Ka maumahara tonu tatou ki a ratou – We will remember them
Angus took centre stage for Scotland’s Anzac remembrance in a milestone commemoration at Arbroath’s Western Cemetery.
April 25 is a national Anzac day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand honouring the personnel from the two nations who have made the ultimate sacrifice in conflict.
The date was chosen to honour the men of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac) who served in the Gallipoli campaign, their first engagement of the First World War.
Also known as the Dardanelles campaign, the near year-long conflict cost an estimated 100,000 lives, more than 10,000 of those Anzac soldiers.
Across the globe, other nations pay similar tribute to their Anitipodean brethren around the same time each year.
And for the past quarter of a century, the Arbroath cemetery has been the location for a ceremony led by the New Zealand Society Scotland and the local branch of Legion Scotland.
The graveyard is the final resting place of four Anzac servicemen who lost their lives in Angus.
On Sunday, colours were lowered as a gun salute broke the peace of the Arbroath morning cold.
NZ Society Scotland president Eriti Mitchell, from Perth, and Angus Lord Lieutenant Pat Sawers led the dignitaries.
Donna-Marie Kirk-Sergeant of the New Zealand High Commission in London gave the main address.
The men laid to rest in Angus
The solemn ceremony on the north side of the graveyard is the closest part of the cemetery to what is now 45 Commando’s RM Condor base.
But it was previously a Fleet Air Arm base and the four Anzac memorials are to airmen who lost their lives while stationed in Angus.
Brian Patterson
He left the rural tranquility of New Zealand’s North Island to train with the Fleet Air Arm.
Tragically, less than a year later, he died in a plane collision 600ft above Arbroath.
Jim Drake
The third child of a Gallipoli veteran, he crashed his Spitfire on a training flight near Barry.
Richard Chettle
Volunteered for the Royal NZ Air Force in 1940 but also perished in an Angus training exercise.
Frederick Batten
The experienced flyer trained in the US before completing a number of operational missions. He too lost his life in a training flight near the Arbroath base.
Courier photographer Steve Brown captured the scene of solemnity at Arbroath.
