NOVEMBER 2004 CONTENTS 6 Homecoming – Te Hokinga Mai 7 Foreword by the Governor-General 8 Foreword by the Prime Minister 9 Known unto God 12 Background to the project 14 Tomb design 16 Tomb design – Artist Profile 18 Commissions 19 Site blessing 20 Handover ceremony 21 Arrival in Wellington 22 Arrival at Parliament and lying in state 23 Memorial Service 24 Lt Col William Malone’s last letter home 25 Route of Funeral Procession 26 Funeral Procession 28 Interment Ceremony 30 National War Memorial Carillon Recital 31 Acknowledgments HOMECOMING – FOREWORD BY TE HOKINGA MAI VINCENT O’SULLIVAN THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL The figure at the paddock’s edge, Kua tangihia nga- mate, nga- aitua- o nga- The shadow in the football team, pakanga nu-nui o te ao. Kua hoki mai Toa The memory beside the hedge, Matangaro kia okioki ai i to-na whenua tupu. The notes behind a song that seem We have grieved for the dead and the fallen Another song, a different dream – of the world’s great wars. The Unknown The past we harvest that was yours, Warrior has returned to rest in the land The present that you gave for ours. of his birth. The life in places once your own On behalf of all New Zealanders And left behind, and what was said I acknowledge the significance of the To husband, father, lover, son, commemorative events surrounding the Are stories that were lost instead, return of the Unknown Warrior. That ran to darkness where you bled – Are what we owe you, we who say The history of New Zealanders in battle See morning in its usual way is one of commitment and sacrifice, of achievement and pride. Our men and Moving along the ridges, the bright commemorates all those who died in war. women fought in many wars, in places Day broadening on the river, Through this Tomb, their memory lives far from their homes and loved ones. The warmth of cities wakening, the sight on in our hearts and minds and we are Of roads ahead and doors forever Tens of thousands of New Zealanders brought closer to those we have lost. Onto families, friends, whatever gave their lives in these wars, and many May this monument always remind us Life allows us, one another – lie buried in foreign lands. Sadly, thousands to strive to uphold the peace for which What we have and you do not, our brother.’ were never identified. Their families and so many gave their lives. friends at home never knew the peace Solemn the speeches and the drum Te-na- ta-tou katoa That draw you to the unguessed tomb, of mind that comes from knowing with But more than these, the sounds that come certainty of their final resting places. To us as once to you, from Today, the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior Bach and backyard, from marae and town, symbolises the resting place for all our Our standing where you too have stood fallen servicemen and women, known Silvia Cartwright ‘Now and forever, home is good.’ and unknown. For this monument GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF NEW ZEALAND 6 7 FOREWORD BY THE PRIME MINISTER KNOWN UNTO GOD The return of the Unknown Warrior The Unknown New Zealand Warrior lost is a tremendously significant event his life in France some time between April for this country. 1916 and November 1918. It not only marks the incredible courage One of the countless victims of the ‘war and sacrifice made by thousands of to end all wars’, he died on the Western New Zealanders in the wars of the last Front, a vast arena of misery and suffering century but it also represents a growing in which New Zealanders were slaughtered understanding of the part which history in unprecedented numbers. We will never has played in shaping the country we know the circumstances of his death. are today. Did he fall advancing towards the enemy By understanding our past we are able after going over the top in one of the to look to the future with a strengthened periodic big pushes or in the darkness and sense of identity as a nation. confusion of a minor trench raid? Did some random shell burst instantly snuff out his The ceremonies on this Armistice Day today with New Zealand’s commitment life or did he lie in agony for hours, even Known unto God’. It was one of many such unidentified graves 2004 help us remember the more than to bringing peace to troubled places days, before his shattered body gave up on the Western Front, for the unknown soldier was one of the sad 250,000 New Zealanders who have served around the world. It is a place where we the struggle to survive? features of the Great War. in overseas wars, and commemorate the can look to the future with a sense of The idea that victims