Remembrance

The campaigns in which New Zealand soldiers fought and died were thousands of miles from home. In 1917 the Imperial War Graves Commission (later Commonwealth War Graves Commission) was created to commemorate members of the armed forces of the Empire and Dominions who died in the War. Military cemeteries were established in Belgium, France and the Middle East by the Commission for servicemen killed on active service. Engraved onto New Zealand headstones were a fern leaf, soldier’s name, rank, unit, date of death, and age. On the headstones of unidentified bodies was the inscription ‘Known unto God’. Soldiers whose bodies were never found or unidentified are recorded on memorials to the missing at the cemeteries.

Consideration was soon given to the servicemen and women who died in the post-war years. In 1921, the Government, together with the Returned Soldiers’ Association established military cemeteries throughout New Zealand. A War Graves Section of the Department of Internal Affairs was set up to administer the cemeteries. Over 170 service cemeteries exist in New Zealand, most of them located within existing public cemeteries.

There was an attempt, through civic memorials, and honour boards in churches, school and workplaces, to give some local physical expression to remembrance, and these monuments became functional substitutes for the lack of graves and headstones. Memorial services were one way of helping individuals, families and communities to mourn publicly. The use of euphemistic language, such as ‘the fallen’ was a way of softening the reality of war and death. Memorial services, with their reverential music, hushed tones, patriotic hymns and sanctifying language, contributed to the growing mythology surrounding the war. The rhetoric and mythology that developed around death in World War One showed how deeply scarred New Zealand society was by this experience. Returned soldiers who knew the reality of fighting, dying and death found it almost impossible to question this growing mythology.

Armistice Day was marked solemnly in New Zealand until the 1960s, but was quickly overshadowed by Anzac Day. From the outset, public perception of the landings at Gallipoli were imbued with strong feelings of national pride, newspapers gushed about the heroism of the New Zealanders, and when the campaign failed its sanctity was enhanced in the public’s mind, the courage and sacrifice of the New Zealanders in adversity highlighted. Demands for remembrance on the anniversary of the landing, both as a public expression of grief and as a means of rallying support for the war effort, were soon heard. The ceremony was an opportunity to stimulate patriotism in which the righteousness of the war and New Zealand’s place in the empire were stressed. It became a public holiday in 1921 after persistent RSA lobbying.

In August 1916 returned soldiers succeeded in lobbying for use of the word ‘Anzac’ to be prohibited for trade or business purposes, further enshrining the Anzac myth and the sacredness of the commemoration.

After the war the service quickly lost its patriotic function, becoming more a remembrance of the war dead. Services in public halls or churches were replaced in the 1920s by commemorations at newly erected war memorials. The ceremony has continually adapted to the times but has also steadily acquired extra layers of symbolism and meaning, with much stress on nationhood and remembrance.