RSA padre Rev Murray Olson blesses the crowd following the service. Behind him is lay minister Kathie Claypole and Patriots member Andrew Brooker.
Ten years of kinship with a ‘tiny church in the bush’ was marked on Sunday as Pukeatua Memorial Church and its brotherhood of Patriots Defence Force Motorcycle Club (Hauraki) members gathered for their annual Remembrance Day service.
Patriots Defence Force Motorcycle Club (Hauraki chapter) members line up outside Pukeatua Memorial Church for Sunday’s Remembrance Day service. Photo: Viv Posselt
It was 10 years ago that the club forged a relationship with the church. Speaking at the start of Sunday’s service, Patriots’ member Peter Leslie said the relationship had grown in significance over the decade. The club has gifted several items to the church during that time, including a new flagpole.
Patriots members are all ex or current servicemen with a shared affinity with soldiers lost in global conflicts. Leslie said it was timely for the service to be on the same day the New Zealand All Blacks, wearing a poppy on their jerseys, played a rugby test match in Scotland.
“While, rightfully so, Anzac Day is our primary day to remember the sacrifices of our defence force personnel, from the beach at Anzac Cove to the mountains of Afghanistan, there have always been smaller ceremonies to mark Armistice or Remembrance Day.
“It is only right that in this wee church in the middle of the Waikato that these men and others from our wee country are remembered.”
Listening to piper Craig Wards are, from left, Te Awamutu RSA member Lou Brown, Patriots member Andrew Brooker, RSA padre Rev Murray Olson, lay minister Kathie Claypole, longstanding Patriots member and Vietnam veteran Erik Kristensen, Te Awamutu RSA executive committee member Adan Te Huia, Te Awamutu RSA president Daniel van der Hulst, and Pukeatua resident Adam Watson. Photo: Viv Posselt
The Pukeatua church is one of just two in the country built as a memorial to service personnel lost in the world wars. The other is at Tutira, north of Napier; both have historic building covenants over them.
In his address at Sunday’s service, Te Awamutu RSA president Daniel van der Hulst said it was on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month when World War One ended.
“The New Zealand Expeditionary Force had received its baptism of fire at Gallipoli in 1915 and went on to drench the soil of France and the Western Front with the blood of young New Zealanders for the next three years.”
He said 103,000 Kiwi troops and nurses, from a population of just over a million, served overseas during WW1, excluding those who served in the British and other Dominion forces.
Laying wreaths at the cenotaph are Pukeatua resident Adam Watson and Te Awamutu RSA president, Daniel van der Hulst. Photo: Viv Posselt
“Forty-two per cent of all men of military age served in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Of these, 16,697 were killed and 41,317 were wounded during that war, which represents a 58 per cent casualty rate. We remember those who fought, those who fell, and all those who served.”
RSA padre Rev Murray Olson told the story of the Polish friar who became Saint Maximilian Kolbe. The friar’s outspoken views on the Nazi regime led to his incarceration at Auschwitz in 1941. When one prisoner escaped, men were chosen to face death by starvation – Kolbe was not one of them, but he volunteered to take the place of a man with a family. He was one of the last to remain alive, dying at the hands of guards who gave him a lethal injection.
Kolbe was beatified by Pope Paul V1 in 1971 and canonised by Pope John Paul 11 in 1982.
Rev Olson said his sacrifice, and that of those who died in war, exemplified the saying that ‘no man has greater love than to lay his life down for his friends’.
Patriots members ride in for two services at Pukeatua each year – Anzac Day and Armistice Day.
RSA padre Rev Murray Olson blesses the crowd following the service. Behind him is lay minister Kathie Claypole and Patriots member Andrew Brooker. Photo: Viv Posselt
