• The Passchendaele Memorial Park in Zonnebeke, Belgium.

North Shore ANZAC Day Message From Hon Maggie Barry ONZM

Each Anzac Day, across our North Shore community, we pause and honour the New Zealanders who made the ultimate sacrifice, as well as those who returned home from active service. The 25th of April is etched into our collective memory, culture and identity, and the Australia New Zealand Army Corps tradition was forged as we fought the enemy together, side by side at Gallipoli in 1915.

As the former minister with responsibility for the WW100 commemorations for three of the four years, I think the time of reflection has successfully ignited a thirst to know more about the significant New Zealand contribution to the so-called Great War. Last year as we commemorated the centenary of Armistice Day on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, ending all fighting, it was sobering to understand the scale of our commitment and that a tenth of our population – around 100,000 soldiers – were sent overseas and more than 18,000 never came home. Nearly a third of those who died have no known graves and were buried where they fell, half a world away from their grieving families.
In common with every community, the North Shore experienced great loss, and there are many memorials to those who served and had a connection to our local area. Many streets are named after local war heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice, and a constant reminder for the Takapuna community are the red WW1 gates at Takapuna School with its list of past pupils who ‘helped to win the Great War’. Among them was Lieutenant Commander William Sanders VC, DSO, who is the only New Zealander to have ever won the Victoria Cross in naval action; and Lieutenant Colonel Cyril Bassett, who was the only New Zealand soldier awarded the Victoria Cross in the Gallipoli campaign. At the end of Stanley Point Rd is the Cyril Bassett VC Lookout to remember him.
I have the honour this year of representing National and laying a wreath at the national Anzac commemorations at Pukeahu War Memorial Park in Wellington. Local businessman and philanthropist Gary Monk ONZM and his grandchildren will represent me at the Takapuna ceremony, and my Youth MP Tayla Woolley alongside Tristram Speedy will lay a wreath on my behalf at the Devonport service.


Unexpected Everyday Heroes

Taranaki mother-of-nine Helena Barnard had six of her eight sons serve in the war, with four returning alive but afflicted by illness and shell shock. She eased her grief and earned the British Empire Medal for devising the recipe for what became known as the Anzac biscuit. Mrs Barnard baked tens of thousands of the long-lasting biscuits to go in the Red Cross food parcels for our faraway soldiers.

This is her original recipe: warm 2 cups of golden syrup in a pot, then mix in 3.5 cups of plain flour, half a cup of softened butter, 1.5 cups light brown sugar and 2.5 tablespoons ground ginger. Shape the dough into little balls, place them close together on a baking tray, press flat with the back of a spoon and bake for 15 minutes at 200°C. Anzac originals last for months and are as hard as nails, so are ideal for dunking.
Did you know that families are able to pin medals on their right side at memorial services, and it’s great to see North Shore children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren wearing their ancestor’s medals proudly at parades. It’s easy to access information about your family’s military records at medals.nzdfd.mil.nz, www.archives.govt.nz/research/guides/war, or www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph.

I used these resources to find out more about my own grandfather’s service record. Trooper Vincent Barry was in the Wellington Mounted Rifles and fought at Gallipoli and in Africa, pictured here with his horse before the first battle of Gaza. In this extract from his diary, he described taking cover from a sniper behind a gravestone in the Gaza cemetery: “For his third shot at me he climbed up another branch and shot me through the right lung over the top of the gravestone. It was curtains for me for some time – unknown to me.” It has meant a lot to my family to read about his experiences in his own words.
Another excellent resource is www.ngatapuwae.govt.nz, which lets you follow the captivating stories from the diaries of the soldiers who fought at Gallipoli and the Western Front battlefields. As part of my personal contribution to the commemorations, I narrated the dramatised audio of the deeply personal and moving experiences of our brave soldiers.  
The Passchendaele Memorial Park in Zonnebeke, Belgium opened in October 2017 and marks the centenary of the Western Front battles that claimed more than 5000 New Zealanders. I was honoured to plant the first flax in the garden organised by a dedicated group of North Shore locals and the Devonport RSA. Nga Pua Mahara, New Zealand’s memorial garden, is one of seven separate national gardens each in the shape of a poppy that forms the garden. North Shore locals Chris Mullane, Mike Pritchard, Greg Hall and members of the Devonport RSA worked tirelessly over many years to fundraise and then create a garden we can all be proud of that encourages visitors to reflect on the significant Kiwi contribution to the European war effort.


Issue 97 April 2019