Rededication for memorial with corrected roll of honour

Crosses for soldiers who died during the Gallipoli campaign during World War 1, including Otago...
Crosses for soldiers who died during the Gallipoli campaign during World War 1, including Otago Peninsula soldiers who gave their lives, set up by the Otago Peninsula Soldiers' Memorial.
Author and historian Ron Palenski speaks during the unveiling of a new plaque at the Otago...
Author and historian Ron Palenski speaks during the unveiling of a new plaque at the Otago Peninsula Soldiers' Memorial. Photos by Linda Robertson.
The new and more accurate roll of honour.
The new and more accurate roll of honour.
Members of the public and the armed forces gather during the unveiling of a new plaque at the...
Members of the public and the armed forces gather during the unveiling of a new plaque at the Otago Peninsula Soldiers' Memorial.

Just like they first did 92 years ago, a crowd gathered ''in the lee of the rock'' in cold conditions to honour the dead of the Otago Peninsula.

They stood silent to the call of the Last Post and reverent at the Ode of Remembrance.

They craned their necks to look up towards the Otago Peninsula Soldiers' Memorial as clouds scudded past in the sky above, and the city of Dunedin wrapped around the hills behind.

But the crowd of about 70 that turned out yesterday to witness the rededication of the memorial did so in front of a more accurate roll of honour than those on March 18, 1923.

The rededication came about after historian and author Ron Palenski noticed the errors and wrote about them in the Otago Daily Times.

Previous Rotary district 9980 governor John Prendergast told the gathering about 30 clubs from South Canterbury to Southland had taken on the job of sprucing up memorials for the centenary of World War 1.

The Rotary Club of Dunedin South took responsibility for the peninsula memorial and, along with a $5700 grant from the Lotteries Commission, helped pay for a new plaque.

The crowd heard the original commissioning of the monument was described in the Otago Daily Times in 1923 as an event where ''the weather was not kind'', leaving a large crowd to gather ''in the lee of the rock''. Yesterday's event was not dissimilar.

Mr Palenski said there had been ''anomalies'' on the plaque, with names and ranks sometimes different from those on other records.

Errors and omissions were a not uncommon feature of World War 1 memorials, with stonemasons working with what they were told, and sometimes ''the telling was imperfect''.

He said if the soldiers listed were prepared to die for their country ''the least we could do is commemorate them accurately''.

The new plaque was unveiled by Dunedin RSA president Lox Kellas, and Dunedin Cr Neville Peat. The original plaque would be stored at the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum.

Mr Kellas said the crosses set up next to the memorial yesterday were some of 690 crosses that would be placed on Dunedin's Oval on Anzac Day, as part of the Fields of Remembrance project.

On Anzac Day each year until 2018, a named cross would be made for every New Zealander who died in service that year. Ten of the crosses yesterday bore the names of men listed on the memorial.

 

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