RSA_National

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RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

News The official publication of the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association Volume 89 No.2 Winter 2014 Published June 17, 2014

In this issue 02 News 06 National 10 Families 16 Remembering 24 Lost Trails 27 Health/Well-Being 32 What’s New 34 Classifieds For RSA Review enquiries and subscriptions, contact: RSA Review PO Box 27 248, Wellington 6141 Phone 04 384 7994 Fax 04 385 3325 rsareview@rsa.org.nz www.rsa.org.nz Last Post, What’s On and Lost Trails are placed in RSA Review as a free service.

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Speech ‘moving, powerful’ Jo Bailey Very early in the still, dark, morning hours of Anzac Day, a young Kiwi stood up to the podium at Anzac Cove, Turkey to make his contribution to the Gallipoli commemorations. There was an eerie atmosphere at Anzac Cove.

The cliffs were lit up by spotlight beams filtered through the morning mist. It was 3.35am, and many of the Antipodeans who had gathered to honour the fallen soldiers of their countries were dozing before the start of the dawn service.

But, as 17-year-old Jack Potaka moved confidently in Te Reo Maori into his speech – titled Te wairau o te hoia, the spirit of the soldiers – many awoke from their slumber. A few minutes later, when he finished, the crowd at Anzac Cove gave him a standing ovation, which he remains “surprised and overwhelmed” by.

“To be in a foreign country, thousands of miles from New Zealand, and get this reaction from people gathered to pay tribute to the heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom was so moving, and so powerful. It is an experience I’ll never forget.”

Jack Potaka won the trip to Gallipoli and the opportunity to speak on behalf of the RSA and New Zealand youth by winning the 2014 ANZ RSA Cyril Bassett VC Speech Competition. He beat seven other year 12 and 13 regional winners with a passionate speech about his relative, Porokoru Patapu ‘John’ Pohe, who was the first fully qualified Maori pilot in the RNZAF. The Rotorua Boys’ High School boarder entered the 2013 RSA speech competition through the encouragement of his English teacher, Wendy Simpson.

“I’d spoken in Te Reo Maori, but had never delivered a speech in English before. I finished second at the regional competition last year, so didn’t qualify for the nationals. However, it was a good starting platform for me as an English orator.”

After qualifying for the national finals of the Nga Manu Korero national secondary school speech contest, speaking in English, he decided to have another go at the RSA competition. “I was really determined to go one better this time.”

He put an eight minute speech together, learned it off by heart, and, three days before the regional final, decided to practise in front of his uncle and auntie, John and Stevie Chadwick.

“I knew the speech inside out, and was halfway through delivering it when my uncle stopped me.

‘Nephew,’ he said, ‘the message is not that strong, you’re not getting it across.’ I said, ‘True, what am I going to do about it?’”

17 year-old Jack Potaka stands on the beach at Gallipoli (top) before delivering his dawn speech (left). The Rotorua Boys’ High School pupil said it was not until he stood on the beach and looked at the cliffs (right) that he understood the challenges and horrors that the Anzac troops faced.

John Chadwick walked into another room and came back with an old comic book called Born to Fly, which had the story of his father’s adopted brother, Porokoru Patapu (Johnny) Pohe.

Nicknamed ‘Lucky Johnny’, he was the first Maori pilot in the RNZAF and a World War 2 hero who flew 22 missions and was involved in the legendary `Great Escape’ from Stalag Luft III. He was later recaptured and executed, insisting on removing his blindfold when he faced a German firing squad.

“The story inspired me so much that the next morning I went to school, and said to Mrs Simpson, ‘We’re going to have to change the speech.’ He wrote a new speech that day, just 48 hours before the regional finals.

“The next day I was competing in a mid-island athletics competition, so didn’t have much time to practise. I had to learn it between races.”

But his passion for the story of his fallen ancestor shone through, and the speech won not only the regional, but national title too. His prize, which included the trip to Gallipoli, a $1000 travel fund, a trophy, a laptop computer and a digital camera, was presented by the governor general, Lt Gen Sir Jerry Mateparae, RSA national president Don McIver and ANZ’s head of corporate affairs, Peter Parussini.

For his speech at the Anzac Day commemorations, Potaka was asked to talk about Gallipoli and World War I. He had a “fair idea” of the

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Jack Potaka at the graves of two 17-yearolds at Gallipoli. ‘It is honestly a life-changing experience,’ he says of his visit to Gallipoli.

It’s official: RSA poppy donation campaign has real text appeal Karen Phelps

Views and opinions expressed in the RSA Review are not necessarily those of the RNZRSA, Waterford Press Ltd or publisher.

RNZRSA accepts no responsibility for loss of manuscripts or photos.

things he wanted to say, but didn’t write the speech until after his arrival in Turkey.

“I wanted to see Gallipoli first and experience it for myself. When I was there my feelings and emotions were so strong. There were also many special moments when I felt the presence of the fallen men. That’s when I decided to make the spirit of the soldiers the theme of my speech.”

One of these moments came before the commemorations, when he was standing at Anzac Cove looking out towards the ocean, which was “crystal clear” and flat as glass. He snapped a photo before taking off his shoes and socks and walking into the water.

“As soon as I stepped in, three waves popped up within a five-metre radius of me. It was spooky, and felt like the soldiers were acknowledging our presence.”

Jack says he was lucky to speak between 3am and 4am, which he has been told, is one of the most spiritual times of the day: “I could definitely feel the spirit of the soldiers rise within me when I was introduced to the stage. Any nerves I had just broke away.”

He says it was not until he stood on the beach at Gallipoli and looked up at the “hectic” terrain and cliffs that he truly understood the challenges and horrors that had faced the Anzac troops.

“It’s amazing any of them survived.”

He says travelling to Gallipoli with the RSA and NZ Defence Force contingents has given him a deep respect for the people, past and present, who have contributed to “keeping our country safe with peace and freedom”.

Since his return home, he has spoken to other students about his experiences, and believes it is vital that all New Zealand youth understand the importance of Gallipoli in the fabric of our history, as the “biggest stepping stone to giving New Zealand its identity”.

“If I can leave one message from all my speeches, it is that if you get an opportunity to travel to Gallipoli for Anzac Day, take it. It is honestly a life-changing experience.”

It’s official: The RSA has text appeal. The text poppy-donation campaign, which was trialled for Anzac Day this year, has proved a successful, new way for people to donate to the RSA’s annual fundraising campaign.

“As we’re moving to a cashless society, I’ve

seen people walk up to make a donation, then realise they have no cash on them,” says RSA chief executive David Moger.

“The text option enables people to donate quickly and easily.

“They send off a text to make a $3 donation, then receive confirmation seconds later so that they can receive their red poppy from the collector to show they have helped the cause.”

The text campaign was also held during the V8 Supercars event in Pukekohe over Anzac weekend. All up, it raised $5000, which, Moger points out, is money the organisation may not have received otherwise.

“It’s a great start. We see the texting, on-line and app donation options growing as we enable people to make a donation in the way that’s easiest and most engaging to them.”

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RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

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AWARD HANGS HIGH IN HUNTLY SCHOOL Jo Bailey Banapa Avatea says he and his family felt like “rock stars” the day he received the 2014 Governor-General’s Anzac of the Year Award, at Government House, in Wellington.

“We felt very special and we’re grateful for the support from the RSA. Everything that could have been done for our family was done. It was a wonderful day.”

The Huntly West Primary School principal received the award for his “ongoing commitment to the Anzac values of courage, comradeship, compassion and commitment in his everyday life”. The award panel believes he strives to instil these values in his pupils and he personally exemplified them in his quick thinking and bravery that prevented a likely fatal accident on State Highway 1 between Auckland and Hamilton on Valentine’s Day this year.

He and youngest son Jordan, aged five (who goes to the Huntly West school) were on their daily commute down the motorway from their home in Papakura when Banapa noticed that a large truck ahead of them had slowed significantly while going up a steep rise and was being overtaken by several cars.

“The truck veered suddenly to the right and I realised things weren’t normal. I was able to pull up to one side of the truck and get a clear view of the driver, who was slumped over the wheel.”

He rang for emergency assistance, then turned on his hazard-lights and head-lights and drove into the middle of the two southbound lanes in peak traffic to prevent other cars from passing the 29-tonne truck. For the next 12 minutes, he continued to speak to the police despatcher and wait for an opportunity to get into the cab to help the driver, which was his “primary concern”.

“I remember it was a bit like being at school, having to keep calm and make good decisions

Anzac of the Year winner Banapa Avatea (right) with his mother, Julie Avatea (left), his sister, Melissa Stringer (second from left), his wife, Rochelle (fourth from left), and children Deijha (left), Logan (holding award) and Jordan.

when there are 5000 things happening at once.”

Eventually, the truck crashed into a barrier and slowed enough for him to get out of his car.

He and another motorist managed to open the truck door and apply the foot brake. Banapa then took control of the truck and stopped it.

The driver, in his mid-30s, was dazed, confused and disorientated, but not clutching his chest.

“I’d completed a first-aid course in August last year and one of the things we learned was to look around the environment to see if there were any clues that could help figure out what was wrong. The driver’s lunch bag had a lot of small snack bars in it, and I noticed he also had a small insulin kit. This definitely pointed

towards a diabetic episode.”

Avatea helped the driver eat a banana and a snack bar, stabilising his condition until the St John paramedics arrived. He and Jordan then continued on to school.

It wasn’t until late March that Banapa learned he had been named 2014 Anzac of the Year: “I was at school when the letter from Government House arrived at home. My wife read it to me over the phone. It was a great honour.”

His wife, their three children (Deijha, 17, Logan 12 and Jordan), his mother and his sister were at Government House to see governor general, Lt Gen Sir Jerry Mateparae present him with the Anzac of the Year trophy.

“Helping the driver wasn’t something I did for recognition,” he says.

“It was a natural response, and testament to the way my parents raised my sister and me to do whatever you can to help others. They are my heroes.”

Banapa Avatea grew up in South Auckland.

His father, who died in 2009, was from the Cook Islands, and his mother, also a teacher, is European.

“Mum was a foundation pupil of Huntly West Primary School in 1956, my parents married in Huntly, and my dad worked at the mine, so it’s

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To page 8

4 News

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

V8 Supercars, RSA on right track Karen Phelps

A real honey: the tank that is. RSA chief executive David Moger (top) with a Stuart M3 tank at the RSA marquee at Pukekohe. Known as ‘the honey’, the tank was used during the World War 2 North African campaign. It weighs 12 tons and can reach speeds of 80km/h, so fitted well into the theme of the weekend. Meanwhile (above), RSA national president Don McIver shows just how tough it is at the top trying to recruit new members trackside at Pukekohe.

The RSA and a bunch of sleek, sexy V8 racing cars don’t seem likely partners. But over Anzac weekend the two proved a winning combination as fallen soldiers were honoured, while at the same time, RSA members and the general public celebrated the ITM 500 Auckland V8 Supercars event.

And the link between the Supercars and the RSA is stronger than might seem apparent at first glance, says RSA chief executive David Moger.

“A lot of the teams are a mix of Australians and New Zealanders, which mirrors the first Anzac core of Australia and New Zealand standing side by side in battle against a common enemy. In fact, it was the V8 Supercars organisers who brought this connection to our attention.”

Moger says initial meetings with the eventorganisers convinced the RSA they were serious about honouring fallen soldiers, and events over the weekend backed this up.

The weekend kicked off at the Pukekohe RSA with a chance for the public to meet drivers; Greg Murphy, four-time winner of the Bathurst 1000, MC-ed the evening. Pukekohe RSA immediate past president Doug McNally says the RSA was packed with fans and RSA members.

There was no racing on the morning of Anzac day. Instead, drivers and pit crew attended the dawn service at the war memorial outside the Pukekohe RSA. V8 Supercars set up a large TV screen so that the crowd could see all of the ceremony.

David Moger describes the ceremony as incredibly moving and says the spirit of commemoration continued before racing began at the race circuit when Murphy publicly honoured fallen soldiers.

“As the New Zealand and Australian anthems were sung, and The Ode was recited in Maori and then English by RSA president Don McIver, every single person in that grandstand stood

The V8 Supercars event was attended by 128,255 people and we were a part of that. up,” he says. And, as a further touching tribute, each racecar featured the poppy motif.

As the official charity of the event, the RSA ran a marquee at the track over the weekend.

The public had the opportunity to buy RSA merchandise to raise funds for the organisation, and V8 Supercars promoted a ‘textpoppy’ campaign where people could send a text to make an automatic $3 donation to the RSA. Pukekohe RSA members volunteered to take donation buckets around the course.

As well as honouring veterans and fallen soldiers, the weekend also gave the RSA a great opportunity to showcase what it offers to the general public, says Moger – 130 new members signed up.

“The V8 Supercars event was attended by 128,255 people, and we were part of that. Also racing coverage went out via Sky TV to subscribers around New Zealand and the RSA was interviewed in spots frequently as part of that.

“It gave us the opportunity to talk to a huge number of people about the changes in the RSA. We had amazingly good feedback with people saying it was great to see the RSA at an event like this. They were discovering that the RSA is a different place from what they had thought.”

Publicity generated by the event has had other spin-offs too. Moger was approached to do an interview on Newstalk ZB about the “different” look of the association.

And next year? The event will build on the success of 2014, but will be bigger and better, he says.

Merchandising based on ‘agile’ model A new range of RSA merchandise seeks to cash in on what RSA chief executive David Moger terms “a smart, agile business model” to give local RSAs more fundraising options.

“The traditional way of merchandising ties a lot of money up in stock,” he says. “Instead, we’re producing and delivering items quickly on request, eliminating the need to keep stock.

“If there’s enough demand from members for specific items, we can add these into the collection.

This means we’ll keep up with trends and fashions.”

The New Zealand-produced merchandise is eclectic – it includes t-shirts, jackets, polo shirts, caps, cufflinks, ties, even olive oil.

The new goods come on the back of a limitededition collection released this year by Auckland RSA patron Dame Trelise Cooper. Marketed through RSAs and now close to being sold out, this collection featured the RSA red poppy on specially designed

products that included umbrellas, scarves, t-shirts, wristbands and iphone cases.

Funds raised from the new ventures will support the RSA’s work with servicemen, servicewomen and their families, says Moger. Local RSAs can use the merchandise to raise funds, and it will also help fund the national office.

“It’s my hope the initiatives we’re launching, such as the merchandise range, will become the main source of revenue for the RSA national office,” he says. “I see a future where we will be able to reduce the level of funding the national office receives from RSAs.” The new merchandise range was trialled at the V8 Supercars event over Anzac weekend as well as at a number of RSAs. Feedback and sales have been encouraging, says Moger.

Anyone can buy items through local RSAs, and an on-line purchasing option is in the pipeline.

Below: RSA chief executive David Moger (left), business development manager Grant Marris (second from left) and volunteer Jane Grant talk beer with Tim and Keith (right), the RSA’s partners at Craft Beer Online.

RSA members are offered on-line specials, discounts and deals across a wide range of specialty beers.

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RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

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Storm plays havoc with poppy promo

Cheers as Forces ale goes ‘down an absolute treat’ Beer and the armed forces have been synonymous for decades. A cold one has traditionally been a good way to wind down with mates after a hard day. So it makes sense that the RSA has launched its own beer brand, Forces Ale. Specifically brewed for the RSA by Independent Liquor, Forces Ale was launched at the Papakura RSA after the Anzac Day ceremony there.

Papakura RSA secretary-manager Tom Sainsbury says the ale was so enthusiastically received that seven kegs of the beer sold by lunchtime.

“We’re now on our 40th keg, it’s our No.2 seller.

It has a taste between Lion Red and Speights.”

But it’s not all about taste. RSA chief executive David Moger says the beer is also a smart way for RSAs to capitalise on one of their biggest

sellers and increase their profit margins.

“For every handle of Forces Ale sold, Independent Liquor gives a rebate to the local RSA in which it was sold. It’s going down an absolute treat. Both members and visitors are loving the taste.”

Forces Ale is now being rolled out in RSAs around the country.

Hometown advantage was key to the Richmond Waimea RSA’s strategy to promote the RSA’s link with the V8 Supercars championship and use it to boost donations for its poppies.

Nelson Bay Motors lent an SV6 Holden Commodore, and the parents of the late Supercar driver, Jason Richards (Nelson was his home town), provided some of his gear.

Richmond Waimea president Terry Richardson had known Jason Richards “since he was a little kid” and says it was important to honour him: “We don’t forget people who are gone.”

However, the arrival of a massive storm on sale day thwarted the poppy strategy, and Richmond Waimea RSA support adviser Robin Godbaz says it was impossible to assess the effect of the promotion.

Donations were around the same level as last year, which suggests that, given the conditions, it may have helped. But, he says, there was no doubt that having the car in the foyer at Club Waimea (where the 180-strong Richmond Waimea RSA is based) during the week attracted a lot of interest from the public.

PHOTO: Richmond-Waimea support advisor Robin Godbaz (left), Dave Richards, RichmondWaimea president Terry Richardson and Pauline Richards with photographs of the Richards’ late son, V8 Supercar driver Jason Richards.

Photo: Martin de Ruyter, Fairfax NZ.

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RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

National

‘we can assist by being patient and moderate’ Don McIver, RSA national president

By the time this issue of the RSA Review is published, I expect the Veterans Support Act will have been passed by Parliament and will be law. It has been a long and sometimes frustrating journey starting, as it did, with an agreement in the 2006 Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Government, the Ex-Vietnam Services Association and the RNZRSA, then progressing through an extensive Law Commission report published in 2010 to the long process of drafting the bill and its consideration in the House.

As you may know, the Government accepted 132 of 170 recommendations made by the Law Commission, and the RSA made a further submission to the Select Committee, though we were largely unsuccessful in promoting further change to the draft bill.

One exception was the amendment providing

that all veterans (with qualifying overseas operational service) may apply for the Veterans Pension and, with it, a Community Services Card.

They will also be exempted from the abatement of pension for extensive public hospital stays.

However, as was previously the case, a lump sum on death will be paid only to veterans with more than 52 % disability (or 70% under the old act).

With the passage of the Act the Government has also signalled its intention to implement Scheme 1 of the Act (applying to pre-1974/pre-ACC veterans) on 1 October 2014 and to implement Scheme 2 for younger veterans one year later on 1 October 2015.

As a result of its passage, the unwieldy 1954 War Pensions Act will be replaced with modern, more user-friendly legislation in which the

language, definitions, systems and procedures have been updated.

Of course, it will take us some time to become familiar with the act’s new provisions, especially as they relate to applications for assistance.

Where we are used to the claims panellists and their method of operation, we will now face a new process based around the Australian developed statements of principle (based, we are told, on robust international medical and scientific evidence), which will be adopted as a basis for testing qualification for assistance.

An undiminished commitment to beneficial evidentiary provisions has been signalled.

We have met Jacki Couchman who has been appointed general manager of Veterans Affairs New Zealand and secretary of war pensions. She acknowledges that VANZ faces a considerable

task in introducing this very substantial new act while keeping service to veterans as seamless as possible.

She has extensive experience in change management within government and is committed to that outcome.

We have had initial discussions on a range of matters and we are mutually committed to developing the necessary training and information packages to ensure our support advisers and our members are well informed and comfortable with the new arrangements.

For our part, while we should not relax in our concern for the proper care and support for veterans and for RSA membership, we can assist by being patient and moderate in our approaches to VANZ staff, new and old, as they work to get systems in place.

DAWN PARADES ‘SEND SHIVERS DOWN YOUR SPINE, BRING TEARS TO YOUR EYES’ David Moger, RSA chief executive

At 4am the alarm on my phone went off, but I was already awake. The importance of the day, all the work that had led up to it, and the weight of the moment had me lying there thinking and reflecting for most of the night.

It was Friday, April 25 – the 99th anniversary of the Anzac landings at Gallipoli and my first Anzac Day as chief executive of the RNZRSA. I was in Auckland as the RSA was the official charity of the V8 Supercars and we had a whole weekend of activities planned for Pukekohe.

I had planned to be at the event, but I had also been asked to do a TV interview immediately after the dawn parade at the Auckland War Memorial, so had changed my plans and was heading to the War Memorial for the dawn parade.

As the RSA chief executive, I am often privileged to be the guest of honour or guest speaker at events, and it is an honour to speak or represent

I saw little actions of consideration and kindness all around me as this massive crowd of individuals became one. the veteran and service community. But this morning, I could just be me. David Moger, an ordinary guy, married with two teenage boys, and a New Zealand citizen who wanted to gather with other Kiwis at the dawn of the day to remember and give thanks for those who have given service and sacrifice for what I enjoy today in our amazing country.

As I jumped into the car and got closer to the War Memorial, it was clear that many others had got up even earlier than me. The roads were

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already lined with parked cars as I followed the marshals’ direction to the parking area on a wet field already filling with cars, and joined the slow procession of people up the hill.

It was strangely peaceful. Dark but warm; quiet voices as families talked amongst themselves.

I wonder if that was what it was like for those soldiers who made those first landings. It was dark, before dawn, when the first wave went in. It was spring in the northern hemisphere, probably quite warm in the Mediterranean area; but it was early and the nights can be very cold.

I suspect the voices were quiet, muted, if indeed there were any at all as they steeled themselves for what lay ahead. Did they actually know?

Surely they must have suspected?

But the view of 99 years ago from today is quite different from the view at the time. I can look back, knowing what happened later. They could only look forward, wondering what might happen later.

As I pondered these things, the crowd thickened around me as we funnelled up the road access to the parade ground and began to take our places. There was a sense of expectation in the air as more and more people gathered and we shuffled together to make more room.

Suddenly I felt a brush against my leg and looked down. It was a little girl, trying to make her way through a forest of legs to get a view of what was about to unfold, so I moved my tree trunks aside to let her through.

As we stood together, I looked around at the

crowd. Old, young, male, female, all shapes and sizes, colours and creeds, all standing shoulder to shoulder, facing towards the parade ground and waiting quietly. For a crowd of this size, there should be more noise, more movement, more interaction, but that was not the case this morning.

It was still dark but lightening up a little. I glanced down and saw a woman slightly behind me to my right moving from side to side, trying to get a view between the shoulders in front of her. I had a clear view, so I leaned down and quietly asked if she would like to step in front of me. She smiled and whispered, “Yes please, thank you”.

It was a time for all to be able to see and as I looked around, I saw little actions of consideration and kindness all around me as this massive crowd of individuals became one. The pipe band started up and the voice of the parade sergeant announced the arrival of the veterans on parade.

For us as New Zealanders, Anzac Day holds such a special place. It impacts on us like no other day. It gathers us like no other day. And it gives us a sense of our own identity like no other day.

At locations around the country, from the major cities to the smallest communities, in the early hours of April 25, the RSA hosts dawn parades that literally send shivers down your spine and bring tears to your eyes.

It is an honour and a privilege to be a part of the organisation that has done that for decades.

To everyone in every RSA who made a contribution to this year’s Anzac Day dawn parades, no matter how big or how small, thank you. Thank you so much.

What you do enables ordinary New Zealanders like me to stand in a crowd and take time to reflect, remember, and be thankful.

We will remember them.

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RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

Your say Flag proposition short of ‘any serious rationale’ Much has been said about the wisdom of changing our national flag, with emotion injected about “fighting and dying for or under the flag”. The only time in history troops fought “for” a flag was when the regiment carried its regimental colours with battle honours embroidered on it, into battle as an identification and rallying point; but the “cause” they died for was still monarch and country.

I served in the forces for 29 years. When I, and countless thousands of others, swore an oath of allegiance to the monarch and country (taking the king’s shilling), the national flag merely identified the country we came from.

A national flag is purely and simply a symbol of national identification for the benefit of the international community.

The public has not had a serious rationale to inspire the need or acceptance for a change to

Don Blake believes New Zealand’s multicultural society requires visual separation from the British Union flag, and he believes his suggestion (left) results from applying some ‘serious rationale’.

our national flag, just a perceived, cynical, prime ministerial whim seen as a mask to pre-election policy expectations. The public requires a valid, rational reason to take the issue seriously.

My rationale is to “improve and reinforce visual identification linking our country and flag as one, with the benefit of improved recognition by the international community”.

Our multicultural society requires a visual separation from the British Union flag, which itself may need change if Scotland separates from the rest of the United Kingdom. Ultimately, this could mean ours has to change as well.

To the international community as a whole, it is very doubtful if the star cluster is understood by name or its hemisphere position; it is meaningless to them and does not resonate as New Zealand.

The silver fern, although a sporting symbol, as a flag has been likened to the “white feather” at a distance, a perception we should not foster or be associated with even in jest, as a national symbol. We are a separate, individual, multicultural sovereign nation, living in a unique situation, and our flag should portray us as such.

So, how should a different flag portray our

RSA still ‘fighting for our flag’ The RSA will continue to offer strong and continuing support for the current New Zealand flag, says RSA national president Don McIver. It’s a position adopted by the RSA National Council in 2005.

He believes that for many RSA members, the present flag symbolises not only 100 years of our national history, but also the sacrifice of our veterans and service personnel.

“The view of the RSA is that there is no reason to change

the flag. More than 30,000 New Zealanders have given their lives under the flag and more than a quarter of a million have served under it in a combat environment. That’s a significant reason why we’d prefer to stay with it.”

The RSA has produced ‘Fighting for our flag’ bumper stickers (example, right) so that members can publicly display their support for the current flag. They have a recommended retail price of $2 each, and can be bought through local RSAs.

place in the world look, without ambiguity in the eyes of the world.

When I arrived here more than four decades ago, my first impression was of a green land isolated in the Pacific Ocean under a blue sky.

This gives us three colours for a flag. As for symbols, one is universally prominent – the kiwi.

In 1898 a postage stamp featured a kiwi. During World War 1 kiwi was carved into the chalk hills in southern England. A dozen overseas institutions and zoos have kiwis on public display, but how many of people would associate our kiwi bird to the current New Zealand flag? We refer to ourselves as Kiwis. Overseas, people know us as Kiwis. Our money is known as the Kiwi dollar. Even our armed services use a kiwi on badges, and our air force has/had a red kiwi in the centre of aircraft roundels. The term, Kiwi, is used in the media time and again.

My mock-up flag is bright, clean, uncomplicated, and makes a clear unambiguous statement.

My interpretation may need the symbolic green island group to be enlarged to emphasise its significance. Any ethnic-specific symbol would be culturally divisive and not supportive of our multicultural make-up.

Don Blake (Hamilton).

8 Opinion/News

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

RSA With a View: Alistair Kerr

time to remember cassino, san michele vets Something different, something a bit more personal. Well, for our club anyway. This year marks the 70th anniversary of two Italian Campaign battles that involved an unusually large number of past (and a remaining few) members of the Te Awamutu Memorial RSA. Over the past 14 years, I have been privileged to have interviewed most of our World War 2 veterans to provide articles for TARSA, our quarterly club newsletter.

The aim is to “educate” our younger members about these veterans’ battlefield experiences so that the next generation can appreciate and learn the principles that underpin our core values and just why we are called a ‘memorial RSA’.

More than 70 articles have been published, and our club is assisting me to collect, collate and publish them as a permanent record.

In preparing this project, I discovered considerable involvement in the battles of Cassino and San Michele.

Many of our Te Awamutu army veterans were members of the 24th Infantry Battalion, which was largely recruited in the South Auckland/ Waikato area. It seems that D Company, which

“Snapshot” memories from and of Te Awamutu Memorial RSA veterans: Alan Ambury: Early in the battle, a mortar bomb exploded in front of him, taking off both his legs. Remarkably, he survived to become a successful farmer and was the oldest, living double amputee of the war. He died only last year at the age of 98.

Bob O’Brien and Gil Cooper: Two of the four who survived when their overloaded jeep

(with nine aboard) was blown up by a landmine.

Norm Harris: He was sheltering with his section in the crypt of the village church, a target for the German guns. They knew it was being demolished above them, but had no way out; they were dug out after the battle.

Allan Swann: An anti-tank PIAT gun operator who, though concussed, managed to disable a Tiger tank which had its gun set to blow the house into pieces.

was heavily involved in both engagements, drew a large number of men from the Te Awamutu district.

The story of the Cassino battle is well known and is very much in the foreground, as the recent commemorations have shown.

One of our members, Colin Murray, was a member of the veterans’ party that visited the battleground. He reports that it was an amazing experience to re-visit so many areas where he had been fighting. Even more impressive was their visit to the Commonwealth and German

war cemeteries, where so many of his friends lay.

Amongst the stories told to me, there was the one in which Colin Murray and Norm Harris were chased down a hill by a German machine-gunner who aimed his Spandau bullets at their heels.

Norm’s quote was apt: “In Cassino, we lived like rats in the rubble of a destroyed town.” There, Lt Bob O’Brien was awarded an immediate Military Cross for his work in getting ammunition and rations to a besieged area.

Two other Cassino veterans, Harry Hopping and Galvan Garmonsway, were able to attend

the memorial service in Wellington. It was attended by a large number of dignitaries both public and military, and Harry felt their ordeal had been very well recognised.

Less well known was the Battle for San Michele, the 70th anniversary of which falls in July. This was just a small hilltop village, but because of its strategic position, it was a serious obstacle for the Allied forces on their way to capture Florence. The Germans also saw it is a vital link and garrisoned it with a crack Panzer unit.

The 24th Bn was there, too, and it was D company, with many Te Awamutu men in it, that captured the village; however, a counter-attack forced them to take some cover in the village, as the German tanks rolled in. Artillery barrages from the German 88mm guns reduced much of the village to rubble and there were stories of house-to-house and hand-to-hand fighting.

