I am enormously proud of the sacrifice thousands of Nelsonians made in the two world wars that we properly acknowledge each Anzac Day. I am putting my support behind the efforts of The New Zealand War Memorial Museum Trust, to establish in Le Quesnoy, France, a place to tell their story.
Australia, Canada, South Africa and the USA all have such museums in Europe, but not New Zealand. 100,000 Kiwis served abroad in World War 1, out of our one million people then, the highest proportion of any country. There are 15,000 New Zealanders buried in Europe, many in unknown graves from World Wars 1 and 2, with over 400 from Nelson.
The Patron of the Trust is former Labour Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Helen Clark and its Chair is former National Deputy Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Sir Don McKinnon. This reflects the bipartisan support for this initiative to better commemorate these brave New Zealanders.
A building to house the museum has been purchased by the Trust in the French village of Le Quesnoy. This town was liberated on 4thNov 1918 through extraordinary bravery of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. They suffered 500 casualties but there was no loss of civilian life and minimal damage to this historic town. It was a far more successful campaign than Gallipoli or Passchendaele. It is an ideal place to pass onto future generations the inspiration from these New Zealander’s service and the lessons from these awful wars.
I am assisting the Trust in Nelson with their fund raising for this museum. I invite descendants of these brave service people from World War 1 and 2 and anyone interested to join Sir Don, the RSA and myself for a complementary afternoon tea and information presentation on the project, this Saturday 3pm at my rooms at 544 Waimea Road. More information is available on https://www.nzwmm.org.nz/. Lest We Forget.
