Interclub Volume 27 Issue 1 2021

17 INTERCLUB • VOLUME 27, ISSUE 1 - 2021 W e W i l l R e M e M b e R a n Z a c Please consider Montecillo when planning Wills and Bequests 63 Bay View Road, Dunedin Ph (03) 466 - 4778 Email: information@montecillo.org.nz ww.montecillo.org.nz w Motueka Memorial RSA Club 49 High Street, Motueka Phone: (03) 528 9777 Email: manager@motuekarsa.co.nz Web: www.motuekarsa.co.nz “At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we shall remember them” Birkenhead RSA (Inc) Recreation Drive, Birkenhead, Auckland. 09 418 2424 www.birkenheadrsa.com “At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.” Glen Eden RSA (Inc) 9 Glendale Road Glen Eden, Auckland Phone (09) 818 4219 e: glenedenrsa@gmail.com www.glenedenrsa.co.nz 6am Dawn Parade - 11am Citizens Service “Remembering those past and present.” Ashburton RSA Memorial Club 12-14 Cox Street, Ashburton Phone: 03 308 7175 Email: rsao ce@xtra.co.nz Web: www.ashburtonrsa.co.nz Dawn Service 6:00am Cemetery Service 9:00am Cenotaph 11:00am “Remembering those past and present.” 12 Bowler Avenue, Gore Phone: 03 208 6218 Email: manager@gorersa.co.nz www.gorersa.co.nz 6:30am Dawn Parade Service will be our 102 nd Gore District Memorial RSA “We are the dead. Short days ago, We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow” 34 Vautier St, Napier Ph 06 835 7629 | www.rsanapier.co.nz Dawn Service 6am at the SoundShell on Marine Parade. Church Service Eskdale 9am. Civil Service Ilam Memorial Square Napier. Napier RSA “We shall never forget our fallen mates” Maunganui Road Mount Maunganui Phone/Fax: (07) 575 4477 E-mail: reception@mtrsa.co.nz www.mtrsa.co.nz Mount Maunganui RSA Munro’s Restaurant & Cafe “We are the dead. Short days ago, We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow” A soldier who left Waimate early in 1940 for World War 2 vowing to return to finish a beer the Waihao Forks Hotel has been immor talised in bronze. Pte Ted d’Auvergne was injured in battle and died in Crete on June 3, 1941. Ever since “Ted’s bottle” has remained on display in a glass case in his 'local'. The story goes that Ted was having farewell drinks with the publican, George Provan, before depar ting for overseas service in 1940. When he heard the train whistle, George put a bottle on the shelf saying “We’ll have this one Ted when you return home again”. There are varying versions, but a bottle of beer was cer tainly kept and cer tainly remained untouched. His story became well known, and now, nearly 80 years on, he has returned to the hotel – in the form of a $45,000 life-sized bronze statue which has him sitting outside the pub drinking a beer while waiting for a train. More than 400 gathered on November 10 for the official unveiling of the life-size sculpture, which sits on a railway platform outside the hotel. RSA national president BJ Clark, Canterbury RSA district president Stan Hansen, chief of Defence Intelligence Brig Hugh McAslan and LtCol Tim Tuatini were among the speakers,. The statue – made by Akaroa-based sculptor Donald Paterson and funded by the Ted d’Auvergne Sculpture Project Fundraising Committee – was officially unveiled on August 15 to tie in with Victory over Japan Day. Ted was born in Rangiora on February 1, 1906, the youngest of a family of six). He was named La Tour Mollet d'Auvergne. The family moved to the Waihao Forks area south-west of Waimate where Ted grew up and worked. He enlisted on September 19, 1939, managing to hide his impaired hearing by standing and keeping his good ear pointing in the right direction. His mechanical skills, fitness and service in the Community toasts Ted – 80 years on territorials saw him posted to the 27th Machine Gun Battalion as a driver. After serving in Nor th Africa, this was one of the first units to go into action in the Greek Campaign. He was posted missing in June 1941, and declared killed in action in 1945. Waimate mayor Craig Rowley says the statue commemorates everybody in the district who served in World War 2: “Because Ted is well known, we have used him." He says the statue will be a talking point and “many people will come out and share a beer with Ted, who would have perhaps been quite amused to know he has been immor talised on a railway seat outside his local…the very place where he had left from all those years ago". The mayor says Ted's story has enabled the community to personally depict a memorial to tens of thousands of soldiers who left their farms, their families and communities, and never returned home to carry on the family farm or their family name. Waihao Forks Hotel publican Sandy Doolan, in her 18th year at the hotel, describes the statue as “a great thing". "It’s about the rural soldiers in Waimate who served and the community has got right behind it." PHOTOS left: alana Taupo (left), colleen Moulton (centre) and hotel publican Sandy doolan (right) toast Ted d’auvergne beside his sculpture at the Waihao forks Hotel, in South canterbury. as Pte Ted d’auvergne left the Waihao forks Hotel hotel in 1940 to catch a train in 1940 to serve his country in World War 2, he vowed to return to finish a bottle of beer he had left atthe bar. He died from injuries received in the battle of crete in 1941. below: Two of Ted d'auvergne's great nieces visit his grave in crete.