I am sure many other clubs are honouring the last survivors of these battles. Perhaps some of them will pass on their battle stories.

Send them to: RSA Review – E-mail to: rsareview@rsa.org.nz; post to: P.O.Box 27-248, Wellington 6141.

‘Important to me’ that Anzac of the Year trophy spends time in Huntly RSA, says winner From page 3 a nice synchronicity that my first principal’s role is here.”

Like his mother, he is a passionate educator who loves working with the “really positive bunch of kids” at the school, both in the classroom and on the sports field, as well as with their parents and the wider school community.

The Anzac of the Year trophy now takes pride

of place in the foyer of the 150-pupil Huntly West Primary School, a daily reminder of the principal’s courage and spirit.

“The award has given me a bit of profile in the educational community and reflected positively on the school, which is something I’m very appreciative of.”

He has also enjoyed the pupils’ excitement about his achievement.

“The kids saw a lot of articles coming out in

the paper and were really proud. It adds to the other good things that are happening every day within the school and the community.”

He and the school’s head boy and head girl were chosen as flag-bearers for the Anzac Day dawn parade at Huntly, which is something he’ll “never forget”.

“My grandfather on my Mum’s side is buried in the RSA section at the Huntly cemetery. It was amazing to march through there with the

parade and hear my grandfather’s name on the roll call.” In term four, Avatea plans to transfer the Anzac of the Year trophy from the school to the Huntly RSA. “My grandfather was a strong RSA man, and when he passed away in the 1960s, the branch was there to support my Nan and help with the cost of his funeral. “ Our family has never forgotten their generosity. It’s very important to me the trophy spends some time there.”

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RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

Families – They Ain’t What They Used To Be Change is pretty much the one constant we can count on as we move through the years – and family life is no exception.

The diversity of 21st century families is in many ways far removed from what would have been the norm 100 or 200 years ago. Yet there is a lot about family life that remains much the same. Yes, structures, technology and daily routines may have moved on and may be radically different. But are our intrinsic family values all that different? Three RSA Review writers take a peek into the lives of a few families in search of the answers.

Karen Phelps In Christchurch it’s not unusual to see Joanne and Samir Yousuf sitting in the local park with their kids and neighbours enjoying a barbecue, game of badminton or a good old-fashioned chinwag.

The couple have three boys – Oliver, 5, Lachlan, 3 and Jordan, 1 ½ – and have enjoyed being part of an active neighbour group for many years. They say it has become almost like an extended family for them.

The group now has its own vegetable garden in the park, tended by members. Neighbours can take produce whenever they like and share it around.

The neighbours own a barbecue that is brought out for get-togethers, which are usually announced on a blackboard on the park gate. There is co-owned outdoor furniture and a tyre on a tree put up by a neighbour as a swing for the kids.

“Everyone in this street has a closeness,” says Samir. “For example, one of our boys had a birthday and he took cake around to the neighbours because he knows them all.”

Samir and Joanne, who met in New Zealand and have also lived and worked in the Middle East, say there are different levels to the neighbour group.

Neil Grant British television produces some truly awful shows for our entertainment. Most are alleged to be comedies. Paradoxically, they also turn out gems like Last of the Summer Wine, One Foot in the Grave and Waiting for God. Those three said a lot about growing old. Last of the Summer Wine had a trio of old jokers living in Yorkshire. They roam around the town and countryside, plotting madcap adventures, and generally driving their wives and neighbours nuts. The sub-plot was that in old age, you can forget about the restrictions that work and raising a family place on you, and do all the things you always wanted to do as long as no-one else gets too hurt.

Victor Meldrew, in One Foot in the Grave, is the archetypal old grump. Determined that he is surrounded by forces of evil, he fights back to make his world a better place. He rails against rudeness, car mechanics, junk mail and his neighbour. Keeping him to some degree sane is his long-suffering wife, Margaret.

In Waiting for God, Tom and Diana are a spirited pair in a retirement home. The restrictions of institutional life are to be combatted, especially if they involve injustice, or enthusiastic cost cutting by the management.

Underlying these stories is a refusal to measure up to society’s expectations about how the elderly should live. So, we have freedom and fun, irascibility, and a determination not to bow down to authority. Sounds like a pretty sound basis for life after 70.

Every now and then, the media get all breathless about some old codger doing something out of character.

Consider the recent song and dance about Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones strutting their stuff in their 70s. There isn’t much moss on those guys. Billy Connelly still roams the world, striding about the stage chatting irreverently about the eccentricities and wonders he sees in

NEIGHBOURS

‘Everyone in this street has a closeness.’

Joanne and Samir Yousuf, with their three boys (from left), Jordan, Oliver and Lachlan.

A core group gets together regularly to play cards, eat dinner or just hang out, and there’s a wider group living within 20 metres of the park,

who come along to the occasional get-together when they feel like it.

A dedicated Facebook page brings

BABY boomers ‘My life is full of the things I want to do.’ his world. He will be 72 this November. He has been operated on for prostate cancer, and has early-onset Parkinson’s disease. But you can’t keep this Big Yin down.

New Zealand’s foremost theologian and thinker, Sir Lloyd Geering, is 96. He has continued to tour the country speaking and challenging people to consider just where they fit in the great scheme of things, always assuming there is such a scheme. He can still hold listeners spellbound at the depth of his thinking and the breadth of his scholarship.

Some might see these as exceptional people rather than exemplars, so consider the lives of three rather more typical New Zealanders, all past the three score and 10.

NOLA MYLES has lived in Dunedin most of her life. She considers her childhood to have been a pretty happy time, especially the six-week spells at Broad Bay on the Otago Peninsula when her mother took her turn to look after a great aunt. Much time was spent in the harbour or roaming freely in the neighbourhood. Because her grandmother had lived with her parents since they were married, it seemed like having three parents. There was discipline to balance the freedom, but that was a spur to developing self discipline.

“My mother bottled fruit and made jam and baked. We had plenty of food. Life was simpler then. People didn’t have a lot and were all in the same boat. We weren’t aware of haves and have-nots. We had a secure home, school and

community. There was more respect for elders and authority. We grew up in the best of times and had our kids in the best of times.”

Becoming an adult, getting married and raising a family presented challenges and joys. Constants were friends also raising their children, church, knitting, sewing and dealing with nappies. She took singing lessons. Lurking underneath was the sense of loss of the wider family when they moved for a time to Invercargill.

Husband Robin was a financial planner, and Nola did the company’s bookwork and secretarial tasks. Working full-time, being a mother to teenagers, and being a homemaker eventually became too much, and she took time away to learn how to take care of herself.

This experience and her father’s death of a heart attack within a few weeks of his retirement prompted them to plan carefully for retirement.

Robin steadily reduced his time at work, his clients were gradually transferred to other staff, and they took regular spells in Central Otago.

Nola trained as a spiritual director.

Retirement has given her a sense of freedom to do things like singing, embroidery and spiritual direction, and leave space in her life to enjoy time with friends, grandchildren, stimulating conversationalists and celebrations.

“My life is full of the things I like to do.”

ALLAN KERR is a former schoolteacher living in Fairlie. Born in Dunedin, he grew up in Alexandra.

“When Dad came back after the war, he was a stranger to me. I had been brought up

in families up to a block away to keep them informed with what’s happening.

Samir says the group has brought together people from disparate backgrounds and ages, giving their kids opportunities for diverse interactions as well as a safer environment to grow up.

“It’s great for our children to recognise people on the street and be able to say ‘Hi’,” he says.

“There has been a lot of sharing over the years.

We’ve always kept bees, so we used to give honey to neighbours. A man two doors down makes mayonnaise and shares it, while others offer fruit from their trees. It gives a real feeling of whanau to the street.

And if I’m mowing the lawn, our kids might be across in the park playing with other local kids. Because you know all the faces in the street, it feels safer.”

Joanne and Samir are set to move back to the Middle East for a few years where Samir will work in a management role in education. They will miss their neighbourhood: “It’s a step forward for us financially, but it will be heartbreaking to leave this neighbourhood,” he says.

by mum and my aunties. I didn’t make much of an impression on him when we were on a picnic and I got in trouble in the river. When I was going down for the third time, Dad raced in to rescue me and took me back on shore. I promptly threw myself back in the river because I wanted Mum to save me.”

Life for a boy in Alexandra was pretty good, nonetheless.

“It was a great time to grow up. We had tremendous freedom. We’d come home from school and go straight down to the river, fishing and eeling. No-one worried about us. Dad had a piercing whistle, and when he whistled, you came home for dinner.

“There was an expectation of reasonable behaviour. We were trusted. In the background was church and its morals, and parents reinforcing them, but not overseeing every moment.”

The availability of jobs made earning pocket money easy. A lad could pick up bottles, do a milk run, work in an orchard to earn enough to buy what seemed important.

“Children were safe – they were out of bounds for everyone else.”

At 12, Allan was put on the railcar to Dunedin, changed to the train to Christchurch, then went on to Seddon to stay with an uncle and aunt.

“This was a great experience. It meant your parents had trust and faith in you. In the fifth form, a friend and I biked to Bluff and went across to Stewart Island to stay. Then we biked back.”

A period of ill health led to his early retirement from teaching in his 50s. Taking up gardening helped his recuperation, and, later, driving a school bus supplemented his superannuation.

Voluntary work is a big part of his life. An accomplished singer and pianist, he has been involved in local musical events for many years, conducts a lodge choir, is on the church council and presbytery, and has had several terms as a community councillor.

“I have grown up in a wonderful age. There To page 14

Families – They Ain’t What They Used To Be 11

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

Karen Phelps When Simone Pearson comes home after a day at the office, the kids are taken care of, the table’s set, dinner’s cooked and all she has to do is sit down with a glass of wine.

Simone and partner Joe Tonner are part of a growing number of families seeing the benefits of swopping traditional gender roles for the good of their family.

Their children – Frances, 7 and Sean, 9 – say they haven’t noticed any change, which was exactly the aim when, about a month or so ago, Simone headed back into the workforce after time out to take on the chief role at home, and Joe scaled back his contract employment-relations consultancy business to step into her shoes.

“It has given our kids stability, which has been a benefit of the situation,” says Simone.

Before becoming a ‘domestic chief executive’, as she termed her time as a mum, she held senior positions in local government.

“I love my children and I enjoyed that time with them. But I had huge energy and wanted to go out into the world and make a difference. I was hungry for that,” she says in describing why she decided to return to full-time work outside the home.

Not that Simone hadn’t been active – as well as her household and childcare duties, she took on voluntary roles in her local community, including starting an active neighbour support group after the Christchurch earthquake and lobbying the Christchurch City Council on local issues of importance.

“I’d been doing all these things as a volunteer and now I get paid for what I do, which has really helped us as a family,” she says.

“That’s helped reduce stress levels as now we have a regular income (as opposed to contracting), so I don’t have to worry as much financially.”

She admits that going back to work in her new role as executive assistant to a chief executive officer in an information-technology firm is easier than being home full-time with the kids, a challenge Joe is now relishing.

Joe says the reaction he has had from family

HOUSEHUSBANDs

‘Our quality of life is really nice’

Joe Tonner and partner Simone Pearson with children Sean and Frances.

and friends has made him realise that gender roles are still strongly defined in New Zealand.

“We’ve always shared the management of the house and I’ve always cooked, hung out washing and looked after the children, although obviously Simone used to do more of that. It has always been a team effort.

“People ask me what it’s like being a house husband. They seem to think it’s not a real job.

That’s how domestic work is still seen. That makes me feel irritated. It diminishes the role. ” He is writing a book on work and how it is viewed in society, and the unpaid work people do that contributes massively to society.

“Society should attach a greater value to people who stay at home and bring up children,” he says.

People often ask him what he does all day –another question that irritates him, because he gets up at 6.30am, makes lunch for the family, including Simone, cooks breakfast, drops the kids off at school, returns home to do housework, and fits in the odd consultancy job before starting to plan for dinner, picking the kids up from school, visiting the supermarket and cooking the evening meal.

“You don’t have a lot of time despite the fact that many people think you do. I do like the flexibility and freedom though,” he says.

There were a few teething problems for the first week as each swopped roles.

“Simone used to try and supervise me, but she’s stopped that now. Although she did tell me off the other day for putting her bra in the washing machine.”

“Sometimes things don’t get washed how I want them to be but we’re working on that,” says Simone. “My female friends complain how they have to do everything around the house and say I’m really lucky. Our quality of life is really nice because of this situation and that’s because of Joe and the strong support I have had going back into the workforce.”

12 Families – They Ain’t What They Used To Be

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

Community dwellers

‘You feel like you own your community’

Fiona Johannessen and husband Glenn Erik with children Phoebe, Olive and Salma.

Karen Phelps When Fiona Johannessen was giving birth to her third child, she was quickly reminded of the benefits of living in an intentional community: “I tend to go into labour and give birth very quickly. We called the neighbour who is a midwife and she ran over in her pyjamas and took care of everything. It was just like in the old days of the village.”

She and husband Glenn Erik live in Earthsong, a co-housing development in west Auckland modelled on socially and environmentally sustainable urban living. Fiona bought a house in Earthsong in 2002 as a single woman.

Sue Russell Having entered the world in 1958, I qualify as middle-aged. In reading snippets and commentary about family life then, I’m struck by just how profoundly the look and feel of ‘family’ has changed.

I was born into the norm for that era, the nuclear working-class family. How the family operated when I was a youngster was influenced and defined by the unspoken but very real social-norms and expectations of that time when servicemen from World War 2 had returned, found family and settled into family life. So much has changed since, and the stresses and challenges of coping with decades of social adjustment have played out on what ‘family’ has evolved into.

The post-war period of baby-boomers extended for a good few years. At its peak the average number of births per woman rose to 4.1 during this fertile time, higher even than the United States or Australia.

The norm was that soon after marrying, young women left paid work to bring up children. Financially they were supported by the Government in part through the Family Benefit, introduced in 1946 which extended nearly 50 years until its abolition in 1991 to be replaced by tax credits. It was common for women to be given housekeeping by the bread-winning man; often women didn’t know or have any control over what else the money was spent on. A family could sustain itself on one income, including paying back a mortgage and saving.

The state supported families towards the goal of home-ownership by offering low-interest housing loans; owning your own home was the aspiration of most.

In the 1960-1970 decade it was still common for women to marry young and to focus on raising children. But, at the same time, the number of children born outside wedlock rose, divorces increased and married women began entering

“I didn’t want to feel isolated in a suburb. I liked the intentional community aspect of living with like-minded people who cared about the environment.”

Soon afterwards her parents bought the unit next door. Although she sometimes wished for more privacy when she was single, now that she has had children – Salma, 5, Phoebe, 3 and Olive, four months – she is clearly seeing the benefits of living in a community and having her parents close by.

“We had a two-bedroom house and, when we had the third child, we needed more space.

My parents offered for us to access the bedroom on the adjoining wall in their home so that we

could turn our home into a three-bedroom.”

The co-housing concept started in Denmark in the early 1970s. Earthsong, built in the mid1990s, has just over 30 houses. It is based on collaborative housing in which residents actively participate in the design and operation of their neighbourhoods.

The physical design of the community encourages both social contact and individual space.

Vehicles are kept at the edge of the site so that children can play safely. Residents have access to common facilities such as gardens, outdoor sitting areas and a common house, the social centre of the neighbourhood. Here residents gather for common meals several times a week.

Middle ages the paid work-force in significant numbers.

The concept that marriage was essential when a child was conceived before the giving and receiving of rings began to lose traction. The data reflects this – percentages of births within seven months of marriage dropped from 47 per cent to 38% in a decade.

Come the 1970s single mums were more likely to raise their children alone, supported by the Domestic Purposes Benefit introduced in 1973.

Home ownership remained a goal for most, with 70% of households owning their own patch.

Significantly, through the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, the birth rate fell dramatically from just over four births per women to two. Marriage rates continued to drop and those who married tended to do so older.

Careers for men and especially women became the priority. I remember my mum taking up paid part-time work when my three siblings and I were in high school. This job offered her an outlet and interests beyond the responsibilities of running a home.

Between 1975 and 1995, births outside marriage rose from 16.5% to 40.7%. Couples and society viewed marriage more as something to factor in to the future in relationship to career and other aspirations.

It became more common for couples to live together for several years before committing to marriage because having children and bringing up a family weren’t bent around the need to marry anymore.

In 1976 the Matrimonial Property Act gave couples dissolving their marriage equal access to the division of property regardless of the financial contributions each had made. It became possible for women, especially, to consider

For a busy mum with three young children this is a blessing, says Johannessen: “We have two common meals a week so that’s two meals I don’t have to cook apart from once a month when I help out to cook for everyone else.”

And being in the community and so close to her parents is great for support.

“Our children can play with the other kids who live here, so I don’t have to set up play dates for them. I can call on neighbours to look after the kids if I need to and my parents often help out taking the kids to kindy or picking them up. It’s also the little things, like if you’re in the middle of cooking a meal and run out of an ingredient you can often just run next door and borrow something.”

So is it a bit hippy and weird living in such a community?

“Most people who live here are fairly conventional. We are just more aware of living simply and in tune with nature.”

Having a mix of generations in the community is also beneficial on many levels, she says.

“Older people with more time might take on more of the gardening duties, understanding that young mums don’t have time for this. So you can help out as you want to depending on what’s happening in your life. I guess it’s like the old village concept.

“It’s really shaping the lives of our children too. They love being able to run across to their grandparents. It’s good that there is a range of ages living here as it gives them more connection with elders in the community. I can draw on the knowledge of the older people living here too.

“If I was a stay-at-home mum in the suburbs, I’d probably get bored. Here I can have adult conversations and it doesn’t feel lonely at all.

You feel connected with your neighbours and wider community. You feel like you own your community and you are a living part of it. It gives everyone a real sense of belonging and never feels empty here.”

‘The concept of retiring has changed’

parenting, career and other goals outside the framework of marriage.

As new relationships were struck, the words ‘blended family’ became a reality with his, her and our kids all living together under the same roof. Coupled with this, acceptance in thinking and attitude, along with legislation giving gay and lesbian people rights in law, stretched the definition of what that word, family, means.

By the early 21st century parents were most likely to be in their late 20s or early 30s, and women’s fertility was highest in the 30 to 40-year age group. For pakeha women the median age in 2008 for their first-born was just over 30, for Maori mothers it was 25 and for Pacifica mothers 27. That same year 51% of live births were to married women, compared to 87% in 1968, and both parents were likely to be in paid work.

The consequence was more older parents of teenage children than a generation or so earlier. The financial responsibility on parents to support these children created the necessity to work longer than the traditional retirement age to create a nest-egg sufficient to retire on.

While the Labour government made the call to increase the eligibility age to receive Universal Superannuation phased in from 1992 to 2002, the link between delayed parenting and delayed retirement cannot be ignored.

My children are now between 20 and 30, and they are the reason I chose to buy a smart phone not so long ago. Because it is their expectation we can keep in touch with one another in this way.

While I remember a very different time growing up at home and being with Mum and Dad, my children, like most born into the digital generations, simply take it for granted that this is how we now connect. In a strange juxtaposition,

our kids have spread themselves around the world , but that world has been made tiny and immediate through our ability to connect.

In the small town I live in, there’s a whole mixed-bag of experiences of parenting. In the street I live in, there are two families with at least three generations living together. One of the grandparents is not much older than me.

In one case, Grandad and Grandma look after their grandchildren while Mum and Dad work.

There are two blended families, some adultonly households, and Mum-Dad-and-children families. A typical street I’m thinking.

There has long been a push toward feathering your own nest and less reliance on the social-welfare system to see you through in your dotage. We’ve been given sufficient notice that the state won’t be able to carry the cost of retiring baby-boomers for long into the future.

For those who have had the means to save and gather the necessary financial resources to see them through their post-work life comfortably, the world is an open door.

Many retirees who have not had the opportunity to travel or to take on new recreational activities while young now find they have the means to try new experiences. The boom in lifestyle-focused retirement villages offering every imaginable comfort and recreational option is a consequence of the demands of the ‘new-age’ old-age.

Even the concept of retiring itself – stopping work completely – has changed. The benefits that come from retaining a connection with work in some form are well documented. Social connection, a sense of responsibility, better health outcomes all flow from remaining active physically and mentally.

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News

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

vets embrace MODERN, home LIFEstyle Karen Phelps Veterans cruising around in a Mercedes minivan, dining on meals prepared by a chef with extensive restaurant experience, outings to Eden Park to watch rugby games. Retiring as a veteran isn’t what it used to be.

The Ranfurly Village Hospital and Veterans’ Home, in Auckland, is keen to prove you can enjoy the best of what modern life has to offer while keeping in touch with tradition.

General manager Helen Martelli says Ranfurly is, by necessity, changing in nature. But many traditions remain, including the raising and lowering of the New Zealand flag on the hospital flagpole and the Anzac Day commemorations, which had a record attendance this year.

The changes have come about because the home’s custodian, the Ranfurly Trust, recognised the facility was rapidly nearing its use-by date after 110 years.

“The historic old building and multiple additions had served their purpose, but the reducing number of veterans and significant deferred maintenance meant it could not compete properly in a modern-age care world,” Martelli says.

She says the trust was faced with the problem of how to save the heritage of the building while metamorphosing it into a modern provider of veterans’ needs.

The trust went into partnership with Retirement Assets Ltd, which operates retirement villages, to develop a new, aged-care facility with priority for veterans, a renovated Ranfurly House, and a retirement village producing income that could be used for the trust’s philanthropic work. The new complex opened late last year The first part of the project entailed construction of a new, 60-bed hospital facility. The remaining portion of the old, aged-care facility, the Bob Reed dementia unit, also received a makeover with an interior repaint and an alternative dining area.

Veterans make up around half of the resident population, says Martelli. “People come here for a variety of reasons – from companionship to maybe just not wanting to mow the lawn any more. The focus is on keeping people as independent and active as they can be for as long as they want to be.

“It’s a totally different aged-care experience because, for example, the rank and serial number of the veterans is on their bedroom doors. There is a real respect here for the military.”

Ranfurly aims to enhance its relationships with local RSAs, which are becoming increasingly involved, she says.

“For example, the Auckland RSA has offered Ranfurly veterans corporate-box tickets to Eden Park and a vehicle for resident trips. The Onehunga RSA puts on a regular lunch at the RSA for Ranfurly veterans, and the Titirangi RSA holds barbecues.

“We have also set up a relationship with

the army, and on a Friday afternoon every few months, the army will put on beer and fish and chips, and eat with the residents. The young soldiers listen to the veterans’ stories and share their own tales. We’re trying to re-engage with the RSA and bring youth in; this is a whole new way of interacting with them. There’s an absolute commonality and respect. It’s lovely to see.”

The establishment of the original Ranfurly Veterans’ Home came about at the suggestion of New Zealand’s governor general of the time, Lord Ranfurly, when the South African War ended in 1902. By this time, New Zealand had an aging veteran population. The first Ranfurly occupants in 1903 included veterans of the Crimean War (1854-1856) and New Zealand Wars (1845-1872).

An important aspect of the recent development has been to recognise and defer to the site’s proud past, says Retirement Assets director Graham Wilkinson. Late last year he and Brig (rtd) Michael Dudman travelled to Bath, England, to take part in a re-dedication ceremony of some significance.

“Lord Ranfurly’s grave had fallen into disrepair and, just as Ranfurly House is receiving a complete makeover and being restored to its former glory, so was Ranfurly’s grave under a project sponsored by Retirement Assets and supported by the Auckland RSA,” says Wilkinson.

He acknowledges the change did encounter

The new look and new image of stage one of the re-development of the Ranfurly Village Hospital and Veterans’ Home in Auckland (above).

Lord Ranfurly’s grave (right), which is being restored with the support of the Auckland RSA.

some negative media attention and, as a result, the Ranfurly Trust commissioned an independent report by aged care expert and doctor, Noeline Whitehead.

“The report confirmed the quality of care given as first-class and six months later, the new facility and its staff are receiving nothing but plaudits.

A recent satisfaction survey revealed that 97% of residents and families rate Ranfurly as good (32%) or excellent (65%),” says Wilkinson.

Development is under way on the first of the 180 retirement apartments that will be built on site; they are scheduled to be completed in October.

Plans are also complete for a new village centre in the ground floor of a renovated Ranfurly House, possibly including a bar, restaurant and lounge, and with a bowling green attached. A nearby building will include a swimming pool and a gym. Ranfurly Trust and the RSA will also have renovated offices upstairs in Ranfurly House.

Baby boomers enjoying the summer wine and doing what they want to do

From page 10

has been the absence of war I might have had to go to. I have fun playing golf, gardening, doing family things and getting away tramping.

“In middle age I got judgmental. Now I think, ‘There but for the grace of God...’ I try not to be too critical of teenagers when I think of what I got away with.

“We have a reasonable standard of living and I’m able to do what I want to do. I think my grandchild will face more pressure to succeed than I had as the gap grows between the rich and the poor. And the influence of drugs is horrifying.”

He writes acerbic letters to the paper expressing his concerns.

QUENTIN CHRISTIE grew up around Wellington, mostly in Titahi Bay and Tawa.

“We had freedom. We could go to the beach

and climb the cliffs. Dad was a lay preacher. He would practise giving his sermons above the cliffs while we rolled around in the long grass.

“It was a great time. There were community activities like bottle drives. Once Dad lit a big bonfire for Guy Fawkes night, and the fire brigade turned up.

“As we got older, we progressed into the bush and built forts. We listened to our crystal sets and surveyed the farmland. If people came to walk in the bush, we sent off forays to watch them.

“I had great schooling and a great time at college. I excelled at woodwork and tech drawing. The woodwork teacher was a Christian. I helped him build his first home. I have furniture at home I made at that time.”

Quentin took up photography at Boys’ Brigade, went to youth group camps, played handball and had a generally good time.

He started work at the Reserve Bank, but it was not long before he left to run a photography

business, then took a photography job at the DSIR soil bureau that lasted for 20 years.

He and his wife bought a house at Paekakariki.

He reckons this was a great place to bring up his children. There were fires and sausage sizzles on the beach, and a fair bit of throwing a little one into a tramping pack and climbing the surrounding hills.

Going into photography for himself coincided with the advent of digital cameras. He built a studio and took on commercial and industrial work as well as weddings. A trip to Nepal produced some award-winning photos.

Reverting to working with wood, he was employed by a large building company, then a smaller one, around Otaki, which is now his home.

He retired from building, but has not stopped working. Making furniture, wood turning, adding a room onto his house are all projects to supplement Scottish country dancing, hiking

in the Tararuas, singing in a choir and church activities. He has just returned from tramping the Routeburn.

“Attitudes have changed,” he says. “Our freedom to do things is restricted by PC laws.

But I have a great time. I like sharing my skills with other people who can’t do things.

“I have a very strong faith. So many young people are well informed, and they are coping in wonderful ways. They are so special. When you see what’s happened in Christchurch – they were incredible.

“They just came out of the woodwork and started things from scratch. It puts things in perspective. We are very, very lucky.”

So, freedom and fun, irascibility, and a determination not to bow down to authority?

Did those funny programmes reflect our older society? These three people would suggest they weren’t far off the mark.

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

15

16 News

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

Remembering

This World War 2 half-track was one of 58 vehicles from the New Zealand Military Collectors’ Club that carried the descendants of the World War 1 NZ Tunneling Company to the Martha open pit mine in Waihi.

Symbolic trip for tunnellers’ families Karen Phelps There were few dry eyes as a group of descendants of the New Zealand Tunnelling Company entered the Martha open pit mine over Easter to symbolically bring their relatives back home.

It was a journey of reflection and remembrance to honour this special group of men who many years ago had travelled from Waihi to World War 1 to use their unique skills in the war effort.

The miners were part of an Engineers Tunnelling Coy that the Imperial government asked New Zealand to raise in 1915. The men formed one of 25 British and seven Dominion tunnelling companies totalling 25,000 men that would serve in France by late 1916.

The Tunnellers were a uniquely New Zealandwide unit. Most were quarrymen, gold miners from Waihi, or labourers from the Railways and Public Works departments.

Tunnellers dug long shafts under the enemy trench system before carving out a bigger cave at the end of the tunnel. Around 3000 pounds of explosives was then packed in the end cave before a miner beat a hasty retreat and detonated it.

The development of underground shelter for attacking troops to the extent carried out at Arras by the New Zealand Tunnelling Company is believed to be unique in military history.

On Easter Saturday a convoy of 58 vehicles from the New Zealand Military Vehicles Collectors’ Club travelled into the mine with 281 people on board, most of them descendants of New Zealand Tunnelling Company miners. Each vehicle (which included a World War 2 half-track, a bren gun carrier and an armoured personnel carrier) carried the name of a tunneller who had

PHOTOS – Left: Raina Wilson with the two knitted dolls she had taken to Arras, in France.

The dolls were also taken to the mine, a gesture Raina says helped bring the spirits of the miners back home. Below: Buss Roycroft (left), 77, came with his children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren to honour his father. ‘The family were all rapt to be part of it and started asking questions about him and the war,” says Buzz.

worked at the Martha or Grand Junction mine almost 100 years ago.

The miners’ prayer and The Ode were recited; the descendants then travelled into the mine and saw first-hand the old workings in the open pit walls where their grandfathers and great uncles had worked. Kit Wilson, Newmont Waihi Gold spokesperson and chairperson of Waihi Heritage Vision, says it symbolically brought the miners home and honoured the contribution they made to the war effort.

