Whangamatā community honours fallen soldiers of Le Quesnoy
There are 122 trees planted in the Coromandel town of Whangamatā to honour the soldiers killed during the liberation of Le Quesnoy.
Located on SH25, Le Quesnoy Memorial Park is one of seven World War One Memorial Forest sites around the Coromandel.
The Thames-Coromandel District Council started the tree-planting project in 2013 to commemorate New Zealand soldiers who had been killed in the First World War.
As part of the project Whangamatā was chosen to commemorate the liberation of Le Quesnoy with the Whangamatā RSA, Lions Club and council partnering to designate land for the forest and create a concept of how it would remember the battle.
“We found land opposite the entrance to Moana House, Whangamatā’s rest home,” says Geoff March, Whangamatā RSA President. “We sourced native trees and held many working bees with the community to turn the land into a usable area and decided on a koru shaped forest – this was the Kiwi touch.”
The Whangamatā forest was opened on Anzac Day 2015 with the event attended by Waihi resident Sue Haxton, whose father fought at Le Quesnoy, and two returned servicemen, 95-year-old Roy Brooks and 101-year-old Brant Robinson.
Some of the memorial sites honour the fallen from a specific battle, such as Le Quesnoy or Gallipoli, with the latter site located in Cathedral Cove. Other locations honour those who died from a given town with the Memorial Forest at Rhodes Park in Thames plated with 247 trees to remember the same number of men from the town who died in the war.
At Cathedral Cove, 2,779 trees are planted to pay tribute to the soldiers killed in the Gallipoli campaign.
In February 2017 a delegation from the Association Le Quesnoy / Nouvelle Zélande visited the forest as part of a New Zealand tour which included visiting Le Quesnoy sister city Cambridge.
“They were supposed to only visit for 30 minutes but ended up staying for an hour and half and had tears as they left,” says Mr March.
Mr March and his wife accepted an invitation from the Association to attend Le Quesnoy’s commemorations and visited the town in November 2017.