Newsletter #8
Happy New Year and welcome to the Passchendaele Society’s 8th edition of E-News! Now that the ‘silly season’ has wound down and everyone is back into the swing of things it is again time to get back on track.
AGM
This year’s AGM of the Passchendaele Society will be held at the Auckland War Memorial Museum at 5pm on Thursday 14th March 2013 – the returning Board members look forward to seeing you all there! Entry to the Auditorium is via the Atrium Entrance at the rear and then by lift to the upper floors. You will be guided by Museum staff.
Also, you should have all received by now your Subscription invoice for your annual subscription renewal. The fee remains at $20 per person. If you wish to take the opportunity to take up Paid Life Membership then the once-off subscription is currently $250 per person.
Subscriptions can either be paid by cheque by post or by Bank Transfer or at the AGM.
Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917
The renewed Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 in Zonnebeke, Belgium will be opening its new wing on Saturday 13th July. The new wing is entirely dedicated to the Battle of Passchendaele with an outdoor trench experience and remembrance gallery. The Museum will display a collection of over 5000 items. As usual an event will be organised during the opening weekend of the Museum so if you happen to be in the area at the time you could partake in the opening.
Last Post Association
By the 9th July 2015 the Buglers of past and present at the Menin Gate will have sounded the Last Post on 30,000 occasions. To commemorate this, the Last Post Association will publish a special edition book limited in numbers. This is where they need you to provide images of services at the Menin Gate.
Have you and your predecessors participated at any of the ceremonies over the past 87 years – do you have any particular anecdotes of the ceremonies that can be included – was there anything unique about any of the ceremonies that were attended?
Do you have photos of these ceremonies that can be published in the book? High resolution copies of the photos should ideally be received in various formats such as: jpegs, gif and tif files.
Is your relative commemorated on the Menin Gate? If so and you have a photograph, along with personal stories pertaining to your relative then please visit their website for more details. High resolution copies of soldiers’ photos should ideally be received in the quoted formats such as: jpegs, gif and tif files. The purpose of this would be to use these stories for the book (a selection being made) and secondly to read out underneath the Menin Gate.
More information can be found on their website on http://lastpost-data.devsite.be/nl/lastpost/add-data where you can use the form(s) to upload your story/stories and image(s).
Lapel Pins
We have recently ordered and received a new supply of Lapel Pins, as per the red logo at the top of this E-news. You can order these at $6 each, or 2 for $10, post-free from the Secretary, or at the AGM.
It is a great way to show your support and to help spread the word about our burgeoning Society!
Rare WWI photographs found in Dunedin
A series of rare World War 1 photographs has been uncovered at the Hocken Library in Dunedin. The 81 black & white prints show scenes from Gallipoli, Anzac Cove and Egypt, including soldiers charging into battle and having their wounds tended. You can read more about this story in the ODT here.
Also in Dunedin artist Steve Mulqueen has been co-ordinating a Centenary Committee to organise commemorative events in 2015 to mark New Zealand’s entry into World War 1 at Gallipoli. Passchendaele Society members will find this interesting as many of our boys who died in Flanders Fields first fought at Gallipoli.
New Members
If you are a new member, you can catch up on what we have been doing on the Newsletters page of our website, plus keep up to date with our progress and upcoming events via the News page on our website where any new postings are regularly placed.
The Secretary and Acting Treasurer have been working on a new membership data and subscription recording system to bring everything off the initial manual records onto one detailed computer spreadsheet. The Secretary asks for your understanding while he masters the process.