The event also generated local interest with the public gathering three-deep by the mine fence as the convoy made its way down the haul road.

Waihi Memorial RSA president John Davies and his wife, Raina, were part of the event. Both have visited Arras in France, and been into the caves where the tunnellers worked.

Raina Davies took two knitted dolls with her to France, and they were with her again on the

Dad’s Army on alert Dad’s Army: Anzac Day 2014, and Northland Districts RSA president Ian McDougall (left) and Wellsford Memorial RSA patron Les Jenkins prepare for the invasion.

trip into the mine, a gesture that she says also helped bring the spirits of the miners back home.

Wilson says one descendant noted that the Battle of Arras began at Easter 1917, 97 years ago: ‘Easter is our Anzac Day, and having Easter and Anzac so close this year and then having the opportunity to make this trip into the mine where Granddad worked makes it really special’.”

Buzz (Barry) Roycroft, 77, and his wife, Patricia, along with their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were there to honour Buzz’s father who was one of the tunnellers.

“He was a bit shell shocked when he came back from the war never told us anything about it,” says Buzz.“This (event) gave us a connection with that part of his past. It was touching and I felt proud of my father and as if I was honouring him. The family were all rapt to be part of it and started asking questions about him and the war.”

The event was organised by a partnership of GO Waihi, Newmont Waihi Gold, Macmahon

Contractors, Waihi Gold Mines Rescue, Waihi Heritage Vision and the NZ Military Vehicle Collectors’ Club. Several mine staff and contractors gave up part of their Easter break to assist in preparing the haul road after a storm earlier in the week or escorting the vehicles on site.

Kit Wilson says the event, which was arranged in just three weeks, marked an important point in honouring the miners, whose story had not been heard until recently.

“Because this unit was not that widely reported on, this day provided a sense of connection for the descendants. They were able to travel into the mine and see the tunnels in the pit walls that their ancestors would have worked in before they went to war. They certainly found it a moving experience and there were quite a few misty eyes. It was also a sense of celebration.

“This unit was not regarded as a combat unit, but these men fought. Descendants are rediscovering their relatives. This was not about a sense of closure; it was about a sense of discovery.”

Remembering

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

Ten-year-old Jonathan Sukkel’s class at Katikati Primary School was remembering the Anzac soldiers around this year’s Anzac Day. His interest in war and the class activities led him to pen this poem.

The men that fell on Anzac Day Bang. My face was warm, spots of blood covered my face.

My friend lent on me. Dead.

I couldn’t hold the rifle properly.

I was scared.

Scared that I was going to die before I touched the sand.

Bullets shook the hearts of us men.

Blood stained the sand.

Bullets sparked the slippery old rocks.

For the last few days they rained

bullet caps on us.

They picked off the odd one or two soldiers.

I missed my friends.

I missed my home.

The trenches were rotten.

It was a coffin trench.

We counted the Turkish we shot down.

It was hard in the trenches.

Hard.

Pilgrimage honours old Boys

17

Anzac Day and WW1 centenary inspire poems Bill Conroy is a retired local-government manager who has had a deep interest in World War 1 for many years. He recently returned to New Zealand after 10 years living and working in the United Kingdom, and is now a freelance writer based in Tauranga. He has made several tours of the battlefields of Belgium and France and visited a number of military cemeteries there. The impact of those visits is reflected in his poetry.

Reflections on the Great War In August 1914 the Great War began the planet plunged into bloody war Carnage and mindless slaughter like the world had never seen before.

Crusty Recruiting Sergeants cried “Come Mothers gladly give up your sons Your King and Country need more fodder to feed the ever hungry guns” From the ends of the earth they answered the Empire’s call taking their turn in the trenches midst the mud and carnage to fall Lachlan and Callum Craig in front of the war memorial at Gallipoli.

Liam Schollum and Joshua Key at the Memorial Wall.

Karen Phelps Schoolboys gather around the grave of a young man. Suddenly, one silently steps forward and lays a wooden cross with a single name carved on it on the grave. The boy has never met this young soldier before, yet he feels as though he knows him; this soldier once attended the same college, is about the same age, and for months now, the current schoolboy has been learning about this soldier’s life leading up to his untimely death at Gallipoli many years ago.

It’s part of a pilgrimage made by Auckland’s Sacred Heart College students to honour the college’s old boys who lost their lives in battle.

Margaret Graham, director of the junior school, says taking the boys on this journey of remembrance was more moving than even she expected.

“We arrived two days after Anzac Day and wreaths from Australia and New Zealand memorials were still there. The reverence and respect the boys showed was incredible.”

She initiated the research and the learning modules attached to it (which are taught at the school) around eight years ago on a day when she was sitting in the school chapel.

“In the chapel is a memorial board of former boys who have died in battles. I’ve seen it many times before, but that day for some reason it just hit me ... their youth and sacrifice ... and they were our boys.”

The college’s roll of honour lists 148 old boys killed in active service. She wanted to know more about the soldiers behind those names and began researching the lives of some of them.

The learning modules eventually developed and students sought information over a number of years, researching and contacting the families of soldiers who had died in the wars of last century.

The overseas pilgrimages were a natural progression; often, family members and friends

I think it gave the students a real insight and an understanding of New Zealand at the time when a nation of just over one million people lost its finest and best boys. provided information and asked the boys to look out for their own relatives when they visited the cemeteries, even occasionally requesting a poppy or some other memento be laid.

The first trip was to Passchendaele in 2010; in 2012 students journeyed to Monte Cassino and Phaleron, near Athens; this year 27 students headed to Gallipoli.

Each student on the pilgrimage ‘adopted’ a soldier and made it his duty to learn about his life. The school’s technology department fashioned wooden crosses, and the boys carried the cross, a poppy, a New Zealand flag and the story of the young soldier with them.

“It is a very poignant experience to visit Gallipoli,” says Graham. “The cemeteries are covered in crosses. I knew the young soldiers didn’t have a show as soon as I saw the beach at Gallipoli.

It was said the young men were literally walking on a carpet of bodies as they got off the barges.”

There was also a personal connection for her – a great uncle, Tpr Daniel O’Connor, lost his life at Chunuk Bair and his name is listed on the memorial there. He was killed in action on August 9, 1915 – less than a year after leaving New Zealand - at the age of 27. He grew up in Gleniti, in Timaru, and was part of the South Canterbury Territorials’ mounted division.

Marget Graham brought along his medals, and they were laid symbolically on the grave of each

Mose Ioka (left) and Laumea Ualese share a time of contemplation in a Gallipoli cemetery..

soldier in a gesture of respect, as they were the same medals each of the young soldiers who lost their lives would have received.

Also on the Chunuk Bair memorial is the name of another Sacred Heart old boy, Cpl Philip Manu Blake. He was born in Hastings, one of five sons, and went to both Sacred Heart College, Auckland and St Patrick’s College, Wellington. He excelled at rugby and was selected to tour Australia in 1913 with the New Zealand Maori team. He joined the Wellington Infantry Battalion and arrived in Gallipoli on April 25, 1915 and was with the Wellington Rifle Brigade when it captured Chunuk Bair. He lost his life on August 8, aged 22. The day before he died, he carried a wounded soldier (a Napier boy) to safety down the slopes of Chunuk Bair.

Two senior students from Sacred Heart College and one from St Patrick’s College Wellington laid a cross and a poppy at the Chunuk Bair Memorial in his honour.

The pilgrimage took in the New Zealand War Memorial at Chunuk Bair, the Embarkation Pier Cemetery, the Twelve Tree Copse Cemetery and Plugge’s Plateau, plus other cemeteries. The students performed the college haka, prayed, and sang the Gallipoli hymn.

“You could see sometimes that the boys were close to tears,” says Graham. “They share the same faith, school, interests and family backgrounds. Many of the students commented on how young the soldiers were – about their own age.

“I think it gave them real insight and an understanding of New Zealand at that time when a nation of just over one million people lost its finest and best boys. It also gave them an appreciation of sacrifice and an admiration for the New Zealand Defence Force which, to this day, continues to defend and protect our country. On the plane back home, one student said to me that he didn’t think you could ever feel the same about life again after going to a place like Gallipoli.”

The school has made a self-funded documentary about the journey and is negotiating for it to be screened on Maori TV.

Passing out of the sight of men doing their duty ‘twas proudly said the words brought little comfort to the legions of the dead A land fit for heroes That was the words they said But it’s hard to be a hero when you are blinded crippled or dead The war to end all wars that’s what the people were told But the next war was on them before dead from the last were cold The river of tears are dried now from loved ones left to weep The flower of youth lies buried in countless rows to sleep It was not only the cream of nations sadly sacrificed in that crazy war but the talents of unborn offspring that future generations never saw What was the point of it all Why so many to pay the price?

Laying down their precious lives To make the supreme sacrifice It matters not what the causes were what nation or monarch to blame The carnage stands as stark testimony to the politician’s lasting shame It is time now to sombrely reflect on the sacrifices so many people made The countless lives lost or destroyed to the guns’ relentless cannonade We must not again allow nations to be drawn into a world war To sacrifice young generations in the way that they did before Never again should we quietly suffer the anguish and pain that they saw In the mindless bloody conflict that men called the Great War One hundred years have gone by Since the guns began to roar So quietly weep for those who sleep Victims of the Great War

Copyright © Bill Conroy, 2014

18 Remembering

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

Soldiers like to be on side with God, says former chaplain Peter Owens The role of chaplain in the armed forces is as important as ever, says Bernard Cox, who spent 15 years in military chaplaincy roles.

He believes soldiers like to be on side with God when they go into action and indeed, at most other times. While, he does not see the chaplain as a welfare officer, he does concede that often, the padre is the only person service people and their families can turn to in a crisis.

Bernard Cox – now retired, living in Mataura, Southland and just turned 80 – joined the New Zealand Armed Services as a chaplain class IV and was posted to Burnham Military Camp, near Christchurch, on February 1, 1975.

In addition to his military chaplaincy duties, he was closely associated in the setting-up and management of a club for young people at Burnham Camp. The club was strongly supported by army administration and young people.

After serving at Burnham until November 1981, Bernard Cox was posted to Singapore for two years and promoted to chaplain class III. Next he went to Trentham Camp, in the Hutt Valley, where he was promoted to chaplain class II. This made him the principal chaplain to the New Zealand Army and responsible directly to the chief of the general staff. It also meant he became responsible for the care and training of all New Zealand Army chaplains.

He brought his army experience and knowledge of the outdoors to help prepare chaplains for their highly specialised roles, including being able to care for themselves with forces in the field In 1988 he was sent to the United Kingdom on a five-month “Long Look” exchange with chaplains from the British forces. He retired from the army on April 20, 1990 when he reached the age limit.

Although he had ancestors who fought in the British Army at Waterloo and in the Indian Mutiny and he did Compulsory Military Training

in the Royal New Zealand Navy, Bernard Cox did not contemplate a career in the armed services.

However, while studying engineering at the then Canterbury College (now the University of Canterbury) in 1954, he felt a call to train for the ministry.

After study in Sydney, he was ordained a deacon on December 21, 1956 in Nelson Cathedral and appointed curate to that parish. Several years later he was ordained to the priesthood at the Bishopdale Chapel in Nelson.

In 1959, he married Joy in Nelson Cathedral and served in parishes of the Nelson diocese. In June 1968 when he, his wife and family moved to Auckland, he became very interested in the treatment of alcohol and drug abuse, and was heavily involved as a counsellor from 1970-74.

While no longer serving as an Anglican priest he remains active in a wide Christian fellowship and takes services when required. He is also active in the local garden club and is involved in alcohol and drug-abuse treatment.

Bernard Cox...former principal military chaplain

HECK gets handy hand and plays his cards right There’s a lot to remember by the time you’ve lived to a hundred, but Hector Clare will never forget when he joined the army to fight in World War 2.

Apart from 12 months on an orchard at Stoke, near Nelson, he had been working on the family farm at Moa Creek, in the Ida valley between Ranfurly and Omakau, Central Otago since leaving school in 1930.

He was one of the first in his district to go to Dunedin to volunteer. After a medical on September 6, 1939, he went into Burnham Camp with the first intake in early October.

“I volunteered on the third day when it was obvious it would carry on. I went down to Dunedin for the examination…on the train.

“They gave me a good examination. They went right over me, fiddled around. They fondled you to make sure you had two balls – they did!

They made sure of that. Everything had to be right. They gave me a dental examination, and I passed that, because I’d had all my teeth filled.

My own teeth. A lot failed the dental. They had their own teeth, but needing attention. And the army didn’t want to wait.”

He took camp in his stride, but recalls that some men found it a shock. It depended largely on their age, background, personality and adaptability, and whether they had had military experience.

“It was odd. I had boarded for three years with people in Alexandra. So I was used to being away from home. And I’d worked away from home at Stoke. When I went into camp, it was nothing.

I was 25 and half. I wasn’t young. I’d been as far as Kumeu, north of Auckland, and I’d been all around the South Island. It was nothing.

“But I’ll tell you what I wasn’t keen on. At home on the farm, we always had breakfast before we started work. In the army they got you out of bed about six o’clock, which was nothing, because I used to get up at half-past four or five – you ‘slept in ’til six o’clock. As soon as you got up, before you did anything, you put your trousers on and out on the parade ground, and they had you running up and down for a quarter of an hour or 20 minutes PT (physical training). That didn’t impress me at all. I thought it was entirely unnecessary. I always had breakfast before I did anything (before the army)…”

After his final leave just before Christmas, he sailed with the First (1st) Echelon aboard the Duneera after a farewell parade in Christchurch.

“We marched in companies – 20th Battalion companies. We marched around Lancaster Park…

He found the German guards and workers quite easy to get along with: ‘Having a rural outback upbringing, I understood their attitude, and that helped.’

Cards has been a passion for Hector Clare ever since he was at primary school in the 1920s, Photo: Lynda van Kempen.

we formed up outside the Christchurch Railway Station, which was right in Christchurch at that time, before we got on the train to go to Lyttleton through the tunnel. We left Lyttleton on two ships – a Polish ship, the Sobieski, crewed by Poles, and a troopship that had been in the India service between England and India, taking out the regular troops that garrisoned India at that time. That was the one I was one, the Dunera, crewed by Laskas – Indians from Calcutta.

“The Sobieski was the luxury one. We were definitely a troop ship. We slept on a form (bench). About eight a side (on two sides – total 16). We ate on it. And at night, we went down to the hold, got our hammocks, slung them up, head and tail, above the form where we ate. The whole 16 of us, two at the end, were detailed

We had to wait for the German troops to come into the village unmolested as conditions of the surrender demanded there was no resistance.

Grown men cried at the disaster inflicted on us.

the whole way to go down below and pick up the dixies from the cookhouse, two of us and we’d serve them out. After that, we had to take the dixies down, and, well, clean them. When I walked in, I happened to be on the two at the end. The whole way over, I had to get the dixies, but I had no (deck) drill at all for the five weeks on the boat. After we’d scrubbed the dixies at the end of the meal, we were free.”

In Egypt Heck Clare was assigned to No. 3 (Mortar) Platoon of HQ Company of the 20th Battalion. He was at the tail-end of the retreat to Sfakia on Crete and was very unlucky not to get off in the evacuation. Assigned the task of transporting mortars to a spot near the evacuation point, he eventually found himself in a small party that included the 20th’s commanding officer, Jim Burrows and his entourage. At the last minute, Heck and the battalion runner were ordered to retrieve documents and personal items from Brig Howard Kippenberger’s car, which had been left above the cove.

Just out of sight of the entourage, the runner (a sergeant) ordered Heck to go up alone, an arduous hike up the steep gully. On their way back with the items, they were offered a lift to the beach in the officers’ car, but because Hector

was furious with the sergeant, he declined and walked by himself. The others got off. Hector did not. He got to the nearby village of Komitades and then came “the terrible news” of the island’s surrender to the Germans.

“We had to remove the bolts from our rifles and fling them into the ravine, then stack our useless rifles in a heap and wait for the German troops to come into the village unmolested as conditions of the surrender demanded there was no resistance. Grown men cried at the disaster inflicted on us.”

Four months of starvation followed...first in a bare yard beside the Cretan hospital near Canea, then transport through Athens and Salonika in Greece, and then eight days in a cattle truck on a slow train through Europe to the Polish border.

For the remainder of his four years in captivity, he worked in German industry in Upper Silesia. He was liberated just before the German surrender.

He found the German guards and workers quite easy to get along with: “Having a rural outback upbringing, I understood their attitude, and that helped.”

Born in Oamaru on March 14, 1914, Heck was one of three children (two boys and a girl); his father was a blacksmith, During the Depression (when Heck was four), the family shifted to farm in the Crawford Hills area, near Moa Creek, where his mother came from. The children went to school at Manuherikia, then the district high in Alexandra.

After the war he married Jean Rickman and they brought up three children on their Galloway farm. Jean died 20 years ago. Heck has seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. He retired to Alexandra and lived independently until late last year when he shifted in with his son in Roxburgh.

Cards has been a passion for him since his primary-school days, and he still enjoys a three-hour session of 500s every week at the Alexandra Community Centre. And, having celebrated his century in March, he agrees life has dealt him a good hand.

“I suppose luck’s played a big part, but I’ve managed to play my cards right.”

• Reprinted courtesy of the New Zealand Battle of Crete Association. Story compiled by Special Deirdre Hauschild, and Colin and Pat Henderson .

Remembering 19

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

steam RESTORATION PROJECT UNVEILED A six-year restoration project reached completion at the Paraparaumu dawn service on Anzac Day when the steam locomotive Ab 608 was recommissioned and rededicated.

Ab 608 – built at the Addington Railway workshops, in Christchurch in 1915 – was the first of its type for the New Zealand railways. It twice headed a royal train and in 1925, became the only NZR locomotive to be officially named.

It was given the name, Passchendaele, and a plaque was attached to the engine. The plaque reads: “Passchendaele in memory of those members of the New Zealand Railway who fell in the Great War 1914-1918’’.

Don Staples, the honorary consul for Belgium, unveiled the restored plaque at the Paraparaumu ceremony, and Col Nick Gillard addressed the crowd of descendants of railwaymen and railway enthusiasts.

He gave an account of the Battle of Passchendaele, the huge loss of life and number of wounded sustained by the New Zealand Division. Described it as New Zealand’s blackest day in the Great War, he spoke of the effect it had on New Zealand servicemen and families at the time, and how some families still have strong memories of the loss of family members.

Don Staples, the honorary consul for Belgium, unveils the restored Passchendaele plaque. Photo: Clas Chamberlain

Te Awamutu White Cross Project draws `overwhelming’ response

Mack MacLean with the Royal New Zealand Navy ensign at the Paraparaumu dawn service. Photo: Clas Chamberlain

The Field of Remembrance of white crosses, created in the centre of Te Awamutu for Anzac Day in response to the White Cross Project, has drawn “quite overwhelming” interest from the community, says the Te Awamutu & District Memorial RSA’s Peter Watson. The RSA now plans to put the World War I crosses out for a week in November for the commemoration of Armistice Day. The white crosses on Anzac Lawn – one for each person from the district who was killed or died during World War 1 or 2 – have been erected by the RSA. There is also an “Adopt a Cross” section, for families who now live in the district, but did not do so when their family member was killed.

All up, there were almost 400 crosses, and the RSA already knows that more crosses will be needed for next year.

“It has been an interesting project for the RSA members who have been doing the research on the information and details to put on the crosses,” says Peter Watson. “At times it has been quite challenging, almost daunting, seeing what these men, women and families experienced. At

The Field of Remembrance of white crosses on Anzac Lawn, Te Awamutu.

times, this distracted us. We found one family that lost six members, which must have been very hard to accept.

“It has been very rewarding all the same.

Not a day goes past without groups of people walking through the crosses and reading the names on them. Some are finding connections with their family or a friend of the family, and some have added a photo and or flowers to that cross.”

The most common response from people has been: “They were so young and had not lived life.”

He says enquiries about Adopt a Cross came in consistently: “Even on the day we were

removing the crosses from Anzac Lawn after they had been up for a month, a woman approached us to find out how she could go about adopting a cross. Her father had died recently, and she wanted to honour him in some way. She could see the relevance of it all a lot better now”.

The project has been made easier with the support of the sponsors, Bunning’s, Mega Mitre 10, Timmo’s ITM Building Centre and Stewart & Cavalier Engineering (All of Te Awamutu) for supplying materials to make the Crosses, and to the Department of Corrections, Offender Employment work parties at Springhill prison (Refurbishment Yard) who assembled and painted the crosses.

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RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

NZ VICTORIA CROSS WINNERS • Maj Charles Heaphy, Auckland Rifle Volunteers, NZ Militia: Action: 11 February 1864 (Waikato, New Zealand). Award: 8 February 1867 Recommended for VC after rescuing a soldier under fire at Waiari, near Te Awamutu, in 1864; awarded the decoration in 1867. Only VC awarded to a member of New Zealand’s colonial forces, who were supposed to be ineligible for it.

• Farrier Sgt-Maj William Hardham, 4th NZ Contingent: Action: 28 January 1901 (near Naauwpoort, South Africa) Award: 4 October 1901 A Wellington blacksmith and the first New Zealandborn VC recipient. After his unit was ambushed, he rode back to pick up a wounded soldier, helping him to safety under heavy fire. Only VC won by a New Zealander during the South African War. • Corporal Cyril Bassett, NZ Divisional Signals, 1NZEF: Action: 7 August 1915 (Gallipoli, Turkey) Award: 15 October 1915 First New Zealand serviceman to win a VC during World War 1. Distinguished conduct during the August 1915 offensive at Gallipoli. During the ferocious battle for Chunuk Bair, he and a handful of companions laid and repaired a telephone wire to the front line in full daylight and under heavy fire. Only VC awarded to a 1NZEF soldier during the Gallipoli campaign.

He captured a German machine-gun post before stalking a second position and destroying it with hand grenades. While his men were carrying back the captured guns, Andrew and another soldier rushed another machine-gun position in a trench, , throwing grenades and clearing it before returning to their company.

• Pte Henry Nicholas, 1st Battalion, Canterbury Infantry Regiment, 1NZEF: Action: 3 December 1917 (Polderhoek, Belgium). Award: 11 January 1918 A carpenter from Christchurch, he had already won a Military Medal for bravery. During the advance on Polderhoek Chateau, he singlehandedly attacked a German strongpoint with hand grenades and a bayonet, and overcame the enemy garrison, killing 12 Germans and capturing four.

• Lt Cdr William Edward Sanders, Royal Navy: Action: 14 August, 1917 Atlantic Ocean. (posthumous).

Commanded a ship which sunk a German U-boat.

Later killed, with all crew, when ship was sunk by another u-boat off the south of Ireland.

• Sgt Richard Travis, 2nd Battalion, Otago Infantry Regiment, 1NZEF: Action: 24 July 1918 (Rossignol Wood, France). Award: 27 September 1918 (posthumous)

1NZEF’s first VC-winner on the Western Front.

On the opening day of New Zealand’s Somme campaign. Charged and captured key enemy machine-gun positions, helping New Zealand forces push through German lines. Killed two weeks later during attack on the Somme front.

Opotiki-born and renowned for daring exploits as a scout and sniper on the Western Front. Arrived in France in April 1916, and night-time patrols between the New Zealand and German trenches.

A deadly marksman, he became known as ‘The King of No Man’s Land’. Won VC during the 2nd Otago Battalion’s attack at Rossignol Wood when he destroyed an impassable wire obstacle, captured two enemy machine guns and singlehandedly fought off an enemy attempt to retake them. The following day he was killed by shellfire.

• LCpl Samuel Frickleton, 3rd Battalion, 3rd NZ (Rifle) Brigade, 1NZEF Action: 7 June 1917 (Messines, Belgium). Award: 2 August 1917

• Sgt Samuel Forsyth, NZ Engineers, attached to 2nd Battalion, Auckland Infantry Regiment, 1NZEF: Action: 24 August 1918 (Grévillers, France). Award: 22 October 1918 (posthumous)

A Scottish-born miner Samuel Frickleton who won his VC during the attack on Messines in Belgium. With his battalion pinned down on the outskirts of the village by heavy machine-gun fire, the wounded soldier rushed forward and singlehandedly destroyed two machine-gun posts with hand grenades. He then led his men through the village, clearing out Germans lodged in the ruins..

The Wellingtonian had been serving with the New Zealand Engineers but was attached to the 2nd Battalion, Auckland Regiment when it attacked Grévillers. As the company advanced towards the town it came under heavy machine-gun fire.

Despite being wounded, Forsyth reached a nearby British tank and directed its fire against several machine-gun posts. When the tank was disabled, he rallied his men and continued the attack, forcing the enemy to withdraw. At that moment he was killed by a sniper. Awarded a posthumous VC.

• Sgt Donald Brown, 2nd Battalion, Otago Infantry Regiment, 1NZEF: Action: 15 September 1916 (near Flers, France). Award: 14 June 1917 (posthumous)

• Cpl Leslie Andrew, 2nd Battalion, Wellington Infantry Regiment, 1NZEF Action: 31 July 1917 (La Basseville, Belgium). Award: 6 September 1917 Lied about his age to serve in World War 1. The 20-year-old led a section of men during an attack on the village of La Basseville, near Messines.

• Sgt Reginald Judson, 1st Battalion, Auckland Infantry Regiment, 1NZEF: Action: 26 August

Hastings VC memor The Hastings RSA has upstaged New Zealand’s museum world with its new Victoria Cross collection.

“This is the unique collection in New Zealand,” says the RSA’s support adviser, John Stables.

“Not even the Queen Elizabeth II National Army Museum in Waiouru would have this collection.”

The Victoria Cross Room was officially opened after the dawn service on Anzac Day. Inside hang 23 photos, citations and miniature medal sets – one for each of New Zealand’s Victoria Cross winners, from Maj Charles Heaphy in February 1867 to LCpl Willie Apiata in July 2007.

“We have worked on this for seven years and it has finally come to fruition,” says Stables.”

It is a remarkable collection and I think some visitors will find it quite emotional.”

It all began when two members of Sgt Keith Elliott’s family asked the Hastings RSA about getting copies made of his VC and his other medals that are on display at the QEII Army Memorial Museum in Waiouru. Elliott was born in southern Hawke’s Bay and later lived in Hastings.

Stables agreed that he could arrange this through Tony Prowse, a medallic expert in the Kapiti area, and suggested to Hastings RSA chief executive officer Neil Murphy that the RSA get three sets and keep one.

Murphy responded: “Why don’t we do them all?”

Stables had a photo of Elliott in his office, 1918 (near Bapaume, France). Award: 30 October 1918 One of New Zealand’s most decorated soldiers of World War 1. The Northland-born, Auckland-based boilermaker won three gallantry awards within a month in 1918 - Distinguished Conduct Medal, Military Medal and then the VC for his leadership of a bombing party in an attack on German positions near Bapaume. While working his way along an enemy trench-line he ran into a dozen German soldiers and ordered them to surrender. When they fired on him he threw a hand grenade amongst them. Two Germans were killed and the others retreated, leaving two machine guns behind.

• Pte James Crichton, 2nd Battalion, Auckland Infantry Regiment, 1NZEF: Action: 30 September 1918 (Crèvecoeur, France). Award: 15 November 1918 Irishman who served with the Cameron Highlanders during the South African War before moving to New Zealand. Served as a baker on the Western Front until May 1918 when he transferred to the 2nd Battalion, Auckland Regiment. Won VC crossing the Scheldt River

‘Larger than Cyclone Tracy’ Five Howard brothers were Waiareka warriors during World War 2. Kevin, now 92 and living with his 88-year-old wife in Oamaru, served in the army in Egypt, Italy and Japan.

One of his four older brothers (all deceased) was also in the army and the other three were in the air force. Fred was in the air force in the Guadalcanal Islands (South/West Pacific); Norman was in the army in the Middle East; Arthur was a Lancaster bomber gunner) in the RAF in Europe; Sylvester was in the air force in New Zealand.

The Waiareka Warriors, the story of the military service and sacrifice of the men and women of the Waiareka Valley (near Oamaru), was published three years ago by a local farmer, Lindsay Malcolm.

About 450 people went into armed services from the valley; 76 did not return.

Malcolm wrote the book because he believed the magnitude of the wartime disaster felt within the rural area had been eroded. In terms of loss of life, it was a larger catastrophe than the Wahine disaster or Cyclone Tracy.

Left: Four Rowland brothers from Enfield in uniform (from left): Alf, Jim, Ivan and Colin.

Right: Kevin Howard drives a bren-gun carrier at the head of a parade in Armoires in August/September 1946. Les Drake is standing in the front beside him, and Jerri Forman is standing behind Kevin.

which offered “a gentle reminder” and the project slowly evolved from there: “It has taken a long time and a lot of research.”

Tony Prowse went through the records and citations of all 23 VC-recipients and sourced near the village of Crèvecoeur. Having rushed across an old stone bridge into the outskirts of the village, his platoon found themselves cut off and under heavy fire. Although wounded in the foot, he volunteered to take a message back to headquarters, swimming across the river and crossing open ground to do so.

On rejoining his platoon, he defused an enemy mine attached to the bridge, before making another dash back to company headquarters to let them know the bridge was safe.

• Sgt Henry John Laurent, 2nd Battalion, 3rd NZ (Rifle) Brigade, 1NZEF: Action: 12 September 1918 (Gouzeaucourt Wood, France). Award: 15 November 1918

Taranaki-raised ‘Harry’ Laurent arrived in France with the 3rd New Zealand (Rifle) Brigade and was wounded on the Somme in 1916. Won VC near Gouzeaucourt Wood when the 12-man fighting patrol he was leading became lost behind enemy lines. In extricating his men, he attacked a German trench system, killing 30 enemy soldiers and capturing 112 prisoners in fierce hand-to-hand fighting. He then led his patrol back to their own lines, managing to keep all the prisoners under control while fighting a rearguard action.

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RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

rial ‘one of a kind’

NZ VICTORIA CROSS WINNERS • Capt Charles Hazlitt Upham, 20th Battalion, 2NZEF: Actions: 22–30 May 1941 (Crete) and 14–15 July 1942 (North Africa). Awards: 14 October 1941 and 26 September 1945.

Probably New Zealand’s most famous soldier, and one of only three people – and the only combat soldier – to win the Victoria Cross twice. Upham earned his first VC in Crete in May 1941, and his bar at Ruweisat Ridge, Egypt in July 1942. After being severely wounded in the latter engagement, he was captured by the Germans. Numerous escape attempts, including an attempt to scale his camp’s barbed-wire fences in broad daylight, led to him being only New Zealand combat officer sent to the infamous Colditz camp in 1944.

• Sgt John Daniel Hinton, 20th Battalion, 2NZEF: Action: 28–29 April 1941 (Kalamata, Greece). Award: 17 October 1941

Hastings RSA support adviser John Stables in the Victoria Cross Room with the framed tribute to VC winner Sgt Keith Elliott. Photo: Duncan Brown (Hawke’s Bay Today).

replicas from several overseas sites of all the medals they received during their service. The RSA presented him with a special certificate of recognition for “a huge job done superbly”.

The project was done piece by piece as finances

allowed and the result did not come cheap – around $8000 in all.

But, as John Stables points out, it is a one-ofa-kind display: “They don’t have anything like this even at the QEII museum.”

• Sgt John Gildroy Grant, 1st Battalion, Wellington Infantry Regiment, 1NZEF: Action: 1 September 1918 (near Bancourt, France). Award: 27 .November 1918

thousand feet in the air) and smothered the fire.

Although he was unable to block the leaking petrol pipe feeding it, the fire eventually burnt itself out and the badly damaged bomber limped back to base.

Two months later, he was killed when he remained at the controls of his burning aircraft after it was hit by flak over Hamburg.

Hawera builder who joined the 1st Battalion, Wellington Regiment in Egypt just before it was sent to France in April 1916. Received the VC for conduct as the New Zealand Division advanced near Bapaume. When his battalion attacked German machine-gun positions on Bancourt Ridge, he and another soldier rushed the guns, leaping into the machine-gun post in the centre of the defences to destroy it. He then eliminated a nearby position in a similar fashion.

• Sgt James Allen Ward, RNZAF (attached to RAF): Action: 7 July 1941 (over The Netherlands).

Award: 5 August 1941 First New Zealand airman to win the VC. The Whanganui-born schoolteacher joined the RNZAF in July 1940 and left for the United Kingdom to serve with the RAF. Won VC while returning from a raid on the German city of Münster. When his Vickers Wellington bomber was set alight by an enemy fighter, he climbed onto the burning wing (several

• Sgt Alfred Clive Hulme, 23rd Battalion, 2NZEF: Action: 20–28 May 1941 (Crete) Award: 14 October 1941 Won VC for series of heroic acts on Crete. Dunedinborn sergeant with 23rd Battalion, he led a series of counter-attacks against German paratroops around Maleme airfield. Four days later he was prominent in the New Zealand counter-attack at Galatas, clearing a dangerous German position with hand grenades. After hearing that his younger brother had been killed, he began hunting down German snipers. On occasions he disguised himself as a German to get close to his targets. Ruthlessly efficient and believed to have killed more than 30 snipers. Also killed the crew of a heavy mortar that was threatening the withdrawal before being seriously wounded.

The day the Vietnam protest got a re-boot The lemon squeezer article in our summer issue inspired Brian Edmonds 210759 – a former sergeant in the Royal New Zealand Artillery and now living in Cairns, Australia – to send us a 1972 photo of him as a Regular Force NCO playing with The Northern Military Districts Army Band. The band was wearing lemon squeezers of course.

He had been a Territorial Force member of the band before joining the Regular Force to do a tour on the guns in South Vietnam.

He says he continued to play with the band whenever possible during his time in the Regular Force.

The photo shows the moment when protesters interrupted the march up Auckland’s Queen St on the return of 161 Battery and the SAS. Brian says he thinks his left foot may have come into contact with this protester and “sort of drop-kicked him into the arms of the drum major, Tom Gannon”.

Won VC while serving with 20th Battalion in Greece. Amongst a large force of New Zealand and British troops awaiting evacuation from Kalamata when the Germans attacked. A retreat was ordered, but Hinton shouted, ‘To hell with this! Who will come with me?’ and charged two enemy field guns. After eliminating the gun crews with hand grenades, he stormed two houses, bayoneting the Germans inside. Shortly after he was shot in the stomach and taken prisoner.

Escaped twice and made several other attempts.

Was told of his VC while in hospital recovering from a beating after an escape attempt.

• Sgt Keith Elliott, 22nd Battalion, 2NZEF: Action: 15 July 1942 (Ruweisat Ridge, North Africa). Award: 24 September 1942 Wairarapa farmer awarded a VC for his efforts with 22nd Battalion at Ruweisat Ridge. Wounded in the chest while leading his platoon in a successful break-out. Under heavy machine-gun and mortar fire, he led a bayonet charge across 500 metres of open ground, capturing an anti-tank gun, several machine guns, and 50 prisoners. Then single-handedly captured another machine-gun position and another 80 Germans in all, despite suffering further wounds to his thigh and knee.

• Lt Moana-nui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu, 28th (Maori) Battalion, 2NZEF: Action: 26 March 1943 (Tebaga Gap, Tunisia). Award: 4 June 1943 (posthumous award) First Maori soldier to win the VC. A second lieutenant in the 28th (Maori) Battalion’s C Company, he took part in the assault at Tebaga Gap, Tunisia, in March 1943. The objective was a strategically important hill, Point 209, and the first task was to take high ground below the summit.

He led his platoon up one of the lower hills, personally knocking out several machine-gun posts. After capturing the crest, his men repelled

a number of fierce German counter-attacks during the night. Despite wounds to his shoulder and leg, Ngarimu refused to leave his position. He was killed the next morning fighting off another enemy attack. His VC was presented to his parents at a hui at Ruatoria on October 6, 1943.

• FgOff Lloyd Allan Trigg, RNZAF (attached to RAF): Action: 11 August 1943 (over the Atlantic).

Award: 2 November 1943 (posthumous award) Only serviceman to have been awarded the VC on the ‘recommendation’ of an enemy. Salesman from Whangarei who joined the RNZAF in June 1941.Seconded to RAF and posted to Coastal Command, flying anti-submarine patrols from West Africa. During an operational sortie, he sighted U-468 on the surface. Despite being hit repeatedly by anti-aircraft fire, he pressed home his attack and fatally damaged the German submarine with depth charges. His crippled Liberator then crashed into the sea with the loss of all eight crew. German survivors praised Trigg’s courage after they were picked up by an Allied ship. Their evidence was instrumental in him being awarded a posthumous VC. • Sqn-Ldr Leonard Henry Trent, RNZAF (attached to RAF): Action: 3 May 1943 (over The Netherlands). Award: 1 March 1946 Nelson-born, he joined the RNZAF in November 1937 and gained a short-service commission in the RAF. Trent Awarded VC for his actions during a daylight bombing raid on an Amsterdam power station. On the way to the target. Only two of his formation of 11 Ventura bombers (one plane had returned to base with mechanical problems) reached the target area. Despite heavy antiaircraft fire he completed his bombing run. His aircraft was shot down immediately afterwards and the survivors, Trent and his navigator, were taken prisoner. In 1944 he took part in the ‘Great Escape’ from Stalag Luft III, but was recaptured and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp.

• LCpl Bill (Willie) Henry Apiata, NZSAS: Action: circa May–September 2004 (Afghanistan). Award: 2 July 2007 The only recipient of the Victoria Cross for New Zealand. Part of a NZ Special Air Service troop in Afghanistan that was attacked by 20 enemy fighters while camped for the night in a rural area.

When rocket-propelled grenades destroyed one of the troop’s vehicles and immobilised another, he was blown off the bonnet of the vehicle he had been sleeping on, while two other soldiers in or near the vehicle were wounded, one seriously.

After finding cover and assessing the soldier’s injuries, Apiata carried him across 70 metres of exposed ground to reach the troop’s main position. He then helped fight off the attackers.

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Lost Trails erect a monument next year to the BF513 crew in the Belgian village near where the plane was shot down. Contact: Russell Mathieson, russell. mathieson@gmail.com.

Ernest Alexander Wylie (above) 10/3795 NZEF enlisted on August 1, 1915, signed on, on October 19, 1915 at Wanganui, and was discharged on April 25, 1919. In later life, he lived at Te Atatu, Auckland and died on July 10, 1966. His 1965 Auckland RSA membership number was 7135. He was a bugler in 1915 and lost his bugle during the war. It was found at a shop in London, United Kingdom around the time of his death and the finders tracked down his details – the bugle was returned to the family in Auckland in July 1966. An article, titled The Call of the Bugle, appeared in either the Auckland Star or the New Zealand Herald around that time. The family also has his war diary. Russell Murphy, a grandson, is looking for information about Ernest Wylie, and is seeking a copy of the newspaper article, or any information or help. The family has no written records of the events surrounding the return of the bugle. Contact: Russell Murphy: russellmurphy01@optusnet.com.au.

Gerry Wright is collecting names and photographs of naval personnel who were New Zealanders, or served on behalf of New Zealand, and died while serving in the navy or Merchant Navy during World War 1. Contact: gerrywright@xtra.co.nz.

Basil Henry Broadhead was one of the crew who survived when their plane was shot down over The Netherlands in 1943. The pilot was killed and four crew were taken prisoners of war This year The Planehunters organisation found the crash site and excavated the plane’s remains. The son of a former Dutch Resistance member has since contacted Planehunters, saying his father hid a crew member, New Zealander Basil Henry Broadhead, in ‘The Woods’ areas area Basil wrote to this man after the war and now, the man’s son would like to contact Basil or his relatives . Can anyone help?

Contact: Nesta (her uncle, Francis Max McKenzie, the pilot), randnward@inspire.net.nz.

Would anyone travelling along the Italian coast of the Adriatic Sea, near the city of Rimini, be prepared to photograph a headstone in the Cesena War Cemetery at Cesena. Dawn Pugh’s cousin, LCpl Fraser McGirr, 238112, was killed in action on October 19, 1944, aged 23. He is buried at plot 1, row H, grave number 4. Contact: Dawn, dawn. pugh@xtra.co.nz .

Has anyone seen or heard anything about World War 1 postcards and letters written by Pte Charles Rodda (our grandfather) 55796 from the Otago Infantry, NZEF? These previous family letters were stolen last year in Christchurch. They were originally sent to his mother, Mrs C.Hollow, who lived in Humber St, Oamaru; he also exchanged letters with his sister. Contact: Timothy (a grandson of Charles Rodda), tim.t1997@gmail.com.

Family contacts and information sought for P/O James Kennedy Grainger, 42295 RNZAF. He was the navigator in Stirling bomber BF513 piloted by Donald McCaskill, a cousin of the inquirer. He was 21 when he was killed on April 15,1943 when BF513 was shot down over Belgium. His parents, William Kennedy Grainger and Ida Tomasina Grainger, lived at 207 Carlyle St, Napier at the time James was lost. Ida died on September 23, 1964 at the age of 71 (address at this time was 9 Nikau St, Napier) and William on January 15, 1980 at the age of 82 (address at this time was 4/90 Gloucester St, Napier). James Grainger had two sisters, Alison Mary and Brenda Josephine. There are plans to

what happened to the Kiwi soldier. Contact: Dorne, dorneb@activ8.net.au.

Opunake. Contact: Jeremy Carter (Andrew’s great grandson), jeremycarter7@msn.com.

Trevor Webb is trying to trace his father’s brother in New Zealand. William Webb 5720037, born in Portsmouth, England, served as a corporal in the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Contact: Trevor Webb, trevor-webb@talktalk.net

Trevor Webb is trying to trace his father’s brother in New Zealand. William Webb 5720037, born in Portsmouth, England, served as a corporal in the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Contact: Trevor Webb, trevor-webb@talktalk.net

Helen’s grandfather was a sergeant in the Commonwealth RNZAF in 1943 during World War 2. His name was Johnny (John), surname unknown. He died in the war between July 1943 and 1945. She is trying to find out which squadron he belonged to and where he was stationed. Any information would be helpful in solving what has been a family mystery. Contact: Helen, helen. themuppets1968@gmail.com.

Patrick (Paddy) Revington-Jones was killed in the trenches during World War 1. Claire Anderson (a great niece) could not find his name at Gallipoli when she visited, and wonders if she has the wrong information about where he died. Can you help?

Contact: Claire Anderson, andersonc@ihug.co.nz Photos or items of interest sought on Ronald Edmund Brewster 81278, from Mataura, who was a 19Bn trooper/tank driver. His mates called him Ted or Eddie and he fought at Cassino. Contact: Pip (a granddaughter), pip@powerchill.co.nz.

If you were in the 25th Battalion (2nd Mortar division), know something about it, or knew Pte Kenneth Mudford 390791 (left),Val Brannan is keen to hear from and maybe talk with you. She is Kenneth Mudford’s daughter and has made a 40-minute DVD from photographs he took and postcards he collected while overseas from May 14, 1943 to December 20, 1945. He lived in Taikorea, in the Manawatu. She believes she could improve the DVD if she had better knowledge of the sequence of events and where the photos were taken. Many of the photos have no details, but may be identifiable by someone with knowledge of troop movements.

Contact: Val Brannan, v.g.brannan@xtra.co.nz.

Family connections sought for Cpl Norman George Sturzaker 27979 and Sgt Maj Thomas John Joseph O’Riordan 11/1246. Jim Kilgour has three items that belonged to Norman Sturzaker, who died in Napier in 1971. He also has a number of items related to Thomas O’Riordan, whose call-up date appears to have been May 29, 1917. His mother, Mary, lived at Avoca House, in Napier, and he had an association with the Soldiers’ Club Contact: Jim Kilgour, P.O. Box 281054, Maraetai Beach. Auckland 2148; 09 5365922, jbkilgour@hotmail.com.

Can anyone throw any light on Raymond Jensen’s part in World War 2? He is known to have served, but no details on where and when. Contact: Hayley, hayleyj709@gmail.com.

Two World War medals bearing the inscriptions 42842 Pvt A. D. Lamb NZEF and 74790 Pvt W.L. Lamb NZEF – have been in Alan’s family for more than 35 years. However, he has only recently discovered that they are inscribed with non-family names. He is interested in locating the families of the medal recipients. Contact: Alan, adi.export@xtra.co.nz.

Herbert Ainslie Cochrane is on the right of the photograph (above). The photo was taken in Edinburgh in 1918-1919. The name G (or T) Mason, Hauturu, Kawhia is on the back, but because there are also other scribbles, there is no certainty that the man on the left is actually Mason, and no record of a military file under that name has been found.

The photo was taken while the two men were in training at Sling Camp; when the war ended, and they travelled around Britain together before returning home. A nephew of Herbert Cochrane, who is compiling a family history, says that part of his uncle’s life is very sketchy. He would love to know anything about his travelling companion and, if possible, their joint trip. Herbert took some photos and this man appears in at least one of them.

Contact: Donald (Herbert’s nephew), em66nz@ hotmail.com.

Has anyone heard about a New Zealand soldier in the 7th Reinforcements who swapped uniforms with an Australian Army drinking mate in Perth, Australia early in 1943? The Aussie had been drinking with some Kiwis, one of whom did not want to leave. The Aussie, however, wanted to get to the war, but wasn’t even close to leaving.

In what they decided was a good idea at the time, they decided to exchange uniforms and trade places (the uniforms fitted, apart from the boots).

The Aussie headed for New Zealand troop ship, which was due to leave soon, but was spotted walking down the street by his brother, who was an MP. The MP brother grabbed him, took him to the station, and told him to get back to barracks.

The bloke who was the Aussie half of the deal is now 90 and has just started to talk about some of the things he got up to at that time. He knows he has maybe left it too long to follow up, but would dearly love to know what became of the man he changed uniforms with. He did not, or cannot, remember his name - only that he was with the 7th Reinforcements. He’s keen to hear from anyone who has heard this story or knows anything about

Anyone know anything of Flt Sgt Holford, RNZAF? He was injured in 1942; he and other injured servicemen spent time recovering in the home of a nurse, near Watford, in the United Kingdom.

Dave Chiverton has a UK friend who is the nurse’s daughter and has found an autograph book (above) belonging to her mother. It contains this message and a picture of Flt Sgt Holford. Contact: Dave, davechiverton@xtra.co.nz.

Information sought on Whitford Brown, who served in the RNZAF during World War 2. He spent time in Canada training. He was originally from Wanganui and later became mayor of Porirua City. Contact: Steve Brown, srbrown@xtra.co.nz.

This headstone (above) is for a Robbie family member, who served in the South African War. Can anyone help with the location of the grave?

Contact: Alen, a.robbiecongo@gmail.com.

Information sought on the war service on Korea from 1954-57 of Andrew (Anaru) Stewart 213039 NZASC. He died in 1975, aged 57, and is buried in

The photograph (above) is the grave of William Wilson Andrews (Joe Andrews’ great-uncle), who died on January 20, 1918 in Marseilles, France. His records state that his death was accidental while on active service. He was 31 and in the NZ Pioneer Maori Battalion. His contingent left Wellington on the HMZZT73 – Opawa on January 2, 1917. Do other families have photos they could share of relatives who may have been in the same contingent. He is known to have been with many Niueans and Gilbert Islanders. Contact: Joe, jatandrews@bigpond.com.

Do you have photographs, letters, postcards or medals relating to any of the Curry brothers: Pte Albert Bert Curry 31231, 2Bn Wellington Regt, died of wounds at Passchendaele, October 17, 1917; Pte Alfred Walter Curry 52963, MM, 1Bn Otago Regt; Rman Frederick John Curry 52964, 3Bn Rifle Bde; Pte William Charles Curry 56567, 2Bn Wellington Regt. Contact: Paul, hotcurrytnz@hotmail.

Found: photo album, with the name, ‘Bill Lawrence’, in the front. Has photos from World War 2 and captions such as “Hollingbourne church”, “The Clausen brothers slept here”, “6839 PTE.ISC Holmes (Padre) Dean Hurst takes the service (funeral service)”, “SGT Snow Williams first in line” and “Tom De Lisle in crater”. Finder would like to track down any family of Bill Lawrence so that the album can be returned to the owner. Contact: Shirley, shirley@earthlink.org.nz.

Does anyone have any information on the man in the photograph (right)?

He is known to have been on the Western Front in World War 1, to have stayed around Nieppe and Armentières (in France) after Armistice, and to have come back several times. He is believed to have in the 3rd Rifle NZ. Contact: Michael Turbe, turbe.michael@neuf.fr.

Photographs sought of the World War 2 New Zealand Searchlight Battery 2NZEF, and particularly of John Abraham Toovey. Notes appear to describe the battery, which was stationed in Fiji, as “Light AA Battery to 38 Heavy Battery. Contact: Kelly-Maree, kmcoll30@yahoo.co.nz.

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

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THE LAST POST WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

A

ABBOT M 535370 07/12/2013 Waihi Beach ADAMS C DKX141265 WWII RN 01/01/2014 Upper Hutt ADAWAY JC R179775 WWII RN 03/10/2013 Auckland ALLOWAY FB 71499 WWII Sapper 05/01/2014 Featherston ANDERSON GF 435201 WWII 5Fd Regt NZ Army 10/12/2013 Christchurch ANNETTS GI O15869 WWII 14th LAA 46 Bty 4Fd Regt 01/04/2014 Waipukurau B

BAKER HH NZ2922 WWII 02/03/2014 Mt Maunganui BARKER WC 4666 WWII RNZN 13/04/2014 Orewa BENNETT GT 304637 JForce NZ Army 17/02/2014 Whangarei BIGGINS J (IAIN) 22433215 British Army 10/04/2014 Papatoetoe BIRD WD 14530652 WWII 31/03/2014 Tauranga BISH JR 451037 RNZAF 03/09/2013 Auckland BOWMAN GF 291082 WWII 2NZEF IP 13/03/2014 Thames BRANNIGAN KL 229820 WWII 23 Bn 2NZEF 27/03/2014 Southbridge BROADBENT KC 3482 WWII 12/04/2014 Mt Maunganui BROOKS G 445060 WWII 26 Bn 10/03/2014 Blenheim BROUGHAM J 4313829 WWII RNZAF 04/04/2014 Stoke BROWN R 199509 WWII RAF 16/01/2014 Auckland BROWN RS PJX398713 WWII 02/03/2014 Tauranga BRUCE JM 7952252 WWII NZ Army 14/04/2014 Orewa BUCHANAN EG 9496 WWII RNZN 22/03/2014 Matamata BUCK W 3376 RNZAF 10/03/2014 Manukau BULL JA T/10665006 WWII RASC 02/05/2014 Dargaville BURR WL LAC422771 WWII RNZAF 02/05/2014 Matamata BUTLER DW 569266 RNZAF 09/02/2014 Taradale C

CAMERON FA 459818 WWII Middle East 25 Bn 2NZEF 07/03/2014 New Plymouth CARD SL KX602036 25/03/2013 Auckland CARMICHAEL JD NZ4202 WWII RNZN 03/05/2014 Orewa CARROLL N 44047 NZ Army 14/05/2013 Palmerston North CARROLL JW 14361772/4022 WWII British Army/ Palestine 06/03/2014 Otaki CARSON ER 6835 2NZEF 22/02/2014 Oamaru CARTER CP 444344 WWII RNZAF 24/04/2014 Christchurch CARTER GE 660932 06/03/2013 Te Puke CASEY FB 42758 Pacific 3rd Div Sigs 14/03/2014 New Plymouth CLIFFE H 34489 WWII 18 A TPS Coy 05/12/2013 Hamilton COCHRANE B 49216 WWII Fd Arty 3 Div NZ Army 21/04/2014 Kaipara COLLIE JB 429428 WWII RNZAF 11/03/2014 Invercargill COLLINS M 457687 WWII 16th Enlistment 22/10/2013 Hamilton CONNOLLY JAH 317436 NZ Army 03/04/2014 Papatoetoe CORLISS BP Not Known QAMR 04/01/2014 Wanganui COYLE EL 286408 WWII 27/04/2014 Wairoa CRAIG CA 4068119 Malaysia RAF RNZAF 28/10/2013 Auckland CROAWELL C 424559 WWII RNZAF 20/04/2014 Napier CROFT ED 74716 RNZAF 14/10/2013 Manukau CUNNINGHAM EC 420210 WWII 02/04/2014 Oamaru CUSACK JS 8024 WWII 20 Bn NZ Army 29/03/2014 Christchurch D

DAUNT FW 4220400 WWII NZ Army 07/05/2014 Whangarei DAVEY LN 820550 RNZAF 27/12/2013 Christchurch DAVIDSON KW 4311609 WWII RNZAF 14/04/2014 Nelson DAVIDSON JR 622992 12/12/2013 Hunterville DE LEEUW EJ 22-06-08-014 WWII 4 Bn 22/02/2014 Hamilton DEVONPORT F 450913 WWII 26 Bn NZ Army 02/05/2014 Christchurch DIXON DE 28619 WWII 5Fd Park Coy 2NZEF 25/12/2012 Upper Hutt DIXON RB 267720 WWII 8th Reinf 07/02/2014 Katikati DOBSON DK 812892 WWII JForce 30/03/2014 Patea DONOVAN IL 527724 06/04/2014 Manukau DOUGLAS IG 40442 Malaya & Borneo NZ Army 03/05/2014 Renwick E

EAGAR HJ 666448 & 37736 WWII 22 Bn JForce NZ Army RNZAC 26/04/2014 Christchurch EAGLE RW 648772 Japan 2NZEF 24/03/2014 Tauranga EASON S 813258 WWII WAAC 16/12/2013 Hamilton EDGE CA 428360 WWII RNZAF 23/03/2014 Morrinsville ELMES RF 656905 NZ Army 27/03/2014 Taradale ETTRIDGE WB R301039 WWII MN 20/03/2014 Taradale EVANS RW 22033673 NZ Army 17/02/2014 Blenheim F

FAIRHURST HF 9658 WWII RNZN 05/07/2013 Waitara FAIRLEY JD 250680 WWII 2NZEF 2NZBOD 28/03/2014 Dunedin FAZACKERLEY J W1652 WWII WAAF 18/03/2014 Christchurch FIELD HP 4215475 WWII RNZAF 13/03/2014 Waikanae FITCHETT AW 30138 JForce 2NZEF 19/12/2013 Wellington FITZPATRICK (KENNEDY) DAE 822213 WWII WAAC 11th Heavy Reg 13/05/2014 Dunedin FLAY GA 421694 WWII 489 Sqn RNZAF, POW 01/03/2014 Thames FLEMING JS W3486 WWII WAAF 12/02/2014 Whangarei FOOTE WJG 1053/438814 WWII NZ Army RNZAF

08/05/2014 Whangarei FORD KD 4310572 WWII 06/02/2014 Tauranga FRASER A 815992 CMT 02/04/2014 Rangiora FREEMAN B 710029 Territorial Force 04/08/2013 Auckland FULLER DJ DFF140 Police 11/01/2014 Auckland G

GALVIN D 13148 18/04/2014 Auckland GAUNSON CT 14042 WWII 20 Bn NZ Army 03/05/2014 Christchurch GEMMING JP 443925 25/10/2013 Te Puke GILLINGHAM DHE N10221 WWII RNZN 19/03/2014 Marton GILMORE JP 33169 NZ Army 22/02/2014 Darfield GODWIN JL 455179 WWII 27 Bn 23/03/2014 Hastings GRANT RJ 451068 WWII RNZAF 17/03/2014 Howick GRIFFITHS D W/168355 WWII ATS WRAC 30/12/2013 Auckland GROEN M 80891 RNZAF 13/12/2013 Otaki GUNSON CJ 451694 / 441769 NZ Army RNZAF 17/02/2014 Whangarei H

HAKARAIA B 215399 NZ Army 23/11/2013 Otaki HAMMOND A 22644054 Korea King’s Regt 18/04/2014 Ashburton HANCOCK GA 428038 WWII 4Fd Regt 18/10/2013 Te Awamutu HANHAM TL 421371 WWII RNZAF 18/03/2014 Rangiora HARLEN ET QNK88 Malaya & Korea 21/09/2013 Tweed Heads, Australia HAROLD T 70476 WWII Pacific 36 Bn 01/02/2014 Lepperton HARRIS RCO 204007 Korea, NZ Army 29/04/2014 Whangarei HARRIS AE 413755 WWII RNZAF 04/03/2014 Waikanae HART HR 446378 WWII 26 Bn 06/05/2014 Nelson HARTNETT TD 19332 Far East/Pacific RNZN 05/11/2013 Manukau HAYDEN AJ NZ44892 14/08/2013 Papamoa HAZELWOOD R P89805 RNZAF 11/02/2014 Bulls HAZLETT RM 46398 WWII 4th Gen Hosp 13/12/2013 Invercargill HENNESSY WR 71641 Cyprus JForce RNZAF 29/12/2013 Christchurch HENNESSY AA 73586 WAAF 15/02/2014 Christchurch HETHERINGTON P 462349 CMT 09/04/2014 Tirau HEY GPT B77649 Singapore RNZAF 18/04/2014 Blenheim HILLYER WJ 275956 WWII 23 Bn NZ Army 16/04/2014 Christchurch HOCKENHULL FDS 13466 Korea RNZN 05/03/2014 Waihi Beach HOLLIDAY K 1814289 WWII RNZAF 27/03/2014 Blenheim HOLMES DH PJX382987 WWII Rn 08/03/2014 Pukekohe HOSKINS AD W19846 RNZN 20/02/2014 Christchurch HOVENDEN RT 252640 WWII 06/03/2014 Motueka HOYLAND L 71699 RNZAF 26/03/2014 Howick HUGHES WG T465146 Malaya & Vietnam NZ Army 25/02/2014 Whangarei HUNTER PW 630832 02/04/2014 Te Puke HUTCHINSON WD NZ156456 RNZN 01/10/2013 Three Kings J

JACKSON RH 204249 Korea NZ Army 05/02/2014 Pukekohe JARVIE RS K208497 Korea NZ Army 14/03/2014 Howick JARVIS SW 424254 RNZAF 08/05/2014 Dunedin JEFFERY MW 42741 WWII WRNS 20/09/2013 Auckland JENNINGS GM 421832 WWII RNZAF 14 Sqn 07/05/2014 Whangarei JOHNSTON D NZ425906 WWII RNZAF 22/12/2013 Christchurch JONES HEF R278906 MN 10/03/2014 Blenheim K

KEENAN JF 451038 WWII 23rd Bn 28/01/2014 Hokitika KELLAND (JP) ED 621719 01/06/2013 Papamoa KELLY F 442707 04/09/2013 Auckland KELSEY IJ 71616 NZ Army ASC 01/04/2014 Taradale KEMPSON CM 22940816 Royal Sigs 16/02/2014 Waikanae KEOWN HA 970787 CMT 02/04/2014 Oamaru KINGAN WR 50267 WWII RNZE 12/05/2014 Mosgiel KIRK HW 4212878 WWII RNZAF 23/02/2014 Tauranga KNIGHT AH 629449 Airforce Cadet 09/01/2014 Auckland KUYS L 310126180 WWII Netherlands Underground 01/09/2013 Auckland L

LATIMER R 50439 WWII Pacific, NZ Army 06/03/2014 Nelson LAX E 2087945 WWII WAAF ACW2 07/03/2014 Auckland LE GROS TJ 437893 NZ AEWS 22/04/2014 Rotorua LEA CC 78/6748 WWII Home Service 11/01/2014 Featherston LEAMING DL 827261 Japan 2NZEF 21/01/2014 Papakura LEWIN M 74038 14/03/2014 Auckland LEWIS JA 2983338 08/01/2014 Manukau LLOYD SC 2362845 WWII Royal Sigs Corp 61 Div 22/08/2013 Bulls LONG RW A1810 WWII RNVR 10/03/2014 Mapua LOVE MM 714704 07/04/2014 Tauranga LUNDBERG AFJ 514094 WWII 6th Coy NZ Army 04/03/2014 Thames LYNDON GRC E20672 MN 15/02/2014 Papatoetoe LYNNE RJ NZ444041 21/09/2013 Auckland

M

MAGON THJ 922658 CMT 11/04/2014 Mosgiel MAKEY AF 416065 WWII Pacific RNZAF 22/08/2013 Auckland MANSELL G R233179 WWII MN 10/03/2014 Tauranga MARTIN AM 431199 RNZAF 07/12/2013 Manukau MATANGI EA 208518 Korea 163 Bty 20/04/2014 Nelson MATTHEWS MN 441387 WWII 14SU 01/02/2014 Gore MATTSEN N 784635 CMT Army 07/02/2014 Nelson MAUND EL 332904 WWII MN 22/03/2014 Taradale MCCARTHY G 447837 WWII NZ Army Sigs RNZAF 01/04/2014 Christchurch MCCLENNAN TG 43077 WWII 7Fd Engs 17/01/2014 Hamilton MCCONACHY AA 8959 WWII British Navy 16/03/2014 Wanganui MCGARRITY DLB 1558751 WWII RAF 16/02/2014 Papatoetoe MCGLONE VE NZD1130 WWII RNZN 12/03/2014 Auckland MCINTYRE ID 64267 11/12/2013 Thames MCKEOWN EN 438321 WWII NZ Army 21/04/2014 Whangarei MEALE CJ 4214919 WWII RNZAF 09/04/2014 Ruakaka MEEKAN TA 335089 RAF 22/03/2014 Papatoetoe MEREDITH D 629876 WWII RAF 03/03/2014 Kerikeri MIDDLETON DR 348972 CMT 03/04/2014 Thames MILESI WA 815690 28/12/2013 Manukau MILLS RG 257093 WWII 16th ASC 02/04/2014 Wanganui MITCHEL CG NX120010 WWII 35 Infantry Bn AIF 22/03/2014 Kerikeri MONTGOMERY SS 342988 CMT 16/07/2013 Auckland MOORE HC 439935 WWII NZ Army 29/10/2013 Manly MORRICE WWT 424500 WWII RNZAF 17/04/2014 Oamaru MOUNTFORT OB 28451 WWII 2NZEF 08/03/2014 Tauranga SCOTT (LANDER) AM 814851 WWII NZ WAAC 20/04/2014 Hastings MULLALY B 816150 NZ Army CMT 21/01/2014 Christchurch MULLER JJ NZ205233 29 Bty NZ Army 15/12/2013 Auckland MUNDT MP 592436 CMT 17/05/2012 Eltham MUNDT RF 594700 CMT 09/09/2013 New Plymouth MURPHY BN PSX810615 WWII RN/RAEC 02/05/2014 Richmond MURRAY JT X41605 Vietnam SAS 16/02/2014 Hastings N

NEILAN GE 452611 WWII 11th Reinf 28/04/2014 Gore NEWMAN VB 74600 WWII NZ Army 13/02/2014 Christchurch NEWTON MH 970813 Korea 10 Comp RNZASC 01/05/2014 Fortrose NEWTON MA 18141 RNZN 08/03/2014 North Shore NIMOT LA RNZ13164 Korea RNZN 26/02/2014 Auckland NISBETT WW 35096 WWII 2NZ Div Sigs 12/02/2014 Wellington NOLAN TE 383228 WWII Pacific Sapper 11/08/2013 Whataroa NORRISH LO O1611T Middle East 2NZEF 02/05/2014 Blenheim O

O’BRIEN RJ 970644 CMT 27/04/2014 Mosgiel O’CONNOR DM 622359 RNZA CORPS 7th Reinf 09/02/2014 Wanganui O’DEA R 466647 09/02/2014 Te Awamutu OPIE EC 403717 WWII 2NZEF 5 Arty Regt 28/03/2014 Christchurch ORMSBY IH 622220 WWII Div Sigs JForce 14/04/2014 Morrinsville ORRAH R R356608 British MN 19/03/2014 Richmond OSBORNE LWS 46476 WWII 15/03/2014 Mt Maunganui P

PALMER LA 7595462 WWII REME NZ Army 21/11/2013 Auckland PARKER DA 300429 NZ Army 12/04/2014 Orewa PARKINSON MA 13152 RNZN ERA3 29/04/2014 Rotorua PASH AC 427314 WWII RNZAF 27/04/2014 Christchurch PATTERSON WR 448085 WWII 2NZEF 13/02/2014 Oamaru PEARCE RA 329746 28/10/2013 Manukau PEARSON RJ F238722 Malaya & Borneo RNZASC 25/01/2014 Christchurch PEET RF 4311339 WWII RNZAF 21/01/2014 Hamilton PHILLIPS JR 236258 WWII 25Bn 07/12/2013 Waikanae PICKERING HD 80214 WWII NZ Army 04/05/2014 Matamata PINDER P 1410728 WWII RNZAF 12/03/2014 Mangawhai PIZZEY DW 3037549 WWII RAF Royal Army 08/03/2014 Kaipara POWER M R64869 Vietnam Royal Australian Navy 11/02/2004 Ashburton PRATT KJ 66221 WWII NZ Army 29/01/2014 Orewa PREEBLE (LUKIES) JW 820437 WWII NZ Army 20/04/2014 Nelson PROFITT AT 43949 WWII Singapore RNZAF 18/01/2014 Wellington PULLEN KG 631817 WWII 25 Bty 18/04/2014 Hastings Q

QUIGLEY M 23022372 1 Bn Blackwatch 02/05/2014 Oamaru R

RADFORD RP B46323 1RNZIR 27/04/2014 Whangarei RADFORD FW 458375 23/03/2014 Auckland

RAGG CA 435378 WWII 6Fd Regt NZ Army 23/04/2014 Christchurch RALEIGH JD 413613 RNZAF & RAF 08/04/2014 Manukau RAMSAY DP 660611 WWII 03/03/2014 Tauranga RAWLE GB 569524 NZ Army 14/03/2014 Taradale REID RJ NZ402821 WWII 02/03/2014 Tauranga REID J 619191 WWII 24 Bn NZ Army 22/02/2014 Whangarei REPIA W 301277 NZ Army 02/12/2013 Manukau REYNOLDS RB 22782243 British Army RAC Royal Lancers 23/03/2013 Auckland RICHARDS HD 337187 Malaya 2 Bn 17/11/2013 Te Awamutu RICHARDSON SWK 280455 WWII 3rd Div 17/03/2014 Tauranga RICHARDSON JW N61499 WWII NZ Army 28/02/2014 Christchurch RICKLAN CE TERRITORIALS SA 19/12/2013 Auckland RIDGWAY RW NZ451110 WWII RNZAF 02/02/2014 Hastings RITCHIE JP NZ6848 WWII No 3 Gun Crew 26/01/2014 Temuka ROBB FC W1772 WWII WAF 15/12/2013 Auckland ROBINSON LH H380427 RNZAF 21/11/2013 Auckland ROBINSON W 1623231 WWII 99 Sqn 08/11/2013 Matamata RODGERS JE 625159 CMT 09/02/2014 Wanganui ROWE BJ 648346 Japan NZ Army 31/03/2014 Blenheim ROY WT 421758 Ghurka Bde 19/12/2013 Hamilton RUDLAND KSG 453100 NZ Army 23/04/2014 Rotorua RUSK EB 462091 11/12/2013 Te Puke S

SANDERS IB 417325 WWII RNZAF 29/03/2014 Wellington SCALES S 416545 WWII RNZAF 12/05/2014 Mosgiel SCOTT SC W4143 WWII RNZAF 12/10/2013 Auckland SEAL GA 341779 CMT NZ Army 30/03/2014 Tuakau SEWELL E 14764124 WWII RA/FD 15/02/2014 Tauranga SLUITERS G 16787 Dutch Navy 01/10/2013 Titirangi SMITH GE 345104 NZ Army 13/03/2014 Howick SNELL ED 328884 NA CMT 25/02/2014 Hastings SOUTHWELL WJ 4213034 WWII RNZAF 08/08/2012 Auckland STAYT RJ L/FX605999 WWII RN 20/03/2014 Hastings STEEL J 71273 RNZAF 12/03/2014 Blenheim STEPHENSON WA 618336 WWII Coastal Arty Ak 26/07/2013 Auckland STEPHENSON RJ 629116 WWCT Inf Assault 10/03/2014 Wanganui STEVENSON DM 329240 02/12/2013 Te Puke STEWART J 12445 28/04/2014 Hamilton STEWART LE 265487 WWII NZ Army Div Cav 18/03/2014 Christchurch STOCKMAN B 258676 Malaya 20/10/2013 Auckland SUTTON G 4313975 WWII RNZAF 21/02/2014 Hastings T

TANE J 475837 4 Med Regt 13/01/2014 Te Awamutu TAYLOR AE 290465 WWII RNZEME 2NZEF 23/02/2014 Christchurch TAYLOR GE 459197 CMT 26/02/2014 Waihi Beach TEMM AW 403033 WWII RNZAF 26/04/2014 Matamata TERILL IG 045318 WWII Italy 2NZEF 24/04/2014 New Plymouth THOM GL 813664 2NZEF JForce NZ Army 18/03/2014 Thames THOMSON GS 802937 NZ Army 10/03/2014 Rangiora TOBECK WCL 452798 WWII 2NZEF NZE 14/03/2014 Christchurch TOMLINSON R 4079381 RAF 17/02/2014 Howick TRELOAR WH 24338 12/07/2013 Te Puke TROTTER S 465103 09/03/2014 Mt Maunganui TULL BR 822372 CMT 29/04/2014 Rangiora TURNER AA 596141V WWII SA Air Force 10/03/2014 Howick U

UPSTON PE 3354 WWII 4Fd Regt, POW 20/12/2013 Christchurch V

VETTISE JA 19176767 Royal Berkshire Regiment 17/02/2014 Wanganui VICCARS J PJX631702 WWII RN 21/04/2014 Whangarei VOSS WJ 10617 WWII RNZN 29/03/2014 Orewa W

WALKER A 42046 WWII ASC 03/03/2014 Christchurch WALKER MJX R425958 WWII RNZAF 12/03/2014 Christchurch WALLER EJ 99289V WWII RNZAF 11/09/2013 Auckland WARD G NZ14200 WWII RNZN 13/02/2014 Ashburton WATKINS RJ 4078049 RAF 08/03/2014 Howick WATTS RA 3139924 29/05/2013 Tauranga WELCH KD 465249 21/04/2014 Tauranga WHEELER JA WWII Paratroopers 02/03/2014 Whangarei WHITTAKER EW 302691 NZ Army 23/02/2014 Waihi beach WILLIAMS TO 650267 23/10/2013 Te Puke WILLIAMS KJ 459681 28/11/2013 Te Awamutu WILLS AJ 593880 CMT 07/06/2013 Auckland WILTSHIER DB 669988 28/02/2014 Tauranga WOOD WJ 3140280 RAF 23/01/2014 Auckland WOODS AS 9590 WWII RNZN 13/04/2014 Blenheim WOOLLARD HA 923710 WWII RAF 26/03/2014 Hastings Y

YOUNG RG 647706 DVR Army 26/03/2014 Bulls

27

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

Health & Well-Being

Recognise war’s `forgotten victims’ Ian Stuart More than 90 years after his father came back from World War 1 a fragile and troubled man who took his own life, Whangamata man Jack Moore has pleaded for the country to understand what war’s “forgotten victims” endured.

Jack Moore, 89, was only four when his father committed suicide in 1929 and has only vague memories of him. What he has lived with for nine decades is the devastation the war and his father’s premature death caused his mother and the rest of his family.

His father, also Jack Moore, arrived home in 1919, a decorated war hero, but an emotionally fragile and tormented man.

Paeroa-born, he had gone to Australia shortly before the war began and went overseas with the Australian Imperial Forces. He landed at Gallipoli at dawn on April 25, 1915, was badly wounded when shot in the shoulder, and was sent to Malta to recover.

After several months in hospital he was sent back to the war, to the bloody and brutal trenches of the Western Front in France. He survived without being wounded again, but four years of fighting was taking a terrible emotional and mental toll. He returned to his home town of Paeroa on the Hauraki Plains in 1919, married, and had two children.

In 1929, when Jack Moore was 40 and with a third child on the way, World War 1 claimed another victim.

Jack Moore with his granddaughter, Sacha Davey, at Anzac Day at the Waihi RSA. Sacha wears the medals of her great grandfather won in France during World War 1.

The troubled family man left a tortured and heart-rending note and killed himself, unable to cope with the ugly aftermath of the war. “My brain is going,” he scrawled on a scrap of paper.

His death devastated his wife and family.

Young Jack Moore was too young to understand what had happened and why his father was not coming home any more. He did not learn of his father’s suicide for nearly 50 years, until 1978 when a relative told him. But he did understand the anguish the war and his father’s death caused his mother and his family, and now he is determined others will understand.

Moore, a retired electrical engineer who

served with the RNZAF during World War 2, now lives in Whangamata on the Coromandel Peninsula. He wants people to know the pain war’s “forgotten victims” endured. At Anzac Day this year, he went with his daughter, Vicki Davey, and his granddaughter, Sacha Davey, to the dawn service at the Waihi RSA. It was an emotional and proud moment for him. On her right breast, Sacha, 27, who lives in Perth, wore the Distinguished Conduct Medal his father – her great-grandfather – won in France for “conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty”.

“It was very emotional and I was as proud as I could be, just knowing that by wearing the

medal, Sacha was recognising what my dad and what my family went through. I think Sacha and some of the other young people at the service began to understand what awful, awful things war can do to a man and how it can so deeply trouble those left behind ... the mothers, fathers, wives, children and family.”

Jack Moore wants people to understand how hard it was for many New Zealand families to grow up without a husband, or a father. In Anzac Jack, a book on his father, he wrote of the five years of “tribulations and the living hell” his father endured.

“He had helped to win the Great War, but he lost his own battle in the end.”

He says his mother and his family were “like many thousands of others” in New Zealand after the war. In those days, very little, if anything, was done to help returned servicemen and their wives and families cope with the trauma of war.

It ripped many families apart.

“Things have changed for returning soldiers, but I still do not think enough is done for these forgotten victims. On Anzac Day we remember men such as my father and his mates. Many made the supreme sacrifice. Many survived.

Some were wounded and suffered for years.

Some, such as my father, were left with severe mental problems.

“We remember them, and men and women from later wars, with all the respect and dignity they have truly earned. I have nothing but respect and admiration for the men and women To page 24

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28

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

Got a health WORRY? Don’t delay – see your gp Margaret Snow, RSA advocacy and support manager

Vietnam veterans Just after the last RSA Review came out, Veterans’ Affairs New Zealand informed us that a new disability was being entered on the presumptive list for Vietnam veterans.

This is stroke or cerebrovascular accident. If you served in Vietnam and have had a stroke diagnosed by your GP or hospital, please apply to VANZ to have your new disability accepted.

The level of any award of a War Disablement Pension will be made in accordance with the American Medical Association guidelines on impairment based on the diagnosis of the condition provided by a medical practitioner.

Medical matters I seem to be spending time listening to talks in relation to health and, more particularly, cancers.

I went to a talk a few days ago on men’s health; I was the only female there. When the speaker reinforced time and again that men are not going to see their GP about ongoing niggles or problems, I wondered where the wives and partners were to push their menfolk into doing something in a timely manner and not leave it until too late. It’s well known that women are more likely to look after their health and to go to their GP early if they believe they might have a problem.

We could all do better by reducing our risks in relation to many health issues. About 25% of

all men smoke; for Maori males this increases to around 36%. Many of you will have started when you joined the military for any number of reasons, and if you had active service, you may well have increased your consumption partly because of the free cigarettes that were handed out until the end of the Vietnam War and partly because of the stress of service.

What health concerns can smoking bring you? Consider mouth, throat and oesophageal cancers, along with lung cancer and emphysema, and colorectal cancers. It can also bring about circulatory problems, which could result in blocked blood vessels, stroke, heart problems; lack of blood to your extremities can mean that toes, feet and even legs become gangrenous and need to be amputated.

Some of you would possibly tell me you’ve smoked for a large number of years with no illeffects, but I wonder how true that is. My late father was a Royal Marine in World War 2 and was extremely fit. He remained pretty fit for the greater part his life even though he had a heart attack at 65 and a number of transient ischaemic attacks (small blood vessels in the brain being blocked); he died of a massive bleed into the brain at the age of 79. He probably smoked about 40 cigarettes every day, but never more than three cigarettes before breakfast. So, you might be pretty fit, but the smoking can get you in the end.

Many ex-servicemen I see are overweight.

Some were overweight or obese while they were in the service and I have to wonder why the medical staff were not stronger with them to reduce their weight.

That is not to say they weren’t fit. Take a look at many of the guys in the forward pack of any rugby team – they are very big men and are encouraged to build up their weight. But what is going to happen in the future when they are no longer training as hard as they were? I will leave you to think about that.

But I would say that many of us need to consider what we eat, how much we eat, and how it is affecting our life. We need to cut down on the red meat, which is hard for those of us who enjoy our beef and lamb. We need to increase our intake of fruit and vegetables; you may have noticed that ‘five a day’ is now more like ‘eight a day’. We also need to ensure that our alcohol intake is at reasonable levels.

Many ex-service men and women have had lots of sun exposure. Navy personnel who have duty stations on deck have probably the most exposure. In less enlightened times military personnel were not allowed to wear sunglasses of any nature, let alone polarised ones that cut out the UV rays.

This sun exposure has led to many naval personnel having skin cancers, cataracts and other eye problems. If you have any potential skin cancers, please do go to your GP and have a spot check; this will allow your GP to look at

all those marks on your skin you are not sure of. It is better to go and get them checked out early to find there’s nothing wrong, than risk leaving them for too long and finding out you have a melanoma.

If you do have skin cancers or eye problems and your optometrist or ophthalmologist can track their origins to sun exposure and service which required you to spend many hours outdoors without the benefit of sunscreens, sun-protective clothing and correct sunglasses, then you may have a claim for a War Disablement Pension.

Those of you who served in the Pacific Islands during World War 2 should note that you were given Atabrine as a prophylaxis for malaria.

This drug tended to tinge the skin yellow and make it more susceptible to sunburn, which is the major precursor to skin cancers.

What I am saying is that you should all look after your health. Go to see your GP sooner rather than later if you have a problem that is not going away.

If you qualify for a War Disablement Pension, you can receive free treatment for any accepted disability or health condition. If you have an ongoing health concern that requires you to go to your GP frequently and have ongoing prescriptions and treatment, but it isn’t accepted for a War Disablement Pension, you can ask Work and Income whether you would be entitled to a disability allowance. This is income tested, but it is well worth asking for the information about it.

Remember the families at home

Imagine ‘breathing through a straw’

From page 23

As a child, Carol Cooper-Taylor couldn’t run like other kids – she always felt something was wrong with her lungs. “Fifty years ago they put it down to the fact I was more scholarly than active” she says.

Her adult asthma gradually got worse – to the point where holding a conversation could be difficult. When asthma affected her ability to work, she went to a specialist who said she had only 37% normal lung function and COPD. COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is a serious lung condition that often goes undiagnosed in the early stages as people ignore the main symptoms of shortness of breath and cough. Eighty per cent of people with COPD – currently more than 200,000 people in New Zealand – are smokers or ex- smokers; but chronic asthma is also a cause of COPD. Carol and her partner reassessed their future and made a radical, but inevitable, decision.

Carol left work.

“Many people want to retire early, however I loved my job and was quite angry about having to finish work,” she says. “It took me a number of years to come to terms with this. When I think back on it though, every minute not working was spent recuperating, and this was no life.”

But she wasn’t going to let COPD beat her.

She went to pulmonary rehabilitation classes and received great information, but she felt that only those on the course were benefitting, whereas “everyone needs to see this”.

That sparked a two-year project to bring together all the information people with COPD and their families need.

Carol Cooper-Taylor, with contributions from a physiotherapist, a respiratory nurse and a carer, produced a book called Don’t forget to breathe – a phrase often used in pulmonaryrehabilitation sessions.

Available on line at www.dontforgettobreathe. org.nz, it has been downloaded more than 6500 times by people around the world.

And her efforts in writing and co-ordinating the

who went to war. But let us also spare a thought for their families who waited at home. Let us remember mothers such as my grandmother in Auckland. She waited four years for my father to return, dreading every day that she would receive the telegram to say he had been wounded again or, worse still, that he had been killed or was missing in action. She died just before he returned. Let us remember mothers such as my own who lost my father 10 years after the war.

“These mothers and many other family members in similar circumstances were torn apart by the deaths of their men or their absence at war.

At the same time, they supported their families, ran the farms and businesses and contributed to the country’s war effort.

“They had to pick up the pieces and they did it with dignity and devotion. They received no accolades. They received no medals. Their names are not recorded. They were the unsung heroes.

They deserve to be remembered too and it is time we gave them credit in some tangible form for the part they played during and after these horrifying conflicts that cost them so dearly.”

He says the recognition he suggests would cost nothing. He just wants people, particularly the younger generation, to understand how tough it was for his “forgotten victims” to lose someone in a war or how badly they were affected.

“I would like a greater awareness of the pain and the torment war can bring, not only to a soldier but to his family and friends. It is a different form of hell.”

He says these sentiments were brought home to him when he read a letter from his father dated December 30, 1917, from the trenches “somewhere in France”.

It read: ‘All I worry about is we win this war successfully and I have the luck to get back safely to my dear old mother. She has gone through far more than I have in this war’.

“His words say it all,” says his son.

“Chuffed and humbled” was how Carol Cooper-Taylor reacted to receiving the Asthma Foundation Outstanding Achiever award from the governor general, Lt Col Sir Jerry Mataparae. ”It was nice to get the recognition, although that’s not why we did it (wrote the book),” she says. In describing what it’s like to suffer from COPD, she says: “Imagine living your life breathing through a straw, that’s what it feels like.” She has had asthma all her adult life and it had gradually got worse. She says she wrote the book because there was a need: “My personal contribution is immaterial. If the award will give the book more publicity, that’s really the aim.”

publication led to Carol winning the COPD category at the 2014 Asthma Foundation Achievers’ Awards.

Writing the book also helped her manage her depression, which can often go hand in hand with COPD. She didn’t initially recognise she was depressed; she spent a lot of time in bed asleep, and her GP, respiratory consultant and partner assumed she was tired from the COPD. She was referred to mental health specialists who prescribed a change of medication.

“This made a huge difference to my life,” says Carol. “Having somebody say we need to do something. Depression can sneak up on you and can turn into a vicious cycle,” said Carol.

“COPD is not the end – it is not a death sentence. It will get you in the end, but you will still have a very good life in the meantime.

Although I was very upset at having to give up work, that’s turned out fine – still doing things, still learning things and life is very enjoyable, it is not the end of the world.” .

Asthma Foundation medical director Kyle Perrin says smokers have a 20 per cent chance of getting COPD, which is now is now the fourthbiggest killer in New Zealand.

“You don’t know how much smoking it will take – some people with COPD were heavy smokers and others may have smoked only lightly when they were young.”

SPIRIVA 速

(tiotropium 18 mcg)

30

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

What’s On MONTHLY/TWO-MONTHLY AUCKLAND BRANCH, CMT/NS ASSOCIATION INC Meets monthly on third Tuesday, 1100 hours, New Lynn RSA. Keen to welcome new members to enjoy friendship and camaraderie, fun and laughter, and perhaps stay for a light lunch. Guest speakers, outings, bus trips with wives, partners and girlfriends. Most members attend Anzac Day parades; group also parades as a unit at the Auckland Naval Base, HMNZS Philomel, for the annual Armistice Day memorial service to pay tribute and lay a wreath at the memorial wall. Contact: Mark Sinclair, president, 09 534 8138; Malcolm Baird, vicepresident 09 2676557; Brian Caltaux, secretary, 09 4209794.

CMT ASSOCIATION, SOUTH AUCKLAND BRANCH Meeting, second Saturday of month, Papakura RSA. Ex-CMT and National Servicemen welcome to join. Contact: John Bennetts, jandsbennetts@xtra.co.nz; 09 2986847.

ITALY STAR ASSOCIATION (CHRISTCHURCH BRANCH) 2014 meetings 21 Jun, 23 Aug, 25 Oct, 29 Nov (luncheon) 1.30pm, Cashmere Club, 88 Hunter Tce, Christchurch. New members (veterans, family members, historians) welcome. Contact: Peter Scott, chairman, 27 Kenwyn Ave, St.Albans, Christchurch 8052; 03 3556732; peter.judy@actrix.co.nz.

NEW ZEALAND BRANCH, ROYAL MARINES ASSOCIATION 2014 meetings, 10 Aug, 12 Oct, 14 Dec, 2pm, Pt Chevalier RSA, Auckland. Full membership to serving or former RM, RMR and RN, HM Forces RM units, family members, Royal Marines Cadets.

Contact: Peter Collins, 634 Papakura-Clevedon Road, Ardmore RD2, Papakura 2582; 09 2967648; 0211 417119. peter-collins@xtra.co.nz; http://www. royalmarinesassociation.org/nz/rma_nz_home.html

2014 August CANTERBURY REGIMENT ASSOCIATION 15-17 Aug, Papanui RSA, Christchurch. Contact: Frank Newsome, Unit 19, 53 Condell Ave, Christchurch 8053; 03 3525471; frankandaudrey@clear.net.nz.

SEPTEMBER HMNZS CANTERBURY REUNION – ALL COMMISSIONS 26-28 Sep, Tauranga RSA. Register

expressions of interest to: Bill Newell, 82 Twin Oak Ave, Papamoa 3118; 07 5421412; newell1@outlook.co.nz.

OCTOBER ROYAL NEW ZEALAND NAVAL WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION 17-19 Oct, Wellington. If you have served

as a Wren or as a female member of the Royal New Zealand Navy, or any navies of the Commonwealth or World War 2 allies, you are invited to register your interest in this reunion.

Contact: Margaret Snow, 04 8949183; margarets@rsa.org. nz, or, Marie Reille, 06 3638993; marieandjeff@xtra.co.nz.

NOVEMBER RNZEME CORPS DAY REUNION 28-30 Nov, Taradale RSA, Napier. All ex-members of any RNZEME unit welcome.

Organising committee: Tig Lima, Spanners McLelland, George Purvis, Gary (Sooty) McCullough, Murray Pilmer.

Contact: Murray Pilmer, secretary/treasurer, 19 Ranfurly St, Napier 4112, 027 2819014, murray.pilmer@xtra.co.nz.

2015 41 SQUADRON RNZAF ASSOCIATION BIENNIAL REUNION 20-22 Mar. Wellington. The Friday evening:

Meet’n’greet. Saturday: Leisure activities, dinner. Sunday: Short, commemorative service. Book as soon as possible as there is a World Cup cricket quarter-final in Wellington on Mar 21. Details: Reunion website www.41sqnreunion2015. org.nz.

NOVEMBER RNZN ENGINE ROOM BRANCH REUNION 6-8

Nov, Napier. Expressions of interest. Registrations close 15 September, 2015. Contact: Dennis Zachan, 12 Norrie Place,Tamatea, Napier; 06 8442201; 021 673242.

2016 23 INTAKE RNZAF AIRMAN CADET SCHOOL/5 CET 5OTH ANNIVERSARY 19-21 Feb. Contact: Dave

Bryant, davebryant@telus.net; https://sites.google.com/sit e/23intakeairmancadetschoolrnzaf/home.

CALLS TO JOIN BRITISH AIRBORNE FORCES (NZ) INC Are (or were) you para-Trained? Would you like to meet other ex-(or even current) paras, from the Parachute Regiment, SAS, or from the supporting arms - engineers, signals, medics, artillery etc? Would you like to help maintain the Airborne spirit around the world, and particularly in New Zealand? We meet regularly in Northern (Auckland to Taupo), Central (Taupo to Wellington) and Southern (South Island). Full membership - all ranks of Parachute Regiment, SAS, supporting arms, and those with special service to British Airborne Forces; associate membership - immediate family; affiliate membership - those in airborne units of other countries. Contact: Frank Clark, president, 04 2336123. Roy Tilley, secretary, 04 5660850, rmt@xtra. co.nz. Website, www.britishairbornenz.tripod.com.

