From Papanui To Passchendaele

MEDIA RELEASE | For Release Friday, 15 April 2009

Exhibition Commemorates Men Who Marched From Papanui To Passchendaele And Gave Their Lives There

Private Isaac Claridge was one of three Christchurch brothers killed fighting in the Great War.

The trio, who grew up in Chapel Street off Harewood Road, were among 500 young men to march from Papanui to Passchendaele to serve in World War 1. They were also among the 96 local lads who would never return.

Benjamin would die of his wounds just before Messines and Thomas, of his, after he was invalided home in 1917.

Issac, a member of the 1st Canterbury Battalion, would lose his life on October 12 1917, New Zealand’s bloodiest day, when in just four hours 845 of our soldiers would die trying to take the Bellevue Spur.

He would not be the only casualty from the ranks of the Papanui boys that day – joined also by Privates Gordon Pearce and Laurence Patrick Donohue, Corporal Robert James Patrick McConnell, and Lance Corporal Leslie Walter Derrett.

It is young men, like these, the touring exhibition, Passchendaele: The Belgians Have Not Forgotten, which opens in Christchurch next week (Tuesday April 21), has been designed to commemorate.

Developed by the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917, the exhibition focuses on how memories of New Zealand’s efforts during the devastating campaign, more than 90 years ago, continue to occupy a place in the Belgian consciousness.

Museum Curator, Franky Bostyn says “New Zealand has always been very important to us because as you know they came “from the uttermost ends of the earth” (as is in-scribed on the New Zealand memorial at Gravenstafel) to fight for us.

“Today we have one of the most prosperous areas in Europe, thanks to those men who came here in 1917 – many of whom (like the Claridges) are still here. They are a part of our land, a part of our common history, and I think it is our common duty to re-member them.”

Of the 18,500 New Zealanders killed during the Great War, some 5,000 died fighting in Belgium (almost twice the death toll recorded at Galipoli) and 13,000 others were wounded.

Passchendaele Society President, Freddy Declerck (who will be in New Zealand for the Christchurch opening) says, the exhibition reflects on a very different landscape today, than the New Zealanders encountered in 1917.

“Today, this ground is quiet farmland, but it is also one of the most iconic and emotional places in your country’s past, and for those who cannot journey to Belgium, we feel it is our duty to bring at least an impression of Flanders Fields to you because no-body should ever forget what happened in and around Passchendaele and Messines and the sacrifice of the thousands of your brave men who came across to help us, for which we are eternally grateful.”

The exhibition Passchendaele: The Belgians Have Not Forgotten - opens at Our City O-Tautahi on April 21st and runs through until May 30.

It features photographs by award winning British photojournalist, Michael St. Maur Sheil, sculptures by Belgian artist Rik Ryon made from driving bands of shells, and rel-ics from the battlefields themselves.

A five minute excerpt from a soon to be released documentary “Our Bloodiest Day” will also premier at the Christchurch opening.

Freddy Declerck says the people of Belgium want to show New Zealanders how they care for the dead and how they remember everyday with their history.

“In the early years after the war, New Zealanders couldn’t afford to come to Belgium to commemorate your people, your people who are here under the graveyards, our graveyards and so it has been our duty to guard and commemorate them.

“Today, more and more ordinary people are thinking of an uncle, a great uncle, who they have not known and who they have heard stories about, that has come to Flan-ders battlefields. But where it is not possible for them to see it with their own eyes, they can never really know what happened here, where they have been, how they have suf-fered, what the mud was like and so on.”

“We are saying to you, we will take care of your dead, but you are always welcome here in Flanders. Come – travel in the footsteps of your ancestors. We would love to see you.”

A Belgian delegation, which includes the Mayor of Zonnebeke Dirk Cardoen, will at-tend the Christchurch opening as part of their visit to Waimakariri. The two districts twinned during the 90th commemorations of The Battle of Passchendaele.

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