Pāpāmoa cenotaph to host Tauranga, Mount RSAs for Armistice Day

Mount Maunganