With Anzac Day on 25 April, the month is timely to remember the many New Zealanders who have given their lives, careers and service towards New Zealand and democracy across the world.
We celebrate Anzac Day as a special moment when we come together across communities, age groups and cultures to acknowledge those who gave their all in the dark nights on the high seas, in the deserts of North Africa, on patrols in Korea and Vietnam and, of course, in the mud-soaked battlements of the Western Front and dust of Gallipoli.
The memory of each of these conflicts is embedded into the New Zealand spirit, not just as a public holiday but as a reminder of the constant need for peace, democracy, and a better world for all.
In recent weeks you may have seen my Anzac newsletter which was delivered out across suburbs Grey Lynn, Cox’s Bay, Point Chevalier, Westmere and Albert-Eden to ensure everyone had the opportunity to join together this Anzac Day.
Across Auckland, as of writing this month’s column, there will be upwards of 70 different services held in suburbs and communities from the Bombay Hills to the borders of Northland.
I’ll be commemorating in the heart of the city, at the Dawn Service in Auckland Domain, in commemorations and at RSAs in Point Chevalier, Grey Lynn, Three Kings, and Mt Albert.
Where I have the opportunity to lay a wreath or a poppy or make a speech about our ANZACs, I look to my heritage and the knowledge that I was able to live my life away from the fear of war because of the service of the New Zealand Kayforce that went to the cause of freedom in the Korean War.
This year I will specifically be remembering some very special veteran friends who I have lost since last Anzac Day. Wally Wyatt MNZM, lately the final Treasurer of the former New Zealand Korean War Veterans Association, passed away aged 90 a few short weeks ago in February and had remained a key figure for Auckland’s veteran community to his last day.
I will be remembering the late Alice Wylie QSM of Mount Albert, aged 99, (where Alice Wylie Reserve was named in her honour) who every year was an integral figure in the Mt Albert service having personally known many veterans of the World Wars and Korean War that are now long passed due to her many years on active civil service in our community and in her active pursuit of the history of Mount Albert’s contributions to the home front through the Mt Albert Historical Society (mtalberthistoricalsociety.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2008_07_7_MAHS_Newsletter.pdf)
I will also be remembering those names recorded on the cenotaphs of Auckland and the minds of our community. We can find the names of Auckland’s war dead etched in our community.
People like Hector C Porter of 41 Sherwood Avenue (www.nzwargraves.org.nz/sites/default/files/story_files/Hector%20Porter.pdf) who fell at El Alamein in Egypt in 1942 and George Arthur Page of the Auckland Mounted Rifles and Grey Lynn resident who lies at Gallipoli’s Canterbury cemetery in ANZAC Cove, aged just 24. Many of us gather to remember grandfathers, fathers and brothers, grandmothers, mothers and sisters or past neighbours not forgotten, and some may remember children, nieces or nephews who have not come home.
Today there are tens of thousands of veterans and their families in New Zealand who alongside those on active service overseas in far flung locations from the Middle East to Korea, Canada and the United Kingdom, remain a constant link to that ANZAC spirit and New Zealand’s contribution to a more peaceful world.
So, as we remember each Anzac Day, we remember them, and we pause and give thanks.
As Anzac Day passes, we will still remember them. We will remember them. (MELISSA LEE)
National Member of Parliament. National Spokesperson for Broadcasting & Media| Digital Economy and Communications | Ethnic Communities
E: mplee@parliament.govt.nz Authorised by Melissa Lee, Parliament Buildings, Wellington
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PUBLISHED 5 MAY 2023