Heroes of Le Quesnoy remembered

A ceremony to commemorate the New Zealand soldiers who were killed liberating the French town of Le Quesnoy in the final days of World War One is to take place on the anniversary of the battle -4 November.

The commemoration will take place at the WWI Memorial Forest site in Whangamata, at the Council reserve on the northern entrance to town opposite Moana House.

The reserve was recently renamed Le Quesnoy Park and now 122 native trees have been planted there in honour of the 122 soldiers who were killed in the battle.

"Tens of thousands of our young men - and quite a few women too - went overseas 100 years ago and many did not come back, they made the ultimate sacrifice," says our Mayor Glenn Leach.

"On the 100th anniversary of the Great War, we want to pay tribute to these brave people with our Memorial Forest project, by creating groves of native trees in each part of the Coromandel where people can go for a walk and remember our shared history."

The Whangamata ceremony will also serve as the official opening of Le Quesnoy Park. It is taking place on 4 November at 10am and has been organised by our Council staff in Whangamata in conjunction with the local Lions and RSA.

Some special guests have been lined up including:

• Mayor Glenn Leach
• Herb Farrant, the President of New Zealand Military Historical Society, who will tell the story of the battle
• The niece and great-nephew of Sergeant Vincent Stephenson Twidle, who was killed in the battle. Sgt Twidle was the great uncle of Thames High School student Timothy Clarke and the uncle of Beryl Wharton, Timothy's grandmother. Together, they'll pay tribute to Sgt Twidle.

Timothy approached our Council about participating in the Le Quesnoy commemoration ceremony after he learned about his great uncle Sgt Twidle in a school project.

Mr Farrant hosts historical tours of Le Quesnoy and is in contact with the mayor about the battle's commemoration in Whangamata.

The people of Le Quesnoy still remember the sacrifice of our Kiwi soldiers nearly 100 years ago: streets are named after New Zealand places, there is a New Zealand memorial and a primary school is named for Lieutenant Leslie Averill, who was the first up the ladder to scale the old town's walls during the assault on 4 November. A street is also named for him.

The New Zealand WWI Memorial Forest

The Le Quesnoy Memorial Forest is one of seven such sites across the Coromandel, with at least one in each Community Board area.

About 3,000 trees have been planted so far at the seven sites. Each Memorial Forest site pays tribute to the soldiers lost in a particular battle, such as Le Quesnoy in Whangamata and the Gallipoli Memorial Forest at Cathedral Cove, or commemorates those from a particular town in the District who were killed in the war. For example, the Thames Memorial Forest consists of 247 trees - one for each man from the Thames area who fell in the war.

The Memorial Forest is a unique initiative of our Council, working with local schools, RSAs, iwi, service clubs, community groups, Waikato Regional Council, the Department of Conservation and Wintec.

The project was officially launched on Arbour Day - 5 June - by Minister of Conservation Maggie Barry at the Gallipoli site at Cathedral Cove.

How to contribute

We’re asking people to please help the project by donating $100 to the cost of a tree or by joining in on the plantings, or both. You can also choose to donate $150 and plant the tree yourself.

1. You can dedicate the tree to a specific NZ soldier who was killed in the war. That tree gets planted in the Memorial Forest site dedicated to that particular battle or campaign.

2. You can dedicate a tree to the “unknown soldier”;

In these two cases you receive a memorial certificate that includes the GPS co-ordinates of the tree you’ve donated.

3. Or, you can gift a tree on behalf of your family without necessarily having a specific soldier in mind who was killed in the war. You’ll receive a memorial certificate but no GPS location.

To donate please go to the donate page on our website www.tcdc.govt.nz/donatetree

For full details on the New Zealand WWI Memorial Forest, go to www.tcdc.govt.nz/ww1memorialforest

ENDS

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