Somme war cemetery visit prompts generous offer

Thames man Rob Johnston is visiting the memorial in France dedicated to New Zealand soldiers killed in the Battle of the Somme. Mr Johnston is offering to take any small items of remembrance for people or take photos or do paper rubbings* of soldiers' graves.

Mr Johnston is spending four days next week with his father touring the Somme region of France where his grandfather served in the 3rd Rifle Brigade, part of the New Zealand Division.

The New Zealand Division was formed in early 1916 after New Zealand troops withdrew from Gallipoli. They fought their first major battle of the Western Front in September 1916 at what is now the site of the New Zealand National Memorial at the Caterpillar Valley Cemetery at Longueval, in France.

Mr Johnston's grandfather was shot in the leg on 2 Oct 1916 and spent the next two years convalescing before returning to the front in the closing weeks of the war.

He was one of nearly 6,000 New Zealand men who were wounded at the Somme. More than 2,100 New Zealand men were killed in about six weeks of fighting; more than half with no known grave. Their names are inscribed on the Memorial to the Missing at the Caterpillar Valley Cemetery.

To commemorate these men, in September 2016 we planted 2,300 trees at the Somme Memorial Forest site at Stella Evered Memorial Park. This is a publicly accessible, privately administered reserve near Hahei.

It is one of eight Memorial Forest sites around the Coromandel our Council set up as part of the 100th anniversary commemorations of WWI. The locations are listed below.

The eight WWI Memorial Forest sites pay tribute to the NZ soldiers who fell in a particular battle or to the men from a particular Coromandel Peninsula town who were killed in the Great War.

Over the years, these groves of trees will mature into forests, providing quiet places for people to visit the tree commemorating their chosen soldier and to remember New Zealand history.

You can make a long-lasting contribution to the Memorial Forest by donating the cost of a tree: $25.

For more details, go to www.tcdc.govt.nz/ww1memorialforest

And, you can dedicate the tree to one of the New Zealanders who made the ultimate sacrifice in the war. You can look up that person's service details online at the Auckland Museum online cenotaph.

Mr Johnston's visit to the Somme region comes just a few weeks ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele.

On October 12 1917, the New Zealand Division attacked and suffered their heaviest losses in a single day - 842 men were killed and several thousand more were wounded before the attack was called off. Their sacrifice is remembered at the Passchendaele Memorial Forest site at the new Kaimarama Cemetery on SH25 just south of Whitianga.

* A rubbing is an impression of a design or inscription (such as a gravestone) made by pressing paper onto the surface and then rubbing it with wax or ink to reproduce the design.

Somme pilgrimage

Mr Johnston is willing to take any small items of remembrance you would like him to leave on your behalf at the Caterpillar Valley Cemetery or one of the other cemeteries in the vicinity, if the item is not heavy and will pass through French customs.

Or, he is willing to take photos of particular graves or names on the Memorial to the Missing or to do rubbings.

Please provide him with the name of any soldier and their grave location.

You can search the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website to find the cemeteries where war dead are buried.

Contact Mr Johnston by email at robjarchitecture@gmail.com and he'll do his best to oblige, but be quick because he leaves on Wednesday 20 September.

The WWI Memorial Forest sites

• Cathedral Cove: A site on Public Conservation Land above the cove represents the Gallipoli campaign, in which 2,779 New Zealanders died. 2,779 trees have been planted here.

• Kaimarama Cemetery, Whitianga: Thirty-seven trees have been blessed and planted to represent the 37 men from Mercury Bay were killed in the war. An additional 2,000 trees were planted in the winter of 2016 - a representative number to commemorate the men killed in the Battle of Passchendaele.

• Stella Evered Memorial Park: This publicly accessible privately administered reserve near Hahei hosts the Somme Memorial Forest site. Some 2,300 trees were planted in September 2016, around the 100th anniversary of the New Zealand Division joining the Somme battle on 15 September 1916. Again, one tree for each New Zealand soldier killed in the battle.

• Tairua's RSA cemetery honours the 48 men from Tairua-Hikuai who served and died in the war. A total of 48 trees have been planted here.

• Pauanui's Tangitarori Lane represents the Sinai and Palestine campaigns, in which 640 New Zealanders died. 640 trees have been planted on Council and WRC land.

• Whangamata: A Council reserve at the north entrance to town has been renamed Le Quesnoy Park and 122 trees have been planted there to remember the 122 Kiwi troops killed in the Battle of Le Quesnoy on 4 November 1918.

• At Rhodes Park in Thames, 247 trees were planted on 11 August 2015, to honour the war dead from that town.

• In Coromandel Town, TCDC land at the Hauraki Rd wastewater treatment plant is the site of the forest representing "Supreme Sacrifice". More than 1,000 trees have been planted there. This site also pays tribute to the 39 Coromandel Town men who fell in the Great War.

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