CMT ASSOCIATION CHRISTCHURCH INC If you

took part in CMT or National Service training in the army, navy or air force, contact: Alison Smith, secretary, CMT Assoc Inc, 21 Kearneys Rd, Bromley, Christchurch 8062, 03 9817623, legles@paradise.net.nz.

CMT ASSOCIATION SOUTH AUCKLAND BRANCH Ex-CMT and National Servicemen welcome. Meets

monthly, 2nd Saturday, Papakura RSA. Contact: John Bennetts, jandsbennetts@xtra.co.nz; 09 2986847.

CMT ASSOCIATION SOUTH CANTERBURY BRANCH Ex-CMT and National Servicemen welcome.

Contact: Bruce Townshend, 14 Ewen Rd, Temuka 7920; 03 6156637; Temuka-RSA@xtra.co.nz.

EX-RAF HALTON, RAF LOCKING OR RAF CRANWELL AIRCRAFT, RNZAF APPRENTICES. Contact: Ed Austin, 67/46 Beresford St, Pukekohe 2120, 09 2392698, edaustin38@gmail.com.

HMNZS LACHLAN 1949–53 FIRST TWO COMMISSIONS 60th ANNIVERSARY, FINAL REUNION Contact: Keith Goddard, 4 Kimberley Rd,

Waihi 3610, 07 8633318, 021 2516220, goddz@xtra.co.nz.

Frank Robb, 14/57 Enfield St, Hamilton 3200, 07 8644246.

HOROWHENUA ARTILLERY ASSOCIATION – LEVIN 50th year, seeking new members - gunners,

NEW ZEALAND MALAYAN VETERANS ASSOCIATION INC Welcomes new members who

ex-gunners, associated corps. Meets May and September to celebrate Gunners’ Day and El Alamein Day, lunch, Levin RSA. Contact: Adam Gibson, 34 Gordon Place, Levin; 06 3684187.

served with Commonwealth forces or police in Malaya/ Malaysia/Borneo or Singapore. Contact: Barry Allison, 6 Coldstream Rd, Gisborne 4010; 06 8677284; bazbarbzinggizzie@xtra.co.nz.

ITALY STAR ASSOCIATION (CHRISTCHURCH BRANCH) AUCKLAND BRANCH, CMT/NS ASSOCIATION INC New members, veterans, family

OX & BUCKS LI, KINGS ROYAL RIFLE CORPS, RIFLE BRIGADE AND ROYAL GREEN JACKETS

members, historians. Contact: Peter Scott, chairman, 27 Kenwyn Ave, St Albans, Christchurch 8052; 03 3556732; peter.judy@actrix.co.nz.

J FORCE ASSOCIATION, WESTERN BAY OF PLENTY BRANCH Meets third Wednesday of month at

Mt Maunganui RSA. Warm welcome to visitors and keen to hear about other branches. Membership: 19 veterans, 22 wives and widows. Activities: Christmas dinner, quarterly 8 ball competition, short trips. Contact: Vern Pope, 5 Bernard St, Tauranga 3112.

MOUNTED TROOPERS ASSOCIATION North Island

branch of Royal NZ Armoured Corps Association. The $25 annual subscription fee includes membership of both the MTA and the RNZAC. Anyone who is serving or has served in RNZAC units in any way is eligible join - the only criteria is that you must have worn the ‘Black Beret’.

Spouses of deceased eligible personnel are welcome. The MTA aims to bring former comrades together again through national reunions, members’ birthdays, funerals, unveilings, and regimental occasions to which the association is invited. Managed by a six-person trust board - Chris Cooper (chairman), Bob Williams (secretary), Christine Campbell (treasurer), Doug Morrow, Geoff Kreegher and Colin Campbell. Prospective members in New Zealand should contact nearest troop co-ordinator; if you’re overseas, contact the MTA secretary. Contacts: Secretary, Bob Williams, P.O. Box 384, Thames 3540, New Zealand; +64 7 8686506; bw.crescent@xtra.co.nz.

Troop co-ordinators, Auckland: Moa Larkins, P.O.Box 300014, Albany, Auckland 752; manofaction@slingshot. co.nz. Waikato/Bay of Plenty:Chris Cooper, cooppen@ xtra.co.nz; 07 5444917. Hawke’s Bay: Willie Walker, 19 Pania Place, Parklands Estate, Napier; willieanddenise@ hotmail.co.nz. Taranaki: Lenny Robinson, LENR@xtra. co.nz; 06 7638594. Central/Southern North Island: Stew Couchman, blongami@xtra.co.nz; 06 3258593.

NEW ZEALAND BATTLE OF CRETE ASSOCIATION Contact: Deirdre Hauschild, c/- Mount Maunganui RSA, P.O.Box 4011, Mount Maunganui South 3116; 07 5764362; dee.hauschild@gmail.com.

NEW ZEALAND BRANCH, ROYAL MARINES ASSOCIATION Meets two-monthly, 2pm, Pt Chevalier

RSA, Auckland. Full membership to serving or former RM, RMR and RN, HM Forces RM units, family members, Royal Marines Cadets. Contact: Peter Collins, 634 Papakura-Clevedon Rd, Ardmore R.D.2, Papakura 2582; 09 2967648; 021 1417119; peter-collins@xtra.co.nz; www. royalmarinesassociation.org/nz/rma_nz_home.html.

NEW ZEALAND KOREA VETERANS ASSOCIATION INC Veteran membership available to NZDF members

who have completed a posting in the United Nations Military Commission since 1 Jan 1958 and have been awarded appropriate medallic recognition. Membership details: Douglas Callander, secretary, 23 Longcroft Tce, Newlands, Wellington 6037; 04 4783238; 04 4783602 (fax); callanderd@clear.net.nz.

Subscribe to the RSA Review Contact RSA National Office to subscribe to the RSA Review and get your copy delivered straight to your door.

Contact: RSA Review, PO Box 27248, Marion Square, Wellington 6141 Email: rsareview@rsa.org.nz Phone: 04 384 7994 If you’re already a subscriber, you’ll receive a 2015 renewal letter from us towards the end of the year.

All past members of RGJ and former regiments invited.

Contact: Frank Jones, 09 4766974.

RAF CHANGI ASSOCIATION Includes HQ FAR EAST AIRFORCE, seeks NZ members ex RAF or RNZAF, who served at RAF Changi 1946-71. Contact: B W Lloyd, 32 Redwood, Burnham, Bucks, SL1 8JN, UK.

REGULAR FORCE CADET ASSOCIATION (INC) Provides contact between ex-cadets and enables them to re-establish contacts. Membership: $10 a year (July 1-June 30). Contact: Secretary, RF Cadet Association, P.O.Box 715, Paraparaumu 5032; www.rfcadet,org.nz.

RNZAF COMMAND AND STAFF COLLEGE GRADUATES The New Zealand Defence Force Command and Staff College has formed an alumni association. Records of previous associations’ members were misplaced during move from Whenuapai to Trentham in 2004. Contact is if you wish to join, would like latest information, or wish to re-connect with former colleagues and course members.

Contact: Alumni secretary NZDF CSC, Trentham Military Camp, Private Bag 905, Upper Hutt 5140; 04 5271008; 04 5271009 (fax); csc.alumni@nzdf.mil.nz.

ROYAL NEW ZEALAND NAVY ASSOCIATION, CANTERBURY BRANCH All who served in RNZN

or Commonwealth navies, and their partners, welcome.

Monthly meetings, regular social get-togethers, ship visits, four newsletters a year. Contact: Miles McIlraith (ex-RNZN), treasurer, 4987 State Highway 75, R.D., Little River 7591; 03 3251937; 03 3251936 (fax).

SOUTH AFRICAN MILITARY VETERANS OF AUSTRALASIA (SAMVOA) All who served in uniform

in South Africa and now live in New Zealand are invited to join. SAMVOA, which is running in Australia, is intended to preserve memories, and commemorate those who were injured, and fell in action. Attends Remembrance Day and Anzac Day parades, and regular meetings. Information and application form: Chris Pattison, 021 2316612; ytrose@ vodafone.co.nz.

THE NEW ZEALAND MALAYA VETERANS’ ASSOCIATION welcomes new members who served

with Commonwealth Forces or Police in Malaya/Malaysia/ Borneo or Singapore. Contact: Barry Allison, 6 Coldstream Rd, Gisborne 4010, 06 8677284; bazbarbzingizzie@xtra. co.nz; www.malaya.vets.co.nz.

THE REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION Seeking members to rekindle their activity with the association. Regular meetings at Papanui RSA, Christchurch. Send rank, name, address, phone number and e-mail address to: Frank Newsome, 107a Langdons Rd, Papanui Christchurch 8053; 03 3525471; frankandaudrey@clear.net.nz.

TS VINDICATRIX ASSOCIATION Ex-Vindicatrix boys – those who served on the training ship – invited to join the association’s Lower North Island branch. Write: Arthur Woolard, 21 Pohutukawa Drive, R.D.1, Levin 5571.

Subscription Rates: Subscriptions cover 4 issues from January – December. If you’re a new subscriber, there are two remaining issues in 2014.

You’ll pay: $10.00 a discounted price if paying by direct

credit or direct debit $12.50 if paying by cheque or credit card $20

for overseas subscribers

31

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

RSA Life Vets foster leadership, integrity Another link has been added to the already strong relationship between Vietnam veterans and Kaitaia College.

Far North-based vet Richie Taafe, has made a trophy and presented it the school. It will be awarded each year to a college student for “leadership and integrity”.

The 2013 head boy, Tipene Lee, was the first recipient of the award, which was presented by Lt Col (rtd) Ray Beatson, also a Vietnam vet, at the end-of-year prizegiving.

Kaitaia College’s old-pupil representation in Vietnam – there were 41 – was the highest of any school in New Zealand.

Taafe says the medals on his 300mm-wide x 400m-high trophy were “found”, the infantry badge was “borrowed”, and the Kaitaia College prefect badge belonged to the late Lt Col Eru Manuera. He and Beatson were both head prefects during their time at the college.

The poem on the left of the trophy is one that Vietnam vets adapted: “When the battles are all over And the war is finally done, Think of me only as soldier Who never left his gun, For the right to serve my country In the only prize we won.”

The names of the Kaitaia College old pupils who served in Vietnam are inscribed on the V, and the words across the base say: “In recognition of the 41 Kaitaia College students that served in the Vietnam War”.

Eighteen months ago Taafe made a Vietnam roll of honour and organised 19 of his army mates to come to Kaitaia and present it to the school.

RIGHT: The new trophy, which has been made by Richie Taafe, will be presented to a Kaitaia College student each year for ‘leadership and integrity’.

From milking cows to hunting u-boats Joseph Pedersen’s family is of Norwegian descent. After landing in Napier, the Pedersens settled in Norsewood, in Southern Hawke’s Bay, where they were allocated a 16-hectare (40-acre) block of land. They had felled bush with a horse and cart between Hastings and Woodville.

Joe Pedersen’s father served in the army during World War 1, and was away for six years. He would not let his son join the army in World War 2, just the navy.

Joe’s grandfather died in 1942 while he was away at war.

Joe Pedersen was married twice – to Mary and Brenda, both of whom died.

His children, Joseph, Kevin and Mary, all live in Australia.

After the war, Joe was an electrician in railway workshops. He was also treasurer of the Silverdale RSA and, until recently, secretary of the Kings Empire Veterans.

He still enjoys spending time at the RSA.

CEO drops in for lunch

Reefton RSA committee members shared lunch with RSA chief executive David Moger during his visit to the Coast. From left: Ray Chandler (Reefton RSA president), David Moger, Reefton RSA women’s section members Christine Scholes, Stella Hudson (president) and Kath O’Sullivan (secretary), and Derek Nees (NelsonMarlborough-Westland RSA district president).

Able Seaman RNZN 2337 Joseph Pedersen enlisted for World War 2 on his 17th birthday. The 90-year-old now lives a quiet life in Orewa, but he has some tales to tell, as Juliet McGhie, from Hibiscus Coast Life, discovers.

Joe Pedersen went from milking cows on his family farm in Hawke’s Bay to training in the navy in Scotland, then fighting some significant battles in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean.

He served in the Royal Navy, not the New Zealand Navy, and only on English ships, because there were not enough ships in New Zealand at the time. After enlisting, he was sent to train in Dunoon, in Scotland.

He was personally thanked by the Queen Elizabeth II at a Malta George Cross memorial in 1992, where he was presented with the Malta George Cross Fiftieth Anniversary Commemorative Medal.

He started the war as the only New Zealander on board the destroyer HMS Walker in the North Atlantic. On March 17, 1941 he was on the destroyer when Capt McIntyre and his crew depth-charged, then brought to the surface two German submarines, U99 and U100. The 39 German survivors, including submarine ace Otto Kretschmer, were taken to Liverpool as prisoners of war. ‘‘These weren’t Nazis,” says Joe. “The survivors were all covered in oil, so we gave them our clothes to wear. They spent five days on the HMS Walker with us, and just stuck together wandering around. They did all the mess duties for us, then we dropped them off at Liverpool.’’

Joe Pedersen then went through some advanced submarine training in Scotland before joining HMS Angelo in Malta, and then the infamous HMS Lookout in 1942. Lookout was a brand-new fleet destroyer with distinctive camouflage and, compared with the 1917-built HMS Walker, very good living conditions.

It was on the Malta Convoy that they really struck war, says Joe. In August 1942 the battleship HMS Eagle was torpedoed and sunk with the loss of 131 men. As part of Operation Pedestal Lookout, HMS Laforey and the tug Jaunty picked up the 500 surviving men and took them back to Gibraltar.

The fleet’s next mission was to land paratroopers at Algeria, in North Africa. After the Allies’ victory in the North African Campaign, the stage was set for the Italian Campaign, and the invasion of Sicily followed two months later.

The fleet shelled Pantelleria Island for four days before the occupiers surrendered, and those on the next island, Linosa, capitulated straight away. HMS Lookout, with seven other

Left: Joe Pedersen reminisces in his Orewa home with a little help from his scrapbook.

Below: A young Joe Pedersen in full flight on the bagpipes in his navy days.

destroyers and four cruisers, shelled Lampedusa Island for 24 hours before the surrender came.

The fleet left Lookout to patrol the island, and they were bombed by high-level Italian aircraft. ‘‘We were chased and dive-bombed for 35 minutes,’’ says Joe. ‘‘As I was one of the youngest, I was standing in as a look-out and could see them all coming straight for me. This was an incredible sight to see. Amazingly we never got hit.’’

They were listening to the radio that night and heard a broadcast saying: “The HMS Lookout had been sunk off the Lampedusa today”. The report was wrong.

However, the statistics from the Malta Convoy were grim: The enemy had 500 aircraft, 23 boats, three heavy cruisers, 21 submarines and 12 destroyers. Nine ships were sunk and five damaged. Four Royal Navy ships were lost and six were damaged, and 280 men were killed.

Lookout was shelled for a month going up the Messina Straits as part of the Sicily landings.

The Italians surrendered in September 1943.

In the Adriatic Islands, off Yugoslavia, the destroyer rescued 100 Kiwi troops from a prisonerof-war camp and took them back to Bari. They had been fighting in the Battle of Cassino in Italy. Joe Pedersen found all 100 of them huddled next to his locker. They were all from the South Island,

and he would cross paths with them many times.

He met them again recuperating in Alexandria when he was on HMS Sphinx. His job was to peel potatoes, and he would take some to the troops who returned the favour by giving him a beer.

They eventually took the men, who were sick, to Port Lincoln in South Australia.

Joe Pedersen went on to Sydney before being dropped off on the wharf at Wellington at seven one morning. The Naval Establishment arranged tickets to Auckland, where he eventually settled. He has lived in Orewa for the last 30 years.

32

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

What’s New

Artwork inspired by trip to gallipoli Sydney landscape painter Idris Murphy has won the $20,000 2014 Gallipoli Art Prize with his painting Gallipoli Evening 2013, which depicts a lone tree in a golden landscape. It was inspired by his recent visit to Gallipoli.

Murphy has also recently discovered more than 160 letters written by his grandfather, Charles Idris Pike, from the battlefields of Gallipoli and the Western Front, to his sweetheart, Violet (who later became his wife).

The judges also commended Glen Preece for Soldier – Flight to Heaven and Hugh Ramage for a painting of his friend titled R.E. as a Digger.

The three paintings were amongst 37 finalist works.

Now in its ninth year, the annual Gallipoli Art Prize is awarded to the work that best expresses the Gallipoli Club’s creed: “We believe that within the community there exists an obligation for all to preserve the special qualities of loyalty, respect, love of country, courage and comradeship which were personified by the heroes of the Gallipoli Campaign and bequeathed to all humanity as a foundation of perpetual peace and universal freedom.”

Australian, New Zealand and Turkish artists are invited to interpret the creed as it relates to any armed conflict in which Australia has been involved.

Murphy, born in 1949, Sydney, is a landscape painter who has been exhibiting for more than 30 years.

His winning work was painted after spending some time in and around Gallipoli in May 2013.

“I had been prepared for a certain degree of what might be called melancholy, however I was not expecting or prepared for this place of legends, to also be beautiful,” he says.

“This work, painted back in my studio is a response to that irony.

Evening is both a sense of actual time and a metaphor for that experience of the place.”

Charles Idris Pike enlisted at 19 and served 1000 days of active service through some of the worst action of World War 1.

His letters written from the battlefields provide an insight into a soldier’s life, including the exchange of gifts across the trenches between Turkish and Anzac soldiers.

Idris Murphy returned to Gallipoli in April this year with a group of Australian landscape painters (many of whom have submitted paintings to the Gallipoli Art prize) for a painting expedition and Gallipoli centenary project titled Your Friend the Enemy.

Sydney landscape artist Idris Murphy has won the 2014 Gallipoli Art Prize for his painting, Gallipoli Evening 2013.

I had been prepared for a certain degree of what might be called melancholy, however I was not expecting or prepared for this place of legends to be also so beautiful.

one soldier’s war remembered Chaplain’s WW1 letters show effects of war Stanley Hughes tells his story of his war (November 8, 1940-January 3, 1945) in an easily read small book, One Soldier’s War. He describes this as a time of “much learning and many experiences...a move from a small family existence to a much larger family grouping where your well-being and survival depended on how well you supported each other – a level of support not always experienced in everyday life”.

He was with the 20th Battalion in Egypt, Greece and Crete where he was taken POW. He escaped from a POW camp, avoided the Germans, and for several months was sheltered by Cretan families. He moved every few days before he was eventually picked up, with 85 others, by the Royal Navy.

The RN sailed a caique (a traditional fishing boat usually found in Greek and Crete waters) from Crete to Alexandria, Egypt and managed to not be sighted by German patrolling aircraft.

On arrival, they were deloused, questioned and issued with new clothing.

He next went to Syria, but after three months the New Zealanders were rushed back to Egypt where the situation was getting desperate. Then came the break through Minquar Quaim.

When 20 Bn was converted to an armoured regiment, Hughes was trained as a tank gunner.

He mentions the cold and wet of Italy, which the tankies found hard to bear, especially when they were in a static position. After Cassino, he was sent back to Maadi camp to instruct on tank maintenance.

Stanley Hughes, now in his late 90s, with his book on his World War 2 experiences. He escaped from a POW camp in Crete and was sheltered for several months by Cretan families before being picked up by the Royal Navy in a traditional fishing boat. Photo: Clas Chamberlain

Rev Clive Mortimer Jones was the vicar of Cambridge, in the Waikato, from 1912 to 1926. However, in 1917 he volunteered as a chaplain with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force on the Western front in France and Belgium. During his time there, he wrote regularly to his parishioners.

These letters, which were published at the time in the Cambridge parish magazine from January 1917 to May 1920, have now been gathered together, along with relevant photos, maps and prints.

The resulting book, A Strong Sense of Duty, published by The New Zealand Military Historical Society, was released late last year.

The work provides an insight from a noncombatant chaplain’s perspective, into life on the front line and into the effects of war on the men of the New Zealand Division during its final 14 months of service. The letters convey a personal sense of duty and awareness set amongst the grim realities of war.

On his return to New Zealand, Jones commemorated the soldiers from Cambridge who had fought and died in the war through the installation of a stained glass window on the northern wall of St Andrew’s Church.

The Soldiers’ Memorial Window was unveiled on December 11, 1923.

Mortimer Jones’ dedication was instrumental in Cambridge eventually twinning with the French town of Le Quesnoy.

The new book also contains much Waikato

Rev Clive Mortimer Jones was the vicar at the St Andrew’s Church, Cambridge from 1912 to 1926.

history and what is believed to be the most comprehensive list yet published of 140 (all denominations) who served with the NZEF between 1914 and 1918.

• A Strong Sense of Duty – The First World War Letters of Chaplain The Reverend Clive Mortimer Jones 1917-1920. Edited by Herbert H.Farrant, Elizabeth Morey and Deysse Storey.

Published by the New Zealand Military Historical Society.$40.00, plus $3.30 postage.168pp paperback Contact: secretary@nzmhs.irg.nz.

34

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

Local RSAs Kaikohe & District Memorial RSA (Inc)

Northland

Northern Wairoa RSA Club

We are open everyday from 11am

All Visitors Most Welcome

Clubrooms open 11am Meals: Thurs Fri & Sat 6-8pm Light Lunches: Always available Catering on request 09 439 8164

KAITAIA FAR NORTH (Kaitaia) RSA CLUB

Matthews Avenue, Kaitaia When visiting the Far North you are welcomed to visit our Clubrooms where comfort and friendship is assured.

Billiards - Snooker - Pool - Bowls - Darts

Pleasant lounge and excellent bar facilities

• • • • •

Sky TV TAB Pod Gaming Machines Pool Tables Courtesy Van Available

Courtesy Coach Available Please phone (09) 408 0423

WHANGAREI THE HUB OF THE CITY

Warmly welcomes visitors to our Clubrooms at 7 Rust Ave Bar Service 7 days Snooker, Pool, Darts, Gaming Courtesy Coach Bistro Wed to Fri 12-2 & 5-8p.m.

Saturday 6-8p.m.

PH 09 438 3792 admin@whangareirsa.co.nz

www.whangareirsa.co.nz

MEMORIAL RSA

“Friendliest Club in Town” 158 Broadway, Kaikohe Ph 09 401 2368 Fax 09 401 2370 kaikohersa@xtra.co.nz “Look us up on Facebook”

Visitors always welcome ANY CHANGES TO CLUB ADVERTS OR CLASSIFIED ADVERTS PLEASE CONTACT DAVE McKEE Ph: 03 983 5518 Fax: 03 983 5552 Email:davem@waterfordpress.co.nz

Welcomes visiting RSA members. Open 7 days from 11.00am.

Catering 7 days from 12 noon. Monday nights for Rebel (Outdoor) Bowls. Wednesday nights for Texas Hold’ Em poker.

Friday nights for Karaoke.

663 SWANSON RD - PH 833 9013

A warm invitation is extended TO RSA members & Guests to the friendliest RSA in the West

The Orpheus Restaurant

SILVERDALE

43A Vipond Rd, Whangaparaoa, Turn off at top of Silverdale Hill onto Whangaparaoa Peninsula. Vipond Rd is 2.7km on left A special welcome to members of clubs with reciprocal visiting rights to use our club facilities. Comfort & friendship is assured

Open Thurs - Sat lunch 12 - 2 pm, dinner 5.30 - 8pm Bus Trip Lunches phone Rona Major Games on Big Screen or Weekend Entertainment Snooker - Pool - Darts - Warriors Supporters Section

We have excellent facilities for reunions and other functions NEW RETURNED AND SERVICE MEMBERS WELCOME. Inquiries to Sec/Manager 09 636 6644 PO Box 13016, Onehunga

Family Restaurant Hrs Lunch: 12-2pm, Tues-Sat. 12.30pm-2pm Sun Dinner 5.30-8.30pm Wed-Sat, 5.30-7.30pm Tues & Sun Note Sunday Lunch & Dinner Carvery

HOBSONVILLE

114 Hobsonville Road • Ph: 09 416 7227 Restaurant Ph: 09 416 9239 • E: hobbyrsa@xtra.co.nz

Meals Our spacious Restaurant allows us to cater for up to 200 people at any one time Lunch open from Wednesday - Sunday 12 - 2pm Dinners Wednesday - Saturday 5 - 8.30pm Sunday Buffet 5 - 7.30pm We have large outdoor garden area, Big Screen for major games, Sky T.V., pool, bowls, darts, cards, fishing, golf, quiz.

Open: 11am Mon-Sat. Noon on Sun

AUCKLAND

Ph: 09 489 6738

The Razza....the place to be.

11am - 11.30pm Sun 1pm - 9pm

Hours 11am-10pm, Mon to Sat. Noon-6pm Sun

Family Restaurant - Meals Wed Thurs Friday and by arrangement.

Cnr Northcote Rd & Mary Poynton Cres

Hours Mon toThurs 11am - 11pm. Fri & Sat

Restaurant hours Mon and Thurs 6.00 -7.45pm or by arrangement Membership Night on Monday

Hokianga Rd Dargaville Ph: 09 439 8164

TAKAPUNA RSA CLUB

SWANSON

RSA

A warm welcome is assured to all members and visitors.

Special welcome to local and out of town visitors.

Open Tues - Thurs from 2pm. Fri - Sun from Midday.

• Restaurant open Fri - Sun lunch, Wed - Sun Dinner.

Excellent meals at reasonable prices.

• Live entertainment last Friday of each month.

• Quiz Nights 7pm 3rd Thursday of every month.

Car Boot Sale last Sunday of every month 8am, sellers $8 • Excellent Bar staff & service • Large car park. Easy bus turnnig • Coach Tours welcome - advance booking essential • Facilities available for function hire • Other facilities include darts, pool, indoor bowls & fishing club

THE SMALL RSA WITH THE BIG HEART

Glen Eden RSA

Bus trips catered for by request.

Entertainment & Dancing Fri & Sat night Snooker * Pool * Indoor Bowls * Fishing *Outdoor Bowls * Golf and Darts* Gaming Machines Raffles: Wed, Thurs

Contact Sec/Manager Sue East 09 424 9026 Fax: 09 424 2446

9 Glendale Rd West Auckland Ph: 09 818 4219 Web: www.glenedenrsa.co.nz

Meals Lunch: Tues - Fri. Dinner: Thurs - Sun. Entertainment: Fri & Sat.

We are better than the rest. We are the friendliest in the West

ORAKEI RSA

Ph: 09 528 6245 & 09 521 2710

(Members)

Hours: Mon : 12-7.30pm. Tues:11am-8pm

Wed: 11-9pm. Thurs & Fri: 11-11pm. Sat: 11-9pm. Sun: 2-7pm.

Bistro Lunch Tues-Fri 12-2pm. Evening Thurs-Fri 6-8pm Function room bookings for catering.

Sports sections, gaming machines ,Sky TV, big screen TV Handy to city centre, Ellerslie Race Course, Kelly Tarlton Underwater World, Eastern suburbs, Mission Bay, St Helliers, Remuera etc.

Ph 09 846 8673 1136 Great North Rd

Affiliated Members and Guests Most Welcome Restaurant, Family Karaoke Sundays from 1pm Functions venue available email admin@ptchevrsa.co.nz

Friday night raffles, Entertainment Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun

BIRKENHEAD RSA

WARKWORTH & DISTRICTS RSA Inc 28 Neville St Warkworth Ph 09 425 8568 Opening Hours 11am Mon - Sat 3pm Sun Gunners' Restaurant

Lunch 12 - 1.30pm Wed- Fri Dinner 5 - 8.30pm Thurs-Sat Full Bar Facilities 18 Pokies * Mystery J/P * Sky Tv * Pool * Snooker * Darts * Bowls

Live Entertainment & Dancing every Friday evening.

Call in on your way north & view our memorabilia tables - A warm welcome awaits you

RUSSELL RSA 1 Chapel St Russell 0202 Ph: 09 403 7773 Fax: 09 403 7885Email: russellrsa@xtra.co.nz www.russellrsa.org.nz

OPEN 7 DAYS FROM 11AM TILL CLOSE

Diggers Restaurant open 7 days Lunch & Dinner Bar snacks available Pool, Darts, Gaming Machines Huge outdoor courtyard

Come and enjoy our clubrooms while holidaying in historical Russell We will make you welcome

Ph 09 407 8585 37 Cobham Road

KERIKERI

RSA (Inc) Visitors and Guests Most Welcome Bistro Wed-Sun 5.30 - 8.30pm

Open Seven Days

Recreation Dr, Birkenhead, North Shore Ph: 09 418 2424 Fax: 09 418 3054 Email: secman@birkenheadrsa.com www.birkenheadrsa.com We welcome all RSA members & their guests to enjoy the friendly atmosphere & excellent facilities at our clubrooms

Clubrooms Open Sat - Mon 11am Tues - Fri 9 am Bar Open 7 Days from 11am Don Stott Memorial Restaurant

Provides excellent ecconomical A la Carte meals Wed-Friday 12 -2pm Wed-Sunday from 5.30pm. Groups by arrangement

Live Entertainment

Wed: 1.30-4pm. Fri & Sat: from 7.00pm Pool * Darts * I/D Bowls * TAB Large Screen Sky * Gaming Machines Tea/Coffee & light Meals anytime

ALL NEW MEMBERS WELCOME

WAIHEKE RSA

INC

29 Belgium Street, Ostend

Clubrooms and Bar Open 7 Days Restaurant Open 6 Days, closed Monday Take advantage of the free transport to our doorstep for Super Gold Card holders.

