Story boards provide photographic details on the liberation of Le Quesnoy.
A gathering at the Le Quesnoy Sculpture in Cambridge last week commemorated the 107th anniversary of the 1918 liberation of the French town by Kiwi soldiers led by Cambridge’s second lieutenant Leslie Averill.
Heather Wellington of the Cambridge-Le Quesnoy Friendship Association and Lieutenant Commander Greg Liddy RNZN laid wreaths at the sculpture’s base. Photo: Viv Posselt
Cambridge Brass Band members Doug Rose, left, and Jack Redpath, played the Sonnerie aux Morts (Last Post) and Rouse (short Reveille). Photo: Viv Posselt
It was held at the Thornton Rd/Victoria St sculpture designed by New Zealand sculptor Fred Graham, who died in May this year. At the November 2019 unveiling of the sculpture, Graham said its design had been based on France’s Eiffel Tower, with the splayed fronds of a silver fern clasped along one edge.
A series of story boards displayed under the trees tells the story of the Le Quesnoy liberation.
Cambridge RSA’s Paul Murphy said it was right that Cambridge residents remember the courage of those who scaled the walls of Le Quesnoy just a week before World War One ended. No civilian lives were lost in the action, but many Kiwi soldiers died and are buried in the town’s cemetery.
Waipā deputy mayor Jo Davies-Colley speaking at the commemoration, with Cambridge RSA’s Paul Murphy at left. Photo: Viv Posselt
Cambridge RSA’s Paul Murphy reciting The Ode. Photo: Viv Posselt
Last week’s ceremony saw a wreath laid By Heather Wellington on behalf of the Cambridge-Le Quesnoy Friendship Association, and one by Lieutenant Commander Greg Liddy RNZN (Naval Liaison Officer for Waikato) on behalf of the New Zealand Defence Forces.
The event was attended by Waipā deputy mayor Jo Davies-Colley, with musical accompaniment by Cambridge Brass Band members Jack Redpath and bugler Doug Rose.
Cambridge and Districts Pipe Band member, and ex Black Watch Pipes and Drums member Gerard Rooney playing ‘Salute to Willie, the Royal Fendersmith’, the lament played at Queen Elizabeth 11’s funeral. Photo: Viv Posselt
Cambridge and Districts Pipe Band member, and ex Black Watch Pipes and Drums member Gerard Rooney played ‘Salute to Willie, the Royal Fendersmith’, the same piece played by Queen Elizabeth 11’s piper, Pipe Major Paul Burns, at her request, as her coffin was lowered into the royal vault at St George’s Chapel.
The lament was composed by a Fife piper, former Scots Guards Pipe Major James Banks, in memory of his late brother Willie who died aged 49. Willie had worked at Windsor Castle as royal fendersmith, one who lights the fires and cleans and repairs the fenders for the castle’s 300 fireplaces. He died tragically in a swimming accident in the Thames in 1995.
Such was the relationship between the Queen and Willie, that she allowed his funeral to take place at St George’s Chapel.
Flight Sergeant RNZAF (retired) Cas Stinson manned the flagpole. Photo: Viv Posselt
Story boards provide photographic details on the liberation of Le Quesnoy. Photo: Viv Posselt
