Tomb of the Unknown Warrior
'…a day of remembrance
and a day to remember'
The RSA
was overwhelmed with the public response to the homecoming of the
Unknown Warrior. On behalf of the RSA I thank all those involved in
making 11 November 2004 a day of remembrance and a day to remember.
John Campbell
RNZRSA National President
Significance
The
Tomb of the Unknown Warrior serves as a focus of remembrance of the
sacrifice made by New Zealand servicemen and women in time of war.
The
Unknown Warrior is one of over 250,000 New Zealanders who served in
overseas wars. He is one of over 30,000 who died in service. He is one
of over 9,000 who have no known grave or whose remains could never be
recovered. We will never know his name, rank, regiment, race, religion
or any other detail of his life, except that he was a New Zealander. He
represents all New Zealanders who were never to return from war.
Background
The
idea for a New Zealand Tomb of the Unknown Warrior dates back over
eighty years to the interment ceremony for the British Unknown Warrior
at Westminster Abbey in London on 11 November 1920. The following year
Prime Minister William Massey and his cabinet considered but decided
against a proposal to have our own New Zealand Unknown Warrior.
The RSA unsuccessfully
called for a New Zealand Tomb of the Unknown Warrior during the 1940s
and 1950s in conjunction with its campaign for the completion of the
National War Memorial. The call was renewed during the 1990s as a result
of Australia establishing their Tomb on Armistice Day 1993 and given
impetus when Canada followed with its Tomb on 28 May 2000.
The idea gained the
support of government and on the eve of ANZAC Day 2002 it announced its
intention to establish in New Zealand a Tomb of the Unknown Warrior to
honour all New Zealand military personnel who have lost their lives in
times of war.
An Inter-Departmental
Coordinating Committee was established to oversee the project, which
included design and construction of the Tomb, the repatriation of the
Unknown Warrior, as well as one of the largest ceremonial programmes in
New Zealand history. The RNZRSA as a non-government organisation was
provided ex officio status on this Committee and represented by Dr
Stephen Clarke.
Tomb Design
The Tomb of the Unknown
Warrior designed by Kingsley Baird and inspired by the Southern Cross
constellation, possesses a distinctive New Zealand character, with the
choice and treatment of materials, the use of symbols and language,
strongly reflecting the unique cultural identity of this land and its
people.
The Warrior was guided
by the stars of the Southern Cross on his journey back to New Zealand.
The distance of the foreign land he left behind is represented on the
base of the Tomb by a night sky of black granite inlaid with light grey
Takaka marble crosses representing the Warrior’s companions who died in
service for their country and remain overseas. They also signify stars
in the night sky. Around the base of the Tomb is text of a karanga, in
Maori and English, calling the Warrior back to his homeland:
Te mamae nei a
te pouri nui
The great pain we feel
Tenei ra e te tau
Is for you who were our future
Aue hoki mai ra ki te kainga tuturu
Come back return home,
E tatari atu nei ki a koutou
We have waited for you
Nga tau roa
Through the long years
I ngaro atu ai te aroha
You were away. Sorrow
E ngau kino nei i ahau aue taukuri e
Aches within me.
A cloak of bronze,
decorated with four inlaid pounamu (greenstone) crosses, alludes to the
Warrior’s National Flag. It was laid over his body as a celestial mantle
which also represents the vital role the Defence Forces play in
protecting our nation and people.
Returned & Remembered
France: 6 November
2004
The final journey home
for the Unknown Warrior began on 1 November when a New Zealand
delegation lead by Chief of Defence Force, Air Marshal Bruce Ferguson
OBE AFC, boarded an RNZAF Aircraft bound for France. The RNZRSA National
President was the sole representative of the veteran community.
The Unknown Warrior was
exhumed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission from among the unknown
New Zealand soldiers buried at Caterpillar War Cemetery, Longueval, in
northern France.
The Handover Ceremony
for the Unknown Warrior took place on Saturday, 6 November 2004, at the
New Zealand Memorial, Longueval. This ceremony marked the official
handover of the Unknown Warrior from the care of the Commonwealth War
Graves Commission, represented by Director-General Mr Richard Kellaway,
into the care of New Zealand, represented by New Zealand Ambassador to
France HE Adrian Macey. It was witnessed by representatives of the
French and New Zealand governments.
The Mayor and villagers
of Longueval, who have come to regard the Unknown Warrior as one of
their own, also attended the ceremony. Following New Zealand's formal
acceptance of responsibility for the remains, Principal Defence
Chaplain, Colonel Julian Wagg, conducted a short service during which
wreaths were laid, including the wonderful tribute by schoolchildren
from Longueval laying handmade posies.
The NZDF personnel on
‘Operation Valhalla’ did the New Zealand Defence Force and New Zealand
proud and continued a great legacy of service begun by the generation of
whom the Unknown Warrior belonged. During the return trip to New Zealand
the National President presented each member of the NZDF with the RSA
Badge in recognition of their contribution to this historic task of
returning the Unknown Warrior to his homeland and as a measure of the
appreciation of the RSA community.
Homecoming: 10
November 2004
Wellington
Airport
At 10.00 am on 10 November 2004, the Unknown Warrior was welcomed back
to New Zealand soil with a short ceremony at the RNZAF Air Movements
Unit at Wellington Airport. A Tri-Service Guard of Honour, the New
Zealand Army Band and a New Zealand Defence Force Maori Cultural Group
accorded the Unknown Warrior full military honours on arrival. As the
casket was ceremonially slow marched off the RNZAF C-130 aircraft, the
Cultural Group acknowledged the Unknown Warrior with a Powhiri and the
Guard of Honour accorded him a General Salute. Inside the terminal
building, the casket was placed on the catafalque and a vigil mounted.
The Chief of Defence Force and single service Chiefs paid their
respects. Later the casket was placed in the hearse and following a
second General Salute, the cortege, with a military escort consisting of
two LAVs, left for Parliament.
Arrival at
Parliament
At 12 noon, the cortege arrived at Parliament for the Defence Force to
formally hand over the Unknown Warrior to the nation.
A Tri-Service Guard of
Honour and the Royal New Zealand Navy Band were formed up on the
forecourt. A kapa haka group was also present. The ceremony was
conducted in the presence of the Governor-General, the Prime Minister,
Ministers of the Crown, Members of Parliament, diplomatic and national
veteran organisation representatives who filled the steps of Parliament.
As the Bearer Party
approached the steps of Parliament, the Unknown Warrior was accorded a
General Salute by the Guard of Honour followed by a karanga and haka
powhiri performed by the kapa haka group.
The Bearer Party then
ascended the steps of Parliament House and entered the Legislative
Council Chamber where the casket was placed on a catafalque and a vigil
mounted for the Lying-in-State.
At the official
wreath-laying ceremony the Governor-General presented the Unknown
Warrior with medals representative of service by New Zealanders in the
First World War (1914–15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal), the
Second World War (New Zealand War Service Medal), and in operations
since 1945 (New Zealand Operational Service Medal).
This was followed by a
special visitation by veterans' representatives and the RNZRSA presented
the Unknown Warrior with its highest honour—the Badge in Gold.
RSA Badge in Gold
The Badge in Gold was
presented to the Unknown Warrior at a special visitation by the RNZRSA
National Executive Committee, prior to the public Lying-in-State in the
Legislative Council Chamber, Parliament Buildings, on 10 November 2004.
The original New
Zealand Returned Soldiers Association die was used to strike the badge,
acknowledging that the Unknown Warrior was a comrade of First World War
founders of the RSA. The Badge was engraved with the date ‘11th November
2004’ in recognition of the date of the Unknown Warrior’s journey to his
final resting place. A replica was also struck and it is intended to be
displayed in a specially constructed display at National Headquarters.
Manufacturing the Badge was the 100-year-old Wellington firm of Mayer &
Toye, the makers of the first RSA Badge in 1916 and makers of the RSA
Badges today. The RNZRSA also acknowledges the generous donation of the
gold for the 24 carat Badge, by Oceana Gold Ltd as well as Newmont Waihi
Gold Ltd.
Immediate Past National
President, Mr David Cox MBE, made the presentation of the Badge in Gold
to the Unknown Warrior:
The Badge in Gold
is the Royal New Zealand Returned And Services’ Association’s most
prestigious Award. It can only be granted by RSA delegates from
around the country, meeting as the National Council, on the
recommendation of the National Executive Committee.
At this year’s
National Council meeting, delegates unanimously awarded the Badge in
Gold to New Zealand's Unknown Warrior, and, on this unique occasion,
in the form of the original Badge of the New Zealand Returned
Soldiers’ Association.
The Badge in Gold
was instituted in 1920 with the first recipient being His Royal
Highness the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, and
significantly, the presentation was conducted in this very Chamber.
Since that time the list of recipients has grown to include
Monarchs, Governors-General, Prime Ministers, Military Commanders
and RSA rank and file members who have selflessly dedicated their
lives to the Association and the well-being of the veteran community
in general.
There are currently
six living holders of the Badge in Gold—four of whom are here today.
The Badge in Gold
is a fitting tribute because the Unknown Warrior paid the ultimate
price for his service and now he is finally returned.
In the
Association’s 88–year history, the Unknown Warrior is the 60th and
the first posthumous recipient of the Badge in Gold. It is also the
most significant, because it is awarded in remembrance of all those
New Zealand servicemen and women who died, and are buried in foreign
lands, in the service of their country.
It is my great
honour, on behalf of all RSA members, to present our Badge in Gold
to you—our Unknown Warrior.
You are now
one of us—WELCOME HOME.
The Badge accompanied
the Unknown Warrior to the Memorial Service and throughout the Funeral
Procession to his final resting place at the National War Memorial the
following day. The Badge will be displayed, together with the medals and
the flag which dressed the casket, in a purpose-built display case which
will be located in the entrance to the Hall of Memories, close to the
Tomb of the Unknown Warrior.
Lying-in-State
More than 10,000 New Zealanders travelled to Parliament during the night
of 10/11 November to pay their respects and lay a poppy in remembrance
at the foot of the casket. At times the queue stretched down the steps
of Parliament to the Seddon Memorial, but an hour long wait, as well as
rain, did nothing to deter those wishing to pay their respects. It was a
most moving sight and a wonderful tribute. Not only did visitors pay
their respects to our war dead but they thought of our living, by
spontaneously and unprompted, leaving donations for veterans’ welfare.
A Day to Remember: 11
November 2004
Memorial
Service
A Memorial Service was held on 11 November at the Wellington Cathedral
of St Paul, commencing with Two Minutes Silence at 11am. The Service was
attended by Her Excellency the Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief
Dame Silvia Cartwright, Prime Minister Helen Clark, and General Sir John
Wilsey GCB CBE DL representing the Commonwealth War Graves Commission,
military chiefs, diplomats and over 1,000 invited guests, including a
war widows and a large number of war veterans.
Funeral
Procession
At the conclusion of the Memorial Service, the Unknown Warrior was
carried shoulder high from the Cathedral through an Honour Guard of
Distinguished Veterans and placed on a gun carriage, whilst a lone piper
played the specially commissioned Lament for the Unknown Warrior of
New Zealand, first heard at the Handover Ceremony in France five
days earlier. The full Military
Funreral Procession moved off to the Army Band playing the commissioned
Funeral March
Fernleaf Headstones.
A crowd well in excess
of 100,000 lined the 2.85km long processional route through central
Wellington whilst above their heads fluttered the RSA Remembrance
Banners with those most appropriate words ‘We will remember them’. It
was particularly moving to observe the respectful silence paid to the
Unknown Warrior by the thousands lining the route.
Interment
Ceremony
The final act was the Interment Ceremony at the National War Memorial
when the Unknown Warrior was buried with full military honours.
As the funeral
procession approach the lower forecourt of the National War Memorial the
Dunedin RSA Choir sang In Flanders Fields, which set the
emotional tone for this final ceremony.
In her eulogy, Dame
Silvia Cartwright poignantly reminded everyone that:
Here is the young
New Zealander who takes this place of honour for himself, and for
those in his own or any war we have been a part of, where what we
value, and what defined us, was defended. In honouring him, we
honour too his family, their memories of a place and a time, with
that saddest of words, ‘unknown’.
Poet Vincent O’Sullivan
then recited his commissioned poem Homecoming—Te Hokianga Mai, with its
final stanza:
Solemn the speeches
and the drum
That draw you to the unguessed tomb,
But more than these, the sounds that come
To us as once to you, from
Bach and backyard, from marae and town,
Our standing where you too have stood
‘Now and forever, home is good.’
The Unknown Warrior was
then carried to the upper forecourt and to his final resting place to
the beautiful music of the Choral Commemoration Memento for an
Unknown Warrior, composed by long-time National Carillonist Timothy
Hurd QSM and incorporating the words of the karanga which appear on the
Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. This piece of music is now sung at
commemorative events held in the Hall of Memories thus connecting the
symbolism associated with the Unknown Warrior into the ongoing
commemorative life of the National War Memorial.
Mr Tamati Paraone,
National President of 28 Maori Battalion, recited the Ode in Maori,
whilst the RNZRSA National President followed with the recitation in
English. Each of the RNZRSA’s
eight District Presidents then placed samples of soils and other items
into the Tomb to acknowledge the service personnel from their districts
who had given their lives to the nation. Soil from France was placed in
the Tomb by the Ambassador for the Republic of France, HE Jean-Michel
Marlaud.
The ceremony concluded
with floral tributes by the Guests of Honour and the singing of the
National Anthem.
A poignant moment
during an interval in the ceremony were the calls of native birds
perched high in the trees surrounding the National War Memorial—a New
Zealand welcome home to a long lost son.
The day concluded with
a special sitting of Parliament to speak to the motion ‘Tomb of the
Unknown Warrior—Recognition of Service of New Zealanders’.
In the evening, a
Veterans' Dinner in honour of the Unknown Warrior provided a fitting
means to bring a long, emotional, but most of all, fulfilling day to a
close.
Reflections
In the days, weeks,
months and now years that have followed that historic day a steady flow
of visitors have made the pilgrimage to the National War Memorial to pay
their respects to the Unknown Warrior. He is now the soul of that most
sacred place.
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