Afternoon showers cleared in time for people to pay their respects at the Le Quesnoy sculpture.
Saturday’s gathering at the Le Quesnoy statue in Cambridge marked the 105th anniversary of the World War One action that saw Kiwi soldiers liberate the French town from four years of German occupation.
The soldiers used a ladder to scale the town walls on November 4, 1918, just a week before the war officially ended. No civilian lives were lost in the action, but many Kiwi soldiers died and are buried in the town’s cemetery.
The town has honoured its Kiwi liberators ever since, with many ongoing commemorations shared between Le Quesnoy and its sister city, Cambridge. The unusual story is at the heart of the new Te Arawhata – New Zealand Liberation Museum, which was officially opened in Le Quesnoy last month.
Saturday’s local ‘Liberation Day’ commemoration was once again organised by the Cambridge-Le Quesnoy Friendship Association, headed by Alana Mackay.
The sculpture, sited on the grassed corner of Thornton and Victoria roads, was designed by well-known artists and kaumatua Fred Graham, and was unveiled in 2019.
The ceremony at the sculpture kicked off a month of Sister City celebrations with delegations from Le Quesnoy and Bihoro in Japan joining in.
Tomorrow (Friday) the Cambridge Brass Band’s Armistice Salute concert will be held at the Town Hall from 7pm and the following day (Armistice Day itself), a civic service will be held at the same location from 10.30am.
Then later this month the Cambridge Primary School kapa haka group will feature in the welcome to Bihoro representatives in the Japanese Garden next to Cambridge Library.
Paul Murphy reciting The Ode of Remembrance.
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- Newly-appointed Resident Naval Officer (Waikato) Lieutenant Commander Greg Liddy RNZN laid a wreath on behalf of the New Zealand Armed Forces and the Cambridge RSA.
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- Cambridge-Le Quesnoy Friendship Association chair Alana Mackay, left, at the gathering with Cambridge Community Board chair Jo Davies-Colley, who attended last month’s opening of Te Arawhata – New Zealand Liberation Museum.
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- Cambridge Brass Band members Jack Redpath and bugler Doug Rose played both the English and French versions of The Last Post (La Dernière Sonnerie).
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- Heather Wellington laid flowers on behalf of the Cambridge-Le Quesnoy Friendship Association.