of war should be honoured in named graves 30,000 who lost their lives in battle. By We do know that his body was found hard-won hope. is a relatively recent development. From the dawn of time, those bringing this one warrior home to rest in a without any form of identification other For ninety years this warrior has lain in who fell in battle could expect only the anonymity of the mass grave place of honour, we give thanks to all those than some indication that he was a foreign soil. Today he is called once more – if they were buried at all. Only in the nineteenth century did the who have served New Zealand overseas. New Zealander, perhaps a fragment of to serve his country. his uniform. He was buried in one of the idea of recovering bodies and burying them individually emerge The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior provides Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Western countries. a peaceful place to pay tribute to the cemeteries that dot the now peaceful In the Great War this was no easy task. The nature of the battlefields ultimate sacrifice New Zealand servicemen countryside of northern France. His simple often made identifying fallen soldiers difficult, if not impossible. and women made. Here we can contemplate Helen Clark white headstone carried the words In the close quarters fighting on the Gallipoli peninsula opportunities the tradition of service which continues PRIME MINISTER ‘A New Zealand soldier of the Great War to bury men who fell between the lines were limited. 8 9 IAN MCGIBBON PHOTOGRAPH: under by the mud of the quagmire created ensured that conditions at the front NEW ZEALAND SERVICE PERSONNEL KILLED by incessant shellfire and destroyed lines were less conducive to men going ON OPERATIONAL SERVICE – 20TH CENTURY water courses. missing on land than they had been South African War (1899-1902) 230 Memorials to the missing commemorate in the Great War. At the same time, many First World War (1914-1918) 18,166 all those who have no known grave – more New Zealanders fought at sea or both those whose bodies were recovered in the air, arenas in which few could Second World War (1939-1945) 11,625 expect a named grave if killed. Many went but never identified and those who Korean War (1950-1953) 43 disappeared altogether. The most imposing down with their ships or were buried at Malaya/Malaysia (1948-1966) 20 are at Thiepval in France, Tyne Cot and the sea. Those whose aircraft crashed at sea were mostly not recovered; nor were many AIRFORCE MEMORIAL, VALETTA, MALTA/ Menin Gate in Belgium, and Cape Helles Vietnam War (1964-1972) 40 : of those who crashed on land. In all, 2892 at Gallipoli. With their column after Peacekeeping operations (1990-2002) 6 column of names, each representing New Zealand servicemen and women who a private agony and a grief-stricken died during the Second World War – TOTAL 30,360 THIS PAGE family, these bleak monuments of pain of a total 11,625 – are commemorated on memorials to the missing. After the evacuation, three years would elapse before the Allies could are a stark reminder of the cost of war. return to the battlefield and seek out their dead. The Turks in the New Zealand lost 2721 men at Gallipoli Fortunately no sacrifice on this scale has meantime had buried some in mass graves; others, buried during the and 12,483 on the Western Front. Of these been demanded of New Zealand servicemen fighting, lay in long lost temporary graves; others again lay where 67 per cent and 33 per cent respectively and women since 1945. In a series of wars they fell in the scrub. On the Western Front the graves of many disappeared, were recovered but not and peace enforcement operations in Asia, soldiers who had been buried were lost as the front advanced or identified, or were buried at sea after less than a hundred New Zealanders have receded, and shellfire pulverized the burial areas. When these men’s dying of wounds suffered at Gallipoli. All fallen in battle. Only two have no known bodies were found later they were usually unidentifiable. They became these men are commemorated on separate grave. Seamen lost during the Korean War, unknown soldiers. they are commemorated on a memorial to national memorials to the missing – four at MARGARET MARKS. the missing at the UN cemetery in Pusan, : Gallipoli and seven in France and Belgium. DEVONPORT NAVAL MEMORIAL, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND. But many of the fallen were never found at all. They may have South Korea. : disappeared altogether – blown to pieces by the huge shells that In the Second World War, soldiers were ravaged the modern battlefield.