The first Anzac Day

Communities across New Zealand and overseas gathered to commemorate the first anniversary of the Gallipoli landings, which happened to be Easter Tuesday. A half-day holiday was observed in New Zealand from 1 p.m., with ceremonies held throughout the country. The mood was solemn; race meetings were deferred and cinemas stayed shut until late afternoon. New Zealanders overseas also marked the day with commemorative activities.

The first Anzac Day provided an opportunity for the country’s political leaders to remind young men of their duty to volunteer for war service. At a patriotic gathering in Wellington’s Town Hall on the evening of Anzac Day, Prime Minister William Massey gave a speech emphasising national unity and imperial loyalty, and extolling the virtues of the men who had fallen while fighting. He concluded by calling for more young men to come forward for King and country.

At a local level, many of the day’s ceremonies featured processions of returned and serving personnel followed by church services and public meetings at town halls. Large crowds attended these events – there were 2000 at a religious service in Ashburton and around 8000 at the dedication of a memorial flagpole at Petone railway station, where Massey unfurled an Australian flag. At Tinui in Wairarapa, a large cross was erected on top of Mt Maunsell/Tinui overlooking the village. Each of the 50 or so locals present wrote their name on a piece of paper which was placed in a bottle and buried at the base of the cross. The Last Post was then played before ‘God Save the King’ was sung. 

New Zealanders took part in commemorative activities in Malta and Egypt, and in London crowds lined the streets to watch 2000 New Zealand and Australian soldiers march through the city to Westminster Abbey for a commemorative service. The New Zealand contingent was reportedly led by a St Bernard dog mascot. King George V and Queen Mary drove along the procession route in an open carriage and the King stayed after the service to speak to wounded Anzac soldiers.

As the first Anzac Day passed into history, newspapers called for 25 April to become an annual day of national remembrance, an occasion on which to honour the sacrifice and achievements of New Zealand’s First World War servicemen. Initially the day’s status was uncertain, but in November 1920 Parliament passed legislation to introduce a full-day public holiday, which was observed for the first time in 1921. The following year Anzac Day was effectively ‘Sundayised’, further cementing its sacred place in the New Zealand calendar. 

Image: Tinui memorial cross, one of New Zealand’s earliest First World War memorials