Spoil yourselves with a trip to our wonderful Island and enjoy our hospitality.

Ph: (09) 372 9019 Bar: (09) 372 5554

Restaurant: (09) 372 6655 E-mail: waiheke.rsa@xtra.co.nz

163 Queens Rd, Panmure

Bar Menu Seven Days. Bus loads by arrangement.

Live Entertainment every 2nd Friday

Darts - Pool - Snooker - Gaming Machines - Courtesy coach available for local pick-ups / drop-offs When in Auckland Visit our Friendly Club.

NEW LYNN

Memorial RSA (Inc)

2 Veronica St Ph: 09 827 3411 Where a friendly welcome is assured. A must stopover when visiting Auckland BAR & TAB FACILITIES Open 7days Gaming Facilities FREYBERG RESTAURANT Lunches: Tues-Sun 12-2pm, Dinner: Wed-Sat 5.30pm open

Band Friday Nights

When visiting Auckland’s Eastern Suburbs call into our pleasant clubrooms and enjoy our hospitality

IN THE  OF HOWICK Fridays & Saturdays from 7 pm DINE & DANCE LIVE MUSIC www.howickrsa.co.nz

HENDERSON RSA

66-70 Railside Ave Ph (09) 838 9012 www.hsnrsa.co.nz

Mt Wellington Panmure RSA Ph: 09 570 5913 Fax: 09 570 5903 Email secrsa@vodafone.co.nz

HOWICK RSA

Phone: 09 534 9702 • 25 Wellington St Howick

PAPATOETOE DISTRICT RSA (Inc)

22 Wallace Rd Ph: 09 278 6372 Email: papatoetoersa@xtra.co.nz Bar Hours Mon 11am -7.30pm Tues, Wed: 11am - 10pm Thurs: 11am - 10.30pm Fri: 11am - 10pm Sat: 11am - 11pm Sun: noon - 7pm BISTRO Lunch: Tues -Fri 12-1.00pm Dinner: Tues 6pm - 7.30pm Thurs Fri Sat 6pm - 8.00pm. Ph: 09 278 6374

(Hours may vary without prior notice) Social Nights with live bands: Thurs & fortnightly Saturday.

Family Nights - have entertainment on the second Friday of the month and starting in mid-July on Friday nights, Housie, Trivia and Karaoke

Snooker Gaming Machines 8 Ball I/D Bowls Darts Sky Tv

Whether you are going to or from the Airport or just passing through pop in & spend a relaxing & friendly time with us.

We Are Your Airport Club

Service with a smile, and bar prices better than most.

18 gaming machines, self service TAB, Housie every Thursday, live entertainment Friday and Saturday evenings, 4 snooker tables, 3 pool tables and 8 competition dart boards. 5 big screen TV’s.

Whatever you’re interested in we’ve got it covered, visit us today!

EAST COAST BAYS RSA (Inc)

15 Bute Road Browns Bay Ph: 09 478 8033 North of the Harbour Bridge

When heading north, staying or visiting the North Shore, stop at East Coast Bays RSA

AVONDALE RSA Overlooking the Racecourse

Come & visit your mates. A friendly Welcome Assured

Handy to rail & bus. Shop in New Lynn & relax in our spacious clubrooms

MEALS Lunch: Mon to Fri Dinner: Everynight Entertainment: Thursday, Friday and Sunday Evenings

The Best in the West

If you are in town give us a call. Ph: 09 828 5000

Lunches Tues-Sat 12-2pm.Dinner Wed Carvery 6-8pm Thurs-Sat 6-8.30pm Sun from 5.30pm VISIT OUR CLUBROOMS Open: Mon-Sat from 11am Sun 2-8pm

Dancing Fri & Sat 7.30pm

Coach tours welcome by arrangement

Darts * Pool * Snooker Housie * I/d Bowls * Dinning & Dancing A warm welcome to all members & their guests

35

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

Local RSAs MANUREWA

OTOROHANGA MEMORIAL

2-8 Maich Road, Manurewa Phone: 09 267 0515 Office & Fax : 09 266 8673

Now located in The Otorohanga Club, Maniapoto Street, Otorohanga Open 9am Monday to Saturday, 11am Sunday

RSA (Inc)

Lunches: Tues-Sun 12-2pm Dinners: Wed-Sun 5.30-8.30pm Sun: from 5.30pm Anzac Bar: Entertainment every Fri-Sat-Sun Darts : Snooker : 8 Ball : Bowls: Sky Tv : Gaming : TAB

President Graham & members extend the hand of friendship to you & yours and invite local & out of town visitors to our friendly new RSA Clubrooms

All new members most welcome

WAIKATO / KING COUNTRY / bAY OF PLENTY

TE AROHA MEMORIAL RSA (Inc) Rewi Street

Ph 07 884 8124

Club open from Mon 3pm- Tues - Sat 2pm, Meals Available Thurs, Fri, Sat from 6pm A warm, friendly welcome awaits you

VISITORS CORDIALLY WELCOME

OPOTIKI COUNTY RSA INC When passing through Opotiki call in and enjoy our hospitality.

We are the Gateway to East Cape Club Hours: Mon-Sat 1pm till late Sun 2pm till late Meals + Bar Snacks 7 days Membership draw nights Wed, Fri, Sat. Snooker - Pool - Indoor Bowls - Darts St John Street, OPOTIKI. Phone (07) 315 6174

NGARUAWAHIA RSA (Inc)

4 Market St, P: 07 824 8905, E: ngaruawahiarsa@vodafone.co.nz

Friendly social atmosphere. Entertainment including live music, raffles, quizzes. Children welcome till 9:30pm. Pool, Snooker, Darts, Gaming Machines, Sky TV, Courtesy Van

Bar hours: Tues-Sat 12pm until late Restaurant hours: Tues-Sat 12-2pm & 6pm until late

MT MAUNGANUI

RETURNED & SERVICES ASSOCIATION (INC) 544 Maunganui Road, Mount Maunganui THE NEW GENERATION RSA

Clubrooms open 7 days Mon/Tues 10.00am-9.00pm Wed/Thurs 11.00am-10.00pm Fri/Sat 11.00am-11.00pm Sunday noon-8.00pm

Restaurant open 7 days Lunch: Mon/Fri Noon-1.30pm Dinner: Mon/Sat 6.00-8.00pm Sunday: Carvery 5.30pm-7.30pm

Entertainment every Friday & Saturday night, Sundays from 4.00pm Regular Shows.

TAB, 18 Gaming Machines, 3 Eight Ball & 8 Snooker Tables, Sky TV, Big Screens & Data Projector, Courtesy Bus, Friendly Members, Great Staff, Wonderful Food, 12 Beers on tap, Excellent Wines, All This in the best climate in NZ Phone / Fax: 07 575 4477 Web: www.mtrsa.co.nz Email: mtrsa@xtra.co.nz Affiliated Members, Guests and Potential Members Welcome

27 Studholme Street Morrinsville Ph: 07 889-7014

RSA (Inc)

Top restaurant with excellent a la carte meals Open Tuesday to Sunday

Hours: Tues - Fri: 3pm - 10pm, Sat 11am - Late, 3rd Sunday each month: 3pm - 8pm

Gaming Machines T.A.B. Sky Big screen, EFTPOS Entertainment most Friday and Saturday nights 8-ball, Snooker, Darts, Indoor Bowls Function Hall available for Reunion Meetings etc.

Retreat Restaurant: Thurs - Sat 5pm - 9pm Lunch every 2nd Tuesday 11am - 1pm

Ample parking (free) for buses and cars

TAUPO

Family Lounge: Regular entertainment, 12 gaming machines with $1000 jackpot, Sky TV on the big screens, pool & snooker tables, indoor & outdoor bowls, fishing and darts.

MEMORIAL R.S.A. (Inc.) Ngaio Street Ph: 07 888 7190 Open from Mon- Sat 3pm, Sun 4pm.

Poppyfields Restaurant:

Open for bus tours & private functions by arrangement

TOKAANU-TURANGI & Districts Memorial RSA

Ph: 07 386 8717 PO Box 1 Katopu Place Turangi Email: trgirsa@hotmail.com Bar 7 days from 11am Restaurant Thur - Sat evenings Gaming Machines, Snooker, Pool, Darts, Indoor Bowls, Library, Big Screen Sky TV Turn 3rd right from roundabout

Avenue Road West Ph: 06 878 8808 Fax: 06 878 7642

www.morrinsvillersa.org.nz

* Gaming Machines * Sky Tv * Snooker * 8 Ball * Indoor Bowls

Rendezvous Restaurant

WHAKATANE RSA (Inc)

Richardson St Ph: 07 307 0343 Fax: 07 307 2604 Email: whakatanersa@xtra.co.nz

Open seven Days

Club Hours Mon- Wed: 11am -10pm.

Lunch and Dinner Tues-Sat Bar Snacks Available

TE TE PUKE PUKE

Restaurant Hours

Gaming Machines - Big Screens - 8 Ball - Snooker Darts - Indoor Bowls - Line Dancing - Karaoke Thursday evenings

Live Entertainment Friday Nights Close to motels in the heart of town

16 Oxford Street

MEMORIAL MEMORIAL RSA RSA (Inc) (Inc) Ph: 07 573 7922 Hours: Mon 1pm - 6.30 pm, Tues - Sat 11am - 9pm Restaurant open Thurs, Fri and Sat nights. Tues - Lunch

All RSA members & Visitors are most welcome to our warm & friendly, air conditioned club

Taumarunui & District RSA 10 Marae St, Taumarunui

PO Box 24 PH: 07 895 7517 FAX: 07 895 8343 Email: taumrsa@xtra.co.nz

MANAGER: John Callinan MEMBERS: 862 Restaurant open 7 nights from 5:30pm Club open daily from 11:00am Sunday from 1:00pm 18 Gaming Machines, Courtesy Coach Charge back facilities to local motels.

If you are coming to Taumarunui we can arrange local tours, golf club bookings, Motel Bookings.

Entertainment Centre of Taumarunui

TE AWAMUTU

District Memorial RSA (Inc) 381 ALEXANDER STREET P. 07 8713707 E. tarsa@xtra.co.nz

Turn into the main street at the traffic filter and look for our Rose Garden at the end of the main shopping area.

Bar Hours - Mon-Thurs: 11am- 9pm Fri: 11-11pm.

Sun: 1- 8pm

Restaurant Hours

Mon 12 noon to 1pm, 5pm to 7pm.

Wed & Thurs 5pm-7pm, Fri & Sat 5pm to 8.30pm Sun Smorgasboard 5pm to 7pm Groups catered for during week on request

‘ROSE of the WAIKATO’

HAMILTON Combined Returned Services Club

Rostrevor Street, Po Box 9028 Ph 07 8380131 Fax 07 8340170 Email: hamcrsc@clear.net.nz. Web: www.hamcrsc.co.nz

Open 7 Days Club Restaurant Lunches Tues-Fri Dinner Tues-Sun from 5.30pm.

FUNCTION BOOKINGS BY ARRANGEMENT 18 Gaming Machines * TAB * Sky Big Screen * ATM *Eft Pos * 8 Ball * Snooker * Euchre * 500 * Darts * I/D Bowls

Ph: 06 876 4739

VISITORS WELCOME

Mon-Thurs 10am-10pm.Fri & Sat 10am till late. Sun 2pm-8pm

Thurs- Sat: 11am - Late. Sun: 2 - 8pm Horomatangi Street Phone: 07 378 7476 Please visit our wesite at: www.tauporsa.co.nz

GalLipoli Restaurant

Open 7 Days ---- Bar Hours

Wed, Thur, Fri Lunch 12 - 2pm Mon, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat Dinner 5 - 8 Closed Tuesday and Sunday

A Friendly Welcome in Warm Whakatane

Naenae Memorial RSA (Inc) 23, Treadwell St, Ph 04 567 8159, Open 7 Days Indoor Bowls * Darts * Snooker Outdoor Bowls * Pentanque

When visiting Hutt Valley call at our comfortable clubrooms.

A WARM WELCOME AWAITS YOU

Otaki & District Memorial RSA

WHANGAMATA RSA (INC) 324 Port Road, Whangamata Ph/Fax: 07 865 9419 Email: whangamata.rsa@actrix.co.nz Web: www.whangamatarsanz.com

Gateway to the Coromandel Peninsula

9 Raukawa Street Ph: 06 36 46221 Open Tues - Sunday Dining room Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat & Sun roast lunch TAB - Sky - Snooker - Darts Fridays entertainment Affiliated Members and Guests most welcome

Clubrooms Open: 7 days from 11 am Restaurant Open: 6 days from 11 am Closed Mondays Group Bookings, Bus Tours, etc. by arrangement

Entertainment Big Screen TV’s, Snooker, 8 Ball, Darts, Indoor Bowls, Golf, 12 Gaming Machines

Visitors Most Welcome

ROTORUA RSA (Inc)

Haupapa St, Rotorua

We offer a warm welcome to our thermally heated club.

Bar open 7 days.

Restaurant Tues-Fri 12-2pm & Tues-Sat 6-8pm New Café Mon-Fri from 9am-2pm Sky TV, Big Screen TV, Snooker, 8 Ball, Darts Indoor Bowls, Flag 500, Mahjong, Line Dancing, Old Time Dancing, 18 Gaming machines, Live bands

ENJOY OUR COMPANY AND MAKE THE STOP

ACHILLES RESTAURANT Welcome to All. Open for lunch Friday from 12 noon.

Dinners Mon, Wed & Thu from 5.30; Fri & Sat from 6.00pm All facilities, Gaming Machines.

110 Amohia Street (Just 50 meters off SH1) Tel: 04 902 7927 www.pramrsa.co.nz

SOUTH TARANAKI RSA (Inc) Bar Hours: Mon, Tues 3-7pm Wed 3-9pm, Thurs 3-7pm.

Fri, Sat 3-9pm Clubrooms open some mornings Bistro Meals: Fri. 5-7pm

Princess Street Hawera When in our area you are cordially invited to visit our Clubrooms & enjoy our hospitality. A friendly welcome is assured to all.

Registered Military Museum

Rotorua RSA

1072 Haupapa St, Rotorua Phone/Fax: 348 1056 Email: rotrsa@xtra.co.nz www.rotrsa.co.nz

WANGANUI Great Entertainment...

S

Come and visit our friendly Club the

MATAMATA

HASTINGS RSA

All The Games You Can Play, TAB & Superscreen TVs/Videos

“The Centre Of it All”

Sat: 11-10pm

East coast - hawkes bay wairarapa - taranaki manawatu - wellington

RSA TAURANGA 1237 Cameron Road, Greerton, Tauranga

Ph 07 578 9654 Fax 07 577 0715 E: admin@tgarsa.co.nz | www.tgarsa.co.nz

Big Screen TV’s, Snooker, Pool, Darts, Indoor Bowl, Cards, 18 Gaming Machines, Live Bands Bar Hours - Open 7 Days - From 11.00am

BER MEM ME W E N CO WEL

Live Bands 18 Gaming Machines TAB Terminal Big Screen TVs' 8 Ball * Darts * Bowls Euchre * Housie Raffles * Members' Jackpots

Gallipoli Restaurant

Lunch Tuesday to Saturday from 11.30am Dinner Monday & Wednesday to Saturday from 5.30pm Tuesday Pension Day Special - Lunches Whiteboard Dinner Specials

… MEMBERS AND BONA FIDE GUESTS WELCOME ...

170 St Hill Street, Wanganui Phone: Clubrooms 345 5750 * Restaurant 345 4140 *

Courtesy Bus 027 345 5750

Email: admin@wanganuirsa.co.nz * Website: www.wanganuirsa.co.nz

Oaktree Restaurant

Open 7 Days from Breakfast - 7.00am - Lunch - 12.00 noon Dinner - 5.00pm “When in the Bay stay with us” Motor Inn accommodation available Excellent Rates “Visitors Welcome Anytime”

ANY CHANGES TO CLUB ADVERTS OR CLASSIFIED ADVERTS PLEASE CONTACT DAVE McKEE Ph: 03 983 5518 Fax: 03 983 5552 Email:davem@waterfordpress.co.nz

36

Health & Well-Being

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

Local RSAs NAPIER RSA 34 Vautier Street, Napier

TARADALE

Office: 06 835 7629 Fax: 06 835 1357 Club: 06 835 1034

A warm, sunshine welcome is extended to all visitors to our modern, comfortable clubrooms

156 Gloucester Street Ph/Fax 06 844 4808

OPEN 7 DAYS PER WEEK Restaurant Open:Lunch: Mon- Sat. Dinner:Mon-Sun

Top meals at reasonable prices

• Live entertainment Fri & Sat nights • Parking • Conference room • Taxi chits available for discounted fares

Membership still open. Affiliated members Welcome

Conveniently located to Marine Parade, motels and city centre THERE ARE NO STRANGERS AMONG US, ONLY FRIENDS WE HAVE NOT MET.

& Districts RSA Inc

11am - 7pm 11am - 9pm 11am - 10pm 11am - 12pm 2pm - 7pm 12pm - 7pm

Reasonably priced quality meals available: Lunch – Thurs., Fri., Sat. 12pm to 1.30pm Sun (first and last of the month) Dinner –Thurs., Fri. & Sat. 6pm to 8.00pm SKY TV, big screen, pool, darts, pokies, juke box Campervans welcomed (two sites are powered) Venue available for hire for special events and functions

Meals Available 7 days - Lunch & Dinner

All Indoor Sports available. Gaming Machines Live Music Every Alternative Saturday nights.

Wheelchair available

Sat-Sun 10.30 am

When in Napier or Hastings visit us, we are only 8 minutes from either city. Motel accommodation next door with discounts available

All Visitors Assured of a Warm & Sincere Welcome

marlborough - nelson west coast canterbury otago - southland

Call and make some West Coast friends

Milton Bruce RSA

89 Oxford St. Ph: 232 5788

OPEN SEVEN DAYS * Sky Tv * TAB * Gaming Room * Pool * Darts * Indoor Bowls * EFTPOS * Wine Club * Kapa Haka BAR HOURS

181 Tainui Street Facilities include a family bar, pool table, dart boards & gaming machines. Housie is played every Monday at 7.30pm. Raffles Tuesday & Friday.

We extend to all members a cordial invitation to visit our clubrooms situated on the main highway 5 minutes from the town centre and motels.

HOURS: Mon - Sun open from 12pm. Lunch time Courtesy Coach Available Fridays

A warm welcome is extended to all RSA & Chartered Club visitors We are open: Pool Wed to Sun from 4pm Darts Meals Friday 6.00 - 8.00pm Sunday Roast the last Sunday of Sky TV each month 6.00pm-8pm

5 -7 McKillop St, Tel: 04 237 7695 Fax 04 238 2343

Ashburton Where the North meets the South

GREYMOUTH RSA CLUB

TAWA RSA

PORIRUA RSA (Inc)

Hours Mon - Tues: 11am-7pm. Wed Thurs Fri: 11am-10pm. Sat: 11am-12pm. Sun: 11am- 5pm Tues+Wed Lunch noon. Bistro Thurs, Fri, Sat 5.30-8pm

Friendly & safe environment (children welcomed)

Mon. & Tues.

Wednesday Thursday Fri. & Sat. Sunday First & last Sun of the month

12 Cox Street

Clubrooms Open Mon-Fri 8.30 am

1 Easton Street, Ph: 06 3637670 Fax: 06 3636838 Email: foxtonrsa@xtra.co.nz www.foxtonrsa.co.nz

Open:

ASHBURTON RSA [INC]

31 Union Street, Milton Ph: 03 417 8927

inVeRCaRgiLL WoRKingMen’s CLuB inC. Incorporating the inVeRCaRgiLL R.s.a.

Open daily from 5.00pm *All Welcome*

154 Esk Street, Invercargill Ph. 03 218 8693 Fax 03 218 3011 e-mail office@iwmc.co.nz Hours Mon - Wed. 11.00am - 10.00pm Thurs. 11.00am - 11.00pm Fri. 11.00am - 12 midnight Sat. 10.00am - 1.30am Sun. 12.00noon - 9.00pm Bottle Store Corinthian Restaurant open for lunch Mon - Fri 12noon - 1.30pm Dinner Thurs. - Sun. from 6.00pm Corinthian Convention Centre available for meetings, conferences or functions, large or small 24 Gaming machines - 5 snooker tables Sky TV 5 pool tables Raffles Mon. - Sat. Band on Sat. nights Off-street parking

Paparua Templeton RSA 38 Kirk Rd, Templeton

CLUB BAR HOURS

Wed 1pm - 7pm, Thurs 4pm - 7pm, Fri 4pm till late, Sat 4pm til late

MEALS

Last Thurs of month Fri from 5.30pm, Sat from 5.30pm

Thurs, Fri & Sat. Dinners 5.30 - 9.30pm

NEW, RETURNED & SERVICE MEMBERS MOST WELCOME

RANGIORA RSA CLUB (Inc) 82 Victoria Street Ph: 03 313 7123 Restaurant: Lunch Wed, Thurs, Fri. Dinner Thurs, Fri, Sat & Sun. A warm welcome is extended to all RSA members, families and friends

PAPANUI RSA

Kensington Restaurant Open Upstairs Wednesday - Sunday from 5:30pm

3 Bars, Garden Bar, Large TV Screens, Sky Sport, TAB, Internet, Library, Gaming Room, Conference Facilities.

Members, Guests and Affiliated members welcome

BULLS

SH1 Bulls Ph 06 322 0875

Hours Mon, Tues & Sun:11am -8pm Wed -Sat:11am -10pm When passing through Bulls call at our clubrooms, enjoy our hospitality and have a friendly chat.

Visitors Made Welcome

Any changes to Club Adverts or Classified Adverts PLEASE CONTACT

DAVE McKEE Ph: 03 983 5518 | Fax: 03 983 5552 E: davem@waterfordpress.co.nz

NELSON RSA (Inc)

168 Tahunanui Drive, Nelson. Phone 03 548 6815.

Open from 11.00 am Monday – Saturday; 11.30 am Sunday Tribute: 6.00 pm Wednesdays Lunch 11.00 am – 2.00 pm; Dinner 5.30 – 8.30 pm

ALL VISITORS WELCOME

Picton

RSA & Club

Everybody Welcome

CLUB night every FRIDAY 4.30 - 6.30pm in the ANZAC Lounge

47 Udy Street, Petone. Ph 568 5404

Enjoy Southern Hospitality Tue-Sat 3-6pm & Fri 3-9pm

CHARTERED CLUB

35 Centennial Ave. Alexandra

Alexandra Clyde RSA PO Box 10 Ph: 03 448 8090 Fax: 03 448 8023 Bar Hours Mon-Sat: 11am-Late Sun: 4.30 9pm Bistro Hours Thurs: 6.30-8.30pm. Fri: 6-9pm Sun: 6-8pm Snack Bar open all hours

Catering a Specialty Gaming Machines, Sky Tv,Snooker, Pool Darts,Bowls

Live Band Friday and Saturday 8.00pm and Sundays 3.00pm

141 Palmerston Street Riverton 9822 Phone: (03) 2348737

Full Trading Hours.

Pool & Snooker Tables. Games Machines.

Bistro Meals: Open 7 Days

www.lowerhuttrsa.org.nz

Bistro Open 7 Days A Week Lunch 11.30 - 2.00pm Dinner 5:00 - 9.00pm

RIVERTON & DISTRICTS

Chartered Club 66 Wellington St

Courtesy Van Available Thurs, Fri, & Sat nights

Lower Hutt Memorial

Memorial RSA Inc

12 Civic Ave Ph: 03 208 6218 Fax: 03 208 6220 Email: GoreRSA@xtra.co.nz Clubrooms Open 10.30 am 7 days a week Bar Hours Mon - Fri 10.30 am - 11 pm Sat 10.30 am - 1 am Sun 10.30 am - 9.30 pm Family Bar The Gore RSA Bistro Wed - Fri 12-2 pm.

Tues - Sun 5.30 pm - 8 pm Private functions by arrangement * 5 F/size Snooker Tables * 18 Gaming Machines * Big Screen Sky TV * TAB Live entertainment each month. Tea coffee in our smoke free lounge. Off street parking for visitors.

Raffles: Thurs & Fri. Flag 500 Wed 7 pm during winter

NEW MEMBERS WELCOME

Mon 11am - 7pm. Tues 11am - 7pm. Wed 11am - 8pm. Thurs 11am - 11pm. Fri 11am - 12pm. Sat 10am - 12pm. Sun 10am - 9pm

RESTAURANT HOURS

Gore District

Ph: 03 352 9770 55 Bellvue Ave Papanui Rd & 1 Harewood Rd

Access also from

Visiting Christchurch

Try our hospitality in the heart of Papanui. Adjacent to major civic amenities incl. shopping mall,motels & hotels

Club Hours

Mon -Tues: 11am -9pm. Wed-Thurs: 11am-10pm. Fri- Sat: 11am- 11pm. Sun: 11am- 8pm

Bistro Meals

Lunch: 7 days 12 - 2 pm Dinner: 7 days 5pm onwards

Facilities

Eftpos, Sky TV, Snooker Billiards, Pool, Bowls, Cards, Darts, Gaming Machines, Library, Live Entertainment, Off Street Parking.

Power Point for Campervans

Welcome

Visitors Welcome

Marlborough RSA 42 Alfred Street Blenheim (In Clubs Marlborough Complex)

We extend a cordial invitation to all visiting members to visit our Clubrooms Open 7 Days from 9.00, Restaurant meals - 7 Days.

Gaming, Pool, Snooker, Sky TV.

RICHMOND/WAIMEA R.S.A. INC. P.0. Box 3034 Richmond 7050.

Any changes to Club Adverts or Classified Adverts

Operating from Club Waimea Premises Lower Queen Street, Richmond. Phone 03 543 9179.

Open from 11.00am till late. Club Waimea facilities including Caravan Park facilities which are available to all R.S.A. Members.

Meals are available Wednesday - Sunday 11.30am Onwards

PLEASE CONTACT

motueka

DAVE McKEE Ph: 03 983 5518

Fax: 03 983 5552 E: davem@waterfordpress.co.nz

memorial rsa (inc) 49 High Street

Look us up on Facebook

Open 7 Days Sun-Thur 2.30pm. Fri-Sat 11.00am Restaurant Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat 5.30pm

Fri, Sat Lunch: 12.00 - 1.00 pm rsa - clubs nz members most welcome

37

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

Travel Australia GOLD COAST

SYDNEY

Anyone for a Gold Coast Getaway??

FREE High Speed

Welcome to Palazzo Colonnades boutique, high-rise holiday accommodation apartments in Surfers Paradise....

271 Elizabeth Street, Sydney + 61 2 9264 6001

DIRECT BOOKING ONLINE NOW AVAILABLE

• Fully self contained, air conditioned one bedroom and two bedroom apartments

Visit: www.hydeparkinn.com.au

• Heated swimming pool, spa, sauna, gymnasium and BBQ facilities

HOT DEAL!

• Under cover, fully secured free parking

Stay 5 Pay 4 from AUS $608.00*

• Flat screen televisions and AUSTAR cable television free of charge • In room wireless internet broadband service • Extensive choice of restaurants within minutes walking distance

TO BOOK PHONE +61 7 5538 4555

• 1.5km from Gold Coast Exhibition and Convention Centre • 150 metres to the beach and 6-8 minutes leisurely stroll to Cavill Avenue

Address: 2988 - 2994 Surfers Paradise Blvd, Surfers Paradise. 4217 Telephone: +61 7 5538 4555 Email: info@palazzocolonnades.com.au

FOR THE BEST RATES BOOK DIRECT AT OUR NEW WEBSITE: www.palazzocolonnades.com.au * Valid for sale until 19/09/14. Block out dates apply.

The Hyde Park Inn offers friendly, personalised service and spectacular views across Hyde Park. Central CBD location, just minutes to shopping, theatres, Central Station, The Opera House, Darling Harbour and Kings Cross.

Our features include: • Self catering facilities • Complimentary continental breakfast • Air-conditioning • Balcony to Deluxe Rooms • Large family rooms and apartments • Free car parking • Free in-house movie channels • Guest laundry • DVD players to all rooms • Flat Screen LCD televisions

Owned by RSL NSW Branch • Special rates for RSA Members • Special long term rates available Eligible RSA members can join a NSW RSL Sub Branch for even better rates.

SAILPORT

M O O LO O L A B A A PA R T M E N T S

1 & 2 bedroom apartments and 3 bedroom sub-penthouses. All fully self-contained apartments with private spa baths.

Expansive sea views opposite patrolled beach.

Resort facilities – indoor heated pool, steam room, outdoor pool, tennis court, gym, games room.

Fabulous heated indoor pool renovations now completed, perfect for winter months.

Call or email for specials.

238 The Esplanade Burleigh Heads QLD 4220 Ph. 00 617 5535 8866 Fax. 00 617 5535 8523 Email. mail@burleighsurf.com.au

SUNSHINE COAST Queensland

Dockside Mooloolaba Self contained 2 & 3 bedroom apartments Close to Mooloolaba Beach & Bowls Club Heated Pool & tropical gardens Free Wifi - Secure Parking From AU$120 per night for June – Aug 2014 Up to 4 people – 7 night minimum

MAY/JUNE Special "stay 7 pay only for 5 nights" in a 2 bedroom STD Apartment valid 1st May - 26th June only

w w w.burleighsur f.com.au

Overlooking Mooloolaba Wharf and Marina.

100 metres to Surf Club and safe patrolled Beach.

Great rates, modern 4 star luxury 1,2 & 3 bedrooms. Spacious, fully self contained & air conditioned.

Central to all the Sunshine Coast attractions.

Special - Stay 7 Pay 5 Feb, May - July, November

Telephone: 00617 5444 1844 email: reception@sailport.com.au.

Cnr River Esplanade & Hancock St, Mooloolaba, Queensland Australia.

w w w. s a i l p o r t . c o m . a u

|

07 5444 1844

Surfers Paradise Fully self contained boutique apartments - 4 star self rating, all with lift access, airconditioning & ocean views. Direct access to beach 50 meters. Heated pool and spa, BBQ area. Transport arranged from Brisbane or Coolangatta Airports. Easy walk to heart of Surfers or Broadbeach

Book direct and get great deals from friendly kiwis, Ph: 00617 5526 7588, Or email: info@emeraldsands.com.au Or visit: www.emeraldsands.com.au

Accommodation on the Gold Coast - Mermaid Beach Holiday Apartments.

Mermaid Beach Park View is a beautifully maintained boutique self catering apartment complex, ideal for couples of all ages, families or small groups. And considering the range of facilities on offer, Park View is excellent value-for-money.

Being completely self-contained, each air-conditioned apartment offers all the comforts of home, including a fully equipped kitchen and laundry and satellite television (with 2 Movie channels and 3 Sports channels amongst others). Also, for peace of mind, each apartment has its own secure internal car park space. Only 50m to Mermaid Beach Surf Lifesaving Club through the park.

Wireless broadband is also available throughout the complex. 10% Discount with this advertisement.

40 -44 Ventura Road, Mermaid Beach, QLD 4218, Australia PH +61 7 5575 6100 FAX +61 7 5575 6199 EMAIL info@mermaidparkview.com.au www.mermaidparkview.com.au

Cnr Foote & Burnett Sts, Mooloolaba www.docksidemooloolaba.com.au info@docksidemooloolaba.com.au

Tel: +61 7 5478 2044 or NZ Freephone 0800 000 417

Any changes to Club Adverts or Classified Adverts PLEASE CONTACT:

DAVE McKEE Ph: 03 983 5518 | Fax: 03 983 5552 E: davem@waterfordpress.co.nz

MALIBU MOOLOOLABA

• Ocean Views from all Apartments • 2 Bedroom / 2 bathroom air conditioned • Heated lap pool & spa • Lift access to all 10 floors • Secure U/C Parking • Central to cafes, restaurants, shops, bars & clubs • TV / DVD FREE Austar • 2 Rooftop apartments (Private BBQ) - One with spa

Riviere on Golden Beach, Caloundra, Queensland

Email: info@riviere.com.au web: www.riviere.com.au

Phone: 0061 75492 3200

SPECIAL DISCOUNT IF YOU MENTION THIS ADVERT 81 The Esplanade Mooloolaba 4557 Ph: 00617 5444 1133 Fax: 00617 5444 1280 E: info@mailibu.com.au www.malibu.com.au

Check out our winter and spring specials

38

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

Travel New Zealand ACAPULCO MOTOR INN TAUPO

Welcomes RSA members Off season discounts may apply 20 ground floor units

Special Package Deal* Offer includes: Accommodation plus Breakfast & Dinner Buffet

Ph: 07 578 9654 Single: $130 Double $165

10% Discount to all members 19 Rifle Range Road www.acapulcotaupo.co.nz

Scan for more info >>

Phone 0800 378 7174 Any changes to Club Adverts or Classified Adverts

PLEASE CONTACT : DAVE McKEE

PH: 03 983 5518

Fax: 03 983 5552

E: davem@waterfordpress.co.nz

1237 Cameron Rd,Greerton, Tauranga Email: admin@tgarsa.co.nz www.greertonmotorinn.co.nz/rr

*Replica medals and Miniatures supplied and mounted. *Full sized and Mini medal groups for other family members. *Framed Medal Displays and Copy displays. *Regimental Ties & Blazer pocket badges.

MEDAL MOUNTING, MILITARY HISTORY & GENEALOGY RESEARCH. Orders, decorations & medals (full size & miniatures) court mounted for day, evening wear, and for family history displays. Medals mounted with respect for over 40 years with no modifications to medals or clasps. Contact Medal Mounting Wellington, H.E. Chamberlain, Ph: 04 293 3504. 470 Te Moana Rd. Waikanae. Email: clas.chamberlain@xtra.co.nz.

We do not deal or trade original medals

P. 09 838 4828 F. 09 838 4850 W. www.medals.co.nz 6 Central Park Drive, Henderson, Auckland 0610

MEDAL MOUNTING

MEDAL MOUNTING Full Size and Miniature Orders, Decorations and Medals. Court Mounted or Swing Style. Duplicate groups made up to order. If necessary medals cleaned and new ribbon supplied. Competitive prices and quality work guaranteed.

Contact: Russell Barker P O Box 346 Waikanae 5250 Phone: 04 293 1045 Email: rmbarker@xtra.co.nz

Court or Swing Style, Full Size & Miniature medals,Ribbon Bars, Extra sets of medals for family, Framed Family Groups. Supplier of replica WW2 wings and brevet.

28 Years Experience. Contact: Tony Prowse, 6 Chilton Dr, Paraparaumu, Kapiti Coast Ph. 04 2973232. Email: tsprowse@xtra.co.nz

SWING STYLE

Our 2014 programme includes: NZ: Perusing the Pacific Coast, Winterless North, Top of the South, South of the South, Chatham Islands, Great Barrier Island, High Country Spectacular, Wonders of Westland, Kapiti Island & South Coast, Taranaki Rhodo Festival, Masterton for Christmas. AUSTRALIA: Touring Tasmania, Melbourne Adelaide & the Murray River, Sunshine Coast Stay Put, Brisbane to Cairns, Gulf to the Outback. PACIFIC: Norfolk Island, Rarotonga, Niue For a free colour brochure contact Scottsdale Tours FREE phone 0800 66 44 14 www.scottsdaletours.co.nz

E: davem@waterfordpress.co.nz

Medals professionally mounted court or swing style. $20 per medal. Courier return $8.00 . No hidden costs.

Damage free mounting. New ribbon.

Fully insured. Medal cases, replicas and miniatures stocked. Free NZDSM or NZOSM lapel pin with each mounting order. NZ wide mail order service or by appointment.

Turnaround is usually 7 days.

A G Bairstow NZ Medals Ltd

PO Box 128-134, Remuera, Auckland 1541 Ph : 09 571 2074 aubreyb@clear.net.nz

www.nzmedals.com

PLEASE CONTACT

DAVE McKEE Ph: 03 983 5518

Fax: 03 983 5552

E: davem@waterfordpress.co.nz

VIETNAM TOURS 20 Days ex Auck, Wgtn, Chch.

From $6495 pp share twin. Special conditions apply. Kiwi Vietnam Tours PO Box 123 Rongotea Ph 06 324 8444, info@kiwivietnamtours.co.nz www.kiwivietnamtours.co.nz

Any changes to Club Adverts or Classified Adverts

PLEASE CONTACT

DAVE McKEE Ph: 03 983 5518 | Fax: 03 983 5552 E: davem@waterfordpress.co.nz

Installation evokes hopelessness of war An eight-screen video installation at Wellington’s City Gallery until September 7, is described by curator Robert Leonard as a “powerfully emotional tribute to World War 1”. Owls at Noon Prelude: The Hollow Men (2005) was produced by pioneer French filmmaker Chris Marker (1921-2012).

Inspired by T.S. Eliot’s poem, The Hollow Men (1925), Marker mixes lines of text with moody photographs of wounded veterans and beautiful women to evoke the hopelessness of those who experienced “the war to end all wars”.

DAVE McKEE Ph: 03 983 5518

WHAKATANE Bay Hotel Units 90 McAllister Street. Very handy to RSA. Discount for RSA members. Friendly service, courtesy pickup, Pets very welcome. Your hosts Betty & Willy Arends.

Ph 07 308 6788 Fax 07 308 6749

Tours

PLEASE CONTACT

MEDAL MOUNTING COURT STYLE

RUSSELL. F/furn 2 bdrm apartment. Sleeps 4 available all year. 2 adults $400 p week or $80 p night, $15 pn extra person.

Ph: 0 9 4 2 6 9 7 4 7 Email: donandmyra@xtra.co.nz

Any changes to Club Adverts or Classified Adverts

Fax: 03 983 5552

WANGANUI. Bignell St Motel, Quiet Warm Friendly, Comfortable, Pets by arrangement $65 single + $15pp extra. Phone Now 0800 244 635

Any changes to Club Adverts or Classified Adverts

FULLY ESCORTED TOURS FOR SENIOR CITIZENS

Medals English Tie & Medal Co

NAPIER. Colonial Lodge Motel. Next door to Taradale RSA. 17 g/f fully s/c units serviced daily.

Sky digital, heated swimming & private spa pools, games room, bbq, large garden grounds.

Qualmark 4 Star Plus.Tariff $110 - $150 for 1-2 persons. RSA member discount. Reservations 0800 68 44 77. Ph/Fax 06 844 7788. Your hosts Sarah & Mark Johnson. stay@colonialmotel.co.nz www.colonialmotel.co.nz

RSA/RSL interdominion darts results The 49th RSA/RSL interdominion darts tournament was held at the Glen Eden RSA, Auckland, over Easter. Results: Anzac Trophy: Australia 11 New Zealand 4.

New Zealand team: Bob Sadler, Roni Shearsby, Bruce Abbott, Tony Fromont, Leo Cantell (all Glen Eden), Dave Clapperton (Waihi), Dean Woodward (Henderson), Jim Hennah (New Lynn), Leo Nicholson (Ashhurst), Craig Schomaker (Lower Hutt).

Dominion: Australia 10 New Zealand 5. New Zealand team: Steven Halford, Mal Jones, Steve Yost (all Glen Eden), John Ryan (Upper Hutt), Gordy McCallum, Charlie Taylor (both Upper Waitaki), George Brook (Henderson), Peter Page (New Lynn), Karen McLean (Napier), Peter McGinn (Lower Hutt).

Singles: Laurie Turner (Sanson-Ohakea).

Doubles: Andy Pringle (Upper Hutt)/Peter Herewini (Whangarei).

Test match: New Zealand 7 Australia 6. New Zealand team: Don Ross (Lower Hutt), Jimmy Joyce, Peter Herewini (both Whangarei), Greg West, Kevin Barr (both Glen Eden), Rob Furmage (New Lynn), Andy Pringle (Upper Hutt), Willie Peters, Whitu Taylor (both Waihi), Laurie Turner (Sanson-Ohakea.

Executive: New Zealand 9 Australia 6. New Zealand team (all New Zealand executive members and selectors stood down to allow others to play): Dave Green (Birkenhead), John Amosa (Glen Eden), Derek Kaa, John Kaa, George Moore (all Mt Wellington), Dean Tremayne (Lower Hutt), Maurice Farr (Pukekohe), Keith Ball (Ashhurst), Maree Mayall (Swanson), Sarnia West (Sanson-Ohakea).

Captain’s Cup: Tony Wicksteed (Lower Hutt) 1, Charlie Taylor (Upper Waitaki) 2.

Coiro Shield (Australia only): Victoria 1, New South Wales 2.

Veterans’ Cup: Kevin Barr (Glen Eden) 1, Dick Delamere (Victoria) 2.

High start: Richard Jackson (Henderson) 160.

High finish: Tony Wicksteed (Lower Hutt) 161.

First 180: Bob Lockwood (New South Wales).

First 171: David Jackson (New South Wales).

Most 180s: Steve Brown (Victoria), Kelly Jillett (New Zealand), Gary Warner (Victoria), Paul Tune (Victoria), John Ryan (New Zealand) 3.

Most 100s: Laurie Turner (Sanson–Ohakea) 36.

Necklace: Bob Sadler (Glen Eden). Trout mouth: Noel Beasy (Victoria). The Frog: Nick Zavatarro (New South Wales). Herbie: Peter Fraatz (Victoria).

News

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

39

Wartime story an epic tale of adventure From page 40 other bodies, thinking he was dead. A German farmer, who was at the camp to pick up scraps for his pigs, saw that Adrie was still breathing and managed to sneak him onto his truck and take him home.

The kindly farmer and his wife made a bed for him in a farm shed among the animals as they were too frightened to have him in the house.

“The wife started giving my brother boiled potato water and rice water because he was almost starved to death and couldn’t tolerate food. He was also covered in bruises and sores, but she did whatever she could to keep him alive. Finally Adrie grew stronger and was able to start eating again. Then the end of the war came and he was able to come home.”

Eva says the couple who saved him were “highly decorated” after the war for their bravery and kindness: “It was such a big risk as they would have been shot if they’d been found out.

Adrie worked for his father’s business after the war and went on to marry and have three children. He wrote a book about his wartime experiences.

“His health wasn’t 100 per cent for the rest of his life. He always had high blood pressure and died of cancer at the age of 71.”

*** THE DE KONNINGS were a family of means and strong followers of the Catholic faith. In desperate times during the war, they were happy to share what they had with others.

When Rotterdam was bombed in 1940, nearly 900 civilians were killed, including the parents of three young children.

“We went to church a week or so after the bombing and when we came out the Red Cross had several orphaned children they were trying to find temporary homes for until other family members could be found. We saw three young children who had been found huddled together in a bedroom of their bombed house. My mother looked at my father and he agreed to take them home.”

It was a few months before the children’s Oma was located. However she said she couldn’t take the siblings because she couldn’t afford to feed them.

We adjusted well to having the German soldiers on our farm. They were good men who, like so many soldiers on both sides, never wanted to go to war.

Eva’s brother Adrie, who was tortured and left for dead by the Gestapo. He miraculously survived after being saved by a German farmer who found him still breathing among a pile of dead bodies.

“There was very little food back then, but we had enough on the farm, so my mother ended up looking after them for a few years. After the war they found homes with some other relations.”

The de Konnings took in an additional two children, as well as a couple of elderly local men who did odd jobs on the farm in return for shelter and food. Another couple of their farm workers used to eat dinner with the family at a table stretching the length of the room to accommodate everyone, says Eva. “We had two coal ranges going all the time and pots this high,” she says, raising her arm to table height. “My father also tried to look after the priest and 40 nuns at the parish, killing a cow or pig from the farm on the quiet to feed them.”

She says things got “really bad” in 1944 and 1945 when Europe had its worst winter for years and German blockades cut off food and fuel shipments which led to the Dutch famine known as the Hongerwinter (Hunger winter).

By then the southern Netherlands had been liberated by the Americans, but it would be another few months before the Canadians would sweep into the northern and western parts of the country, including Rotterdam.

“There was no food, and people were desperately hungry. The Scandinavian countries used to drop biscuits off to us from the air and send free bread we had to queue for at the shop and show our passports to receive,” says Eva. Around 4.5 million Dutch people were affected, with soup kitchens playing a big part in their survival. However, thousands of people still died from malnutrition.

***

Eva on her wedding day with her husband, Johannes Mulken. The pair emigrated to New Zealand in the 1950s.

EVA says her family saw the best and worst side of the German soldiers during their wartime experiences.

“We adjusted well to having the German soldiers on our farm. They were good men, ordinary Germans who, like so many soldiers on both sides, never wanted to go to war.”

She looks at a photo of her, her sister and father with the German soldiers on the farm.

“It’s still one of my favourites,” she says.

She was particularly fond of one of the soldiers, Oscar, a father of four from a town near Heidelberg. “He favoured me so much because he had a daughter my age. He was a good man.

My mother and I even wrote regularly to his mother back in Germany.”

Eva also carries images with her from the war that no small child should have had to see. She witnessed Dutch Jews being “rounded up like mobs of sheep” and herded onto railway cattle

wagons on their way to the concentration camps.

One day in 1940 she and her parents came across a Dutch soldier, badly wounded by a grenade.

“They bandaged him as best they could and when my father was getting the horses ready to take him to the nearby hospital, he said I had to hold my hands tightly over the wound.

My mother prayed over him with her rosary beads and the soldier said, ‘Is there a God?’ ‘Of course,’ said my mother, ‘you must believe.’

The soldier said that if he was still alive a year later, he would become a Catholic. We got him to hospital and he survived. True to his word, a year later he visited my mother and asked her how to convert.”

Towards the end of the war, the Germans took several retaliation measures against the Dutch people for acts of resistance, particularly after Dolle Dinsdag, or ‘Mad Tuesday’, the day after the Allies had conquered Antwerp, when rumours started to spread about the imminent liberation of the Netherlands. Many Dutch people prepared to receive and cheer the Allies, and although southern Netherlands was liberated soon after, it wasn’t until May 5, 1945 that the whole of the Netherlands was finally free.

Soon after Dolle Dinsdag, many people were executed around Holland by firing squad for acts of resistance. Eva was horrified to witness a dark day in Rotterdam’s history, April 3,1945 at Oostzeedijk when 20 men were brought before a firing squad on the side of the dyke at eight o’clock in the morning. They were shot in retaliation for the killing of a policeman from Rotterdam, who was also a member of the SS. “We were on our way to church and as we came up the steps of the dyke, could see a lot of people standing around. There was a big truck with a canvas back, and 20 men lined up alongside the dyke. We had to stand there and watch and couldn’t say anything. Then some soldiers, either SS or NSB, came out and shot the men. I couldn’t believe what had happened.

It was terrible.”

Like many of the German soldiers stationed at the de Konnings’ farm, Oscar, Eva’s friend, was later sent on to the Russian Front. “He didn’t come back. None of them did.”

The German armed forces suffered 80% of its military deaths in the Eastern Front, still generally accepted as the deadliest conflict in human history. This period of the war was highlighted by brutal warfare and an often wilful disregard for human life by both sides in order to achieve victory.

It was these battles with the Red Army during the harshest of winters that ultimately led to the German’s defeat.

Eva remembers lots of Canadian, British and American soldiers in Rotterdam after the hostilities ceased: “The tanks rolled into Rotterdam and five minutes later we were on top of them.

It was wonderful.

*** WHEN she was just 14, Eva met Johannes Mulken, the man who would become her husband.

“The very first day we met, he asked me to marry him. I looked at him and said yes.”

Eva’s parents were not impressed. Her father already had a local boy lined up for her, the son of a businessman who owned a distillery.

Johannes (John) came from a poorer family.

“I got my way in the end and married John when I was 18. On the day of the wedding my mother said, ‘I know there’s a reason for you

getting married so young but I just can’t see it.”

Two years later Eva’s mother was dead at the age of 54 following a heart attack: “I cried for two solid years, but at least I was in my place with a lovely husband. That was the reason.”

Eva says she learned the “important things in life” from her mother.

“We were always taught to help people, especially during the war when we were giving people food and had all these extra people living in the house. She used to say giving is much better than taking, and that love was the most important thing. I was lucky to find love when I was very young. And the day I married the man I loved, I became a free woman.”

John served in the Dutch navy and went to fight in the Indonesian War of Independence.

“I was hoping he would come home and was lucky he did. A lot of his friends didn’t.”

In the 1950s, with work becoming scarce in Holland, Eva and John moved to New Zealand.

“I was in my early 20s by this stage with two children. When we came to New Zealand we never looked over our shoulders. We gave it two years and thought if we didn’t like if after that, we’d move back home. But we loved it here.”

They settled in Greymouth where John worked on the railway for two years. However business ran in Eva’s blood, and she was determined they could do something for themselves. ”We borrowed money from the bank, moved to Christchurch and started a cafe (the Blue Mill Milk Bar) in Sydenham.” It wasn’t long before the cafe was open seven days a week, from 6am.

“We were the first people in Christchurch to sell coffee. We brought percolators out from Holland. All the carriers in Christchurch used to come into the nice, warm shop for a coffee and some good food.” Soon they were selling chocolates, books and newspapers too.

“It was a success, but we didn’t lose sight of the things we’d learned during the wars. When my husband was in Indonesia he never forgot how the Salvation Army used to give the soldiers parcels and magazines. He insisted that when Salvation Army members in Christchurch would come into the milk bar on Friday afternoons, they wouldn’t pay for their tea. Sometimes we’d be making free tea for 10, 12 or 14 people, but it didn’t matter.”

The Mulkens were repaid one Christmas by one of “most beautiful things” Eva has seen.

“One Friday afternoon before Christmas, the entire Salvation Army Band came to play in front of our shop to say thank you. The business people next door were saying, ‘What have you got that we haven’t?’. We said, love in life and helping people, the most important things.”

Eva was devastated to lose her husband John to cancer 20 years ago, but her drive to help others has continued .

*** HER PASSION and zest for life is evident despite having lived through some of the most difficult circumstances in the 20th century and bearing witness to atrocities. She chats freely and laughs long, and is philosophical about the lessons her family and experiences taught her.

One thing she can’t quite believe is the unbelievable coincidence of seeing her two home cities destroyed.

“All those years ago when I was a small child, I saw Rotterdam razed to the ground and rebuilt.

Now the same thing is happening in Christchurch.

Who would have thought you’d experience something like that twice in a lifetime?”

40 News

RSA REVIEW • WINTER 2014

Eva, the barber and the secret coat As a young Dutch girl growing up in Nazi occupied Rotterdam during World War 2, Eva de Konning witnessed the best and worst of life. Despite the horror and hardship she endured, Eva stayed true to her family’s principles of helping people in need. She emigrated to New Zealand in the 1950s, now lives in Christchurch, and has the dubious distinction of living in two cities that were badly damaged then rebuilt. JO BAILEY relates Eva’s story.

ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands, early 1940s.

Eva de Konning, a young Dutch girl, sets off from her home in the east of the Nazi-occupied city and skips over the railway lines towards a road block.

“Goedemorgen,” she says cheerfully to the German soldiers standing guard.

They return her greeting, and wave her through.

Eva, who is only six or seven years old, regularly makes the short journey to visit Chris, a barber, so is well known to the soldiers.

“Come and sit down Eva,” says Chris when she arrives at his shop. “You must be hot. Here take off your coat.”

She removes the coat, which is fashioned from a blanket and hands it to Chris. He gives her a drink of lemonade and some chewing gum. A while later he returns with the coat. She puts it on and walks home, back through the German road block.

This routine continues for two or three years.

Eva never challenges her father when he tells her it is time to go and visit Chris. He is a strict disciplinarian, so she knows to follow his instructions without question. And there is always the sweetener of a lolly or glass of lemonade to make the journey worthwhile.

It is not until the end of World War 2 that Eva discovers just how dangerous those barbershop visits really were.

*** EVA MULKEN sits at the dining table at her Christchurch home, looking over a handful of black-and-white photographs from the war years in Rotterdam. For nearly 70 years she has told her extraordinary story to family and friends, but it has never been recorded.

It was May 14, 1940, when her home city was torn apart by the Rotterdam Blitz – a key part in the German invasion of the Netherlands.

Relentless bombing destroyed most of the city’s heart which led to the Dutch surrender to the Nazis a few days later after Utrecht was threatened with the same treatment.

Until the war, Eva and her family had led a privileged life: “We were well off and brought up with class distinction, which I didn’t really like,” she says.

Her father, Dirk de Konning, was a well respected farmer and businessman. He had a large property on the outskirts of the city and travelled all over Europe buying and selling cattle. The farm employed numerous workers, who harvested milk, made gouda cheese, ran stock and grew crops.

After the invasion the property was commandeered by the Germans for use as a heavy artillery base, reflecting its strategic location near the dyke with the main railway lines to Utrecht and the city, and goods train lines crossing its boundary. The soldiers also took over most of the family’s stables for their own horses and made good use of the farm’s ready supply of food.

Rotterdam was split into north, south, east and west areas under its occupation, which were separated by road blocks.

“The adults would have to show their passports to the soldiers at these road blocks, but us kids usually went straight through. We knew most of the German guards because they were living on our land,” says Eva. What she didn’t know at the time, was that her father was one of the men leading the local Underground Resistance network, often helping to save the lives of British and American pilots who had been shot down, she says.

“The big Lancaster bombers used to fly over on their way to Germany but sometimes they’d

Top: Eva de Konning (left), her sister and father (behind them) flanked by German soldiers on the family farm near Rotterdam. The Germans commandeered the property for use as a heavy artillery base. Above: The checkpoint in Rotterdam through which Eva would smuggle messages used by the Dutch Resistance.

be shot down by heavy artillery on the land. If the pilots were still alive, my father would help them and try and get them back to England.”

The Underground would smuggle the pilots out of Rotterdam, through Schiedam and out to Maasslius, where they would be picked up by fishing boats that would take them back to England.

The courageous men and women of the Resistance would also alert the British to the location of war factories in Germany where thousands of young Dutch men had been forcibly requisitioned to make everything from uniforms to munitions and aircraft.

These factories were prime bombing targets for the Royal Air Force, so the Dutch Underground did their best to try and ensure the British avoided the factories where the Dutch men worked.

“We were lucky as although we had heavy artillery on my father’s land, the British were not allowed to bomb it because it had to be saved for the underground.”

Dirk de Konning had a transmitter he would use to send and receive coded messages to and from England, right under the noses of the Germans living on his property. Towards the end of the war, he would sneak out at night, past the heavy artillery, and wade through water to a far corner of his farm, where he would signal British planes by torchlight so that they could safely drop guns for the Dutch underground.

“My father had so many guns arrive on his land. By the end of the war virtually every member of the Underground had one. He had to be so careful.”

It was this dangerous work that led to Eva’s regular visits to Chris the barber.

“Important messages from England about the

pilots or potential bombing targets had to be passed to other members of the Underground, which was a big organisation spread right across Rotterdam. After the road blocks went up, it was very hard to get messages to the other side and although we had a telephone, we couldn’t use it because the Germans were so close.”

Eva’s father used to sew hand-written notes into the bottom hem of her jacket, which Chris would remove and replace with another message.

“I had no idea until after the war that I was working for the Underground. It was incredibly dangerous. If my father or I had been caught, they might have shot the whole family.”

There were six children in Eva’s family, but she got the job as message deliverer because she was the youngest and the fastest runner, she says.

“My father used to say, ‘Eva, go to the road blocks. Don’t stop. Don’t talk. Just go to Chris.

He is waiting for you and has a lolly.’ My father said after the war he couldn’t have told me what I was really doing because kids talk, but that I was a very brave girl. Even my mother, Christine, didn’t know the truth.”

Eva’s eldest brother, Adrie, also worked for the underground. But he wasn’t able to avoid capture.

“He was shipped off to a camp in Holland in 1943. It was two years before we discovered his fate.”

*** DIRK DE KONNING used to pull on a balaclava and gloves and disguise his voice when he attended meetings of the local Underground. He was so secretive about his involvement in the

group that his wife, Christine, was completely unaware of his activities.

“People had to be careful not to reveal their faces as someone sitting next to them could be a traitor. That’s how my brother, Adrie, got caught.” Adrie was sent to a camp in Holland by the Germans before being moved on to a small concentration camp in Germany in 1943.

Despite his son being captured, Dirk’s work with the Underground continued uninterrupted: “He was determined to do every little thing he could to help.”

The family was desperate for news of Adrie, but months went by without any word. Eva says being a “very Catholic family”, her mother used to get feelings about things, and she will never forget the vision of her coming down the stairs early on the morning of April 5, 1944 with tears streaming down her face.

“I will always remember the exact date. My mother cried, and cried and cried. I said, ‘What happened?’. She said, ‘It’s terrible Eva, Adrie is dead. They took his fingernails, his teeth and they hit him and hit him to death. I was there and saw it all.”

Eva’s mother asked her to pray, so they clasped hands and knelt down. When her father came in from milking the cows he asked what was going on.

“My mother said, ‘Dirk, it’s terrible, Adrie is dead. He’s lying there dead’. My father told her she must have been having a bad dream, but she insisted she had seen it all. I was the only one who believed her.”

Many more months past. The war eventually came to an end and Rotterdam was liberated.

One Sunday lunchtime soon after, Eva and her friend, Riet, were standing on the dyke watching the railcars filled with Dutch men coming back from Germany.

“We were waving and singing and so happy when all of a sudden Riet yelled, ‘Eva, it’s your brother, it’s Adrie!’. I couldn’t believe it. He was alive. The railcar was due to stop at another station about five minutes further on, so it was just as well I was a fast runner. We ran and ran to the station and found Adrie. It was incredible to see him. I said ‘You are supposed to be dead’, and he said, ‘Eva it’s a long story’.”

The girls walked home with Adrie and found her father milking the cows.

“I said father, come, Adrie is here. A lot of the farm workers were with him. Nobody could believe it.”

Eva’s father asked her to go and collect her mother from her Aunty Jul’s house, a half-hour walk away.

“My mother had a bad heart, so my father said to be careful how I told her her son was still alive. I ran to my aunt’s house and told my mother she had to come home. As we started to walk, I said, ‘Mother, do you remember the dream where you said Adrie was dead? Well, whatever you saw, he is not dead. He’s at home and he’s alive.”

When they got home Eva’s mother was overcome with emotion, held Adrie tight and wouldn’t let him go.

Eva says the “most beautiful thing” about the story was when her mother told Adrie about her terrible vision of what he had endured.

“My brother said everything she saw was true and that he had come very close to losing his life after being badly tortured and left for dead by the Gestapo and SS soldiers at the concentration camp.”

But despite the torture inflicted on him, he refused to talk. At the end of the beating, the Germans threw him outside among some To page 39