Anzac fallen honoured despite lock down leading to remembrance day being cancelled

Soldiers from New Zealand who lie at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Cannock Chase have been honoured despite the cancellation of this year's annual Anzac Day ceremony due to coronavirus.

And the lock down has resulted in one New Zealand relative who had travelled to Britain for the ceremony being stranded in Britain.

Since the end of the Great War the Cannock Chase ceremony has been held on or as near as possible to Anzac Day - April 25. One of the largest outside New Zealand and Australia, it is organised by the Royal British Legion’s Staffordshire Branch.

Richard Pursehouse, from Cannock, who is a member of Wolverhampton branch of the Western Front Association (WFA), said it was the only time other than the Second World War that the event had not taken place.

To ensure it was marked, he decided to place some wreaths at the cemetery on his way to work as an online deliveries’ driver for a large supermarket.

And he took photographs of the empty cemetery which are a poignant reminder of the 73 New Zealand troops who did not return home and are among those who lie there.

In an echo of current times, he says most were victims of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 and 1919.

As well as the wreath laid on behalf of the people and Government of New Zealand, he laid a wreath for the WFA, a Harakeke cross – a flax indigenous to New Zealand, and an RSA (Returned Services Association) poppy hand-crafted by Dolores Ho, head archivist of the National Army Museum in New Zealand.

"Cannock was the very first cemetery in the world that had these crosses placed on every NZ grave," he said.

Richard also placed a wreath on the grave of Charlie McMillan, who succumbed to the pandemic in November 1918, the month the Great War ended.

"His nephew Geoff McMillan lives at Waikanae Beach in New Zealand and has come over to England this year for his third visit, his plan being to attend the now-cancelled Anzac ceremony at Cannock," he added.

"Geoff cannot return home until flights to NZ are resumed and is now staying with his friend Mary down south."

The soldiers in the cemetery include those from the New Zealand Rifle Brigade which left Cannock Chase in May 1919. The following year local people took it upon themselves to remember them with floral tributes and a few words from the local vicar, after which it became an annual event.

Anzac Day, April 25, is an important national occasion for Australia and New Zealand, marking the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War when they landed at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915.

Anzac stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.