As ANZAC Day 2021 approaches and we again gather to remember New Zealanders who died not just at Gallipoli but all those who have served in our armed forces, Channel magazine takes a look at one of our local RSAs to see how it is faring in a very different society and where there is a very different role for our armed forces, decades after it was formed. Christine Young reports.
Immediate past president of the Devonport RSA, Howard Mace, says Devonport RSA is especially looking forward to the ANZAC Day commemorations this year, as this is the first year since 2018 that the RSA has been able to hold its traditional ANZAC Day parade down Devonport’s main street to the war memorial overlooking Windsor Reserve. Formal services and parades were cancelled at short notice in 2019 in the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque attacks amid police concern about public safety at large gatherings. Devonport RSA members marked the day quietly at its base in Devonia Hall, though there would doubtless have been some members who would have wished to join members of the community who held a commemoration at the memorial, regardless of police advice.
Last year, of course, the first Covid-19 lockdown prevented any parades or public commemorations, but that didn’t stop thousands of Devonport residents responding (with others across the country) to the call to “stand at dawn” outside their houses to mark the occasion.
Devonport RSA members are planning for a return to more traditional commemorations this year. This is not to suggest that the Devonport RSA is mired in the past. Far from it. While it proudly upholds the RSA values of Caring, Commemorating and Connecting, it has also recently undergone a strategic review, to ensure that the local society survives and thrives well into the 21st century and beyond. Howard Mace and other members are determined it will not “become an old person’s club…. We are turning it around. It’s time to refresh and position [ourselves] for the future.”
Devonport is neither the oldest, nor the largest, of the three surviving North Shore RSAs, but it remains firmly focused on the founding principles that underpinned the formation of the national RSA network. The other North Shore RSAs are now Birkenhead and East Coast Bays; the 80-year-old Takapuna RSA folded in 2014 as a result of declining membership and debt of “tens of thousands of dollars” according to newspaper reports at the time.
Many RSAs (including Birkenhead and East Coast Bays, judging by their websites – we did try to contact them for this story but received no response) now often have a restaurant and offer entertainment to encourage new membership and provide an income stream. Devonport, says Devonport RSA’s Chris Mullane, is happy to welcome members of the community, “but we want to be sure they are joining for the right reasons”, that is, service to the community. And they want to ensure that Associate members don’t out-number service members.
But first, let’s take a look at Devonport RSA’s history and structure.
The New Zealand Returned Services Association was formed in April 1916. It wasn’t until 1927, as the Great Depression loomed, that a local group of Devonport ex-servicemen and an ex-service nurse met to consider what could be done to support local ex-servicemen unable to find employment. They first met in what was then Ford’s Tearooms at the lower end of Victoria Rd, with a hat taken around to collect money to pay for the room hire. Later that year, the Mayor Mr. E. Aldridge, convened a meeting in the Council Chambers and a formal committee of the Devonport Returned Soldiers Club (Inc) was formed.
After meeting in a number of local venues, in 1947 Devonia Hall was leased for £2 a week. In 1954, the building was on the market for £14,500, well above a recent government valuation of £12,600. The society’s coffers boasted just £3,063, but members were optimistic that the bank would advance £11,000 at 4% as an overdraft. But Reserve Bank rules only allowed overdrafts for six months; a permanent loan from non-banking sources was required. The society’s rules were amended to allow it to borrow money, and after a personal guarantee from and several months of negotiations led by Commander Pug Thew, the purchase of the Devonia Building was completed on in August 1954.
Back to the present. Joining Howard Mace at the meeting with Channel was Chris Mullane, popularly known as the Druid of Devonport. His service in the military includes time in Vietnam and in the US military. Like many of his fellow soldiers, he experienced years of dealing with the delayed effects of wartime trauma, which led to advocacy on behalf of his fellow veterans. Once president of Devonport RSA and still active in the Paschendaele Society, he is now Chair of Devonport RSA’s Poppy Day Trust, and a strong advocate for RSA’s three Cs of Caring, Commemorating and Connecting. He is also known to many locally as an advocate for the restoration of the graves of soldiers from New Zealand and the Pacific in the O’Neill’s Point Cemetery in Belmont.
He commends the members at the time who “had the foresight to purchase the building, with five shops, so it always had an income”. Owning Devonia Building has certainly allowed Devonport RSA financial security that has eluded other RSAs. A separately created Memorial Trust owns the building and receives income from shops beneath the hall, and being sited right in the main street has also meant that Devonport RSA has positive relationships with the local business association, and a prominent place in the local community. “We value being part of the community and value service to the community,” Chris notes.
Devonia Hall has recently been refurbished, with support from community businesses and individuals, and is now not only an attractive meeting place for members’ bi-monthly lunches and regular Friday nights at the bar, but also hired by local organisations for activities including yoga, art classes and Toastmasters, as well as for weddings and private functions.
Membership of Devonport RSA currently stands at 200; 56 of those members have been involved in operational service, and a further 65 have served in other roles in the defence forces. Twenty-one members are currently serving members of the defence forces – mostly (unsurprisingly) from the Navy, with which the Devonport RSA has close ties. Along with 79 associate members, they make up the membership of the Devonport Returned and Services Association Incorporated, an incorporated society.
Alongside the Devonport Returned and Services Association Incorporated sit two Trusts: the aforementioned Devonport RSA Memorial Trust and the Devonport RSA Poppy Day Trust, which looks after the well-being of veterans and their dependents, whether members of the RSA or not, from Devonport to Takapuna. This welfare work is funded by the annual Poppy Day collection and bequests and donations from the wider community.
The Poppy Day Trust Deed allows the RSA to take care of the needs of men and women who have given operation service in any of our armed forces, and their dependents, and ex-service people in non-operational roles. Chris Mullane notes that over the years, more and more support has been provided for serving New Zealanders than was the case in the early days of the RSA. “Modern veterans have sources [of assistance] besides us,” he notes, and the RSA ensures that the assistance it gives does not duplicate other support.
As part of its commitment to Caring, Devonport RSA employs a part-time support adviser, Gail Kennett, who tailors RSA assistance to suit those who need it, from advising on assistance available beyond the RSA’s resources and advocating with other service providers, to organising personal visits or ensuring older veterans have transport to RSA functions, to ensure ongoing well-being of anyone who comes to the RSA’s attention.
For Mullane and Mace, the vitality of Devonport RSA is paramount. The Commemorating and Connecting elements of the RSA ethos, provide opportunities not only to honour and remember service given for the country by members of the defence forces, but also to engage younger community and service members and with the wider community to ensure the ongoing relevance of the RSA in the community.
For example, to commemorate Remembrance Day in November, in addition to a field of crosses on Windsor Reserve, the society now runs a regular speech competition for younger people, and last year a school choir and many local students wearing Devonport RSA-inspired t-shorts joined the November Remembrance Day parade.
Younger members of the community have also assisted with – and responded to – the restoration of gravestones at O’Neill’s Point Cemetery, and the RSA committee includes a representative from Takapuna Grammar School (TGS) , building ties with an even younger generation. Last year TGS prefects, supported by collectors from the Navy, raised funds for the Poppy Day Trust through a mufti day.
To mark this year’s ANZAC Day and Poppy Days, Devonport RSA is working with the Devonport Business Association in a shop window competition, and shop windows will feature, in line with the National RSA theme of women who have served, in the armed forces or by their work behind the scenes, images taken by local professional photographer Kathryn Knobbs of members and current Navy members in uniform, with their own and medals earned by members of their family in the armed forces.
There’s no doubt that this is one RSA that looks to the future as well as the past, and is committed to engaging its community as it does so, living up to its motto: Serving our members and our community.
Devonport RSA website: https://www.devonportrsa.co.nz/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RSADevonport/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/devonport_rsa/
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North Shore 2021 Anzac Day commemorations
Poppy Day Friday 23 April
The nationwide Poppy Day street collection is held each year on the Friday before Anzac Day. RSA volunteers exchange distinctive red poppies for a donation to the Poppy Appeal. All funds raised go towards the RSA’s support work, which can include financial support, advocacy, family days and access to strong network of people who have been through similar experiences, to name a few.
Anzac Day Sunday 25 April
