St Marys Church war memorial, Nelson, February 2009
To the left is a war memorial that I discovered in Nelson. It is on the grounds of St Marys Catholic Church in Manuka Street.
St Marys Church, February 2009
I don’t know anything about this memorial and it’s not listed on the register of war memorials on NZHistory.net.nz. Any information about it would be gratefully recieved.
It would also be great to receive your photos of local war memorials, to post on the OurSpace map to help illustrate a talk I am giving on Sunday. On the top of my wish list is a photo of the Kaitaia memorial, the first one to be unveiled in New Zealand in March 1916.
My talk is the day after Anzac Day, which is a day of remembrance that acknowledges the sacrifice of New Zealand’s servicemen and women. My previous blog mentioned how important war memorials have been to this annual event, so the more images of memorials the better. If you get to a Anzac Day service on Saturday, try to take some photos and that way you can be part of Te Papa’s Anzac Day events too.
Collingwood, February 2009
In February I was in Collingwood, a small town in Golden Bay at the top of the South Island.
Like many towns and cities around New Zealand, Collingwood has war memorials dedicated to local men who died in both world wars.
Collingwood war memorials, February 2009
My grandfather, who was born in Collingwood, was only eight years old when WWI started in 1914. Fifty-four men from the community old enough to fight, lost their lives in the conflict. Amongst these fatalities were the Willicombe brothers, Allan and Cuthbert, and the Harvey brothers, William, Charles, Percy, and Frederick.
Collingwood memorial detail, February 2009
Words engraved on the memorial (‘The Frontier-grave is far away’) remind us that most of the bodies of the servicemen and women killed in the conflict were buried overseas. This absence was sorely felt by grieving friends, relatives, and sweethearts. With no cemeteries to visit, memorials became reminders of lost lives, and sites where war-time sacrifices could be remembered, especially on Anzac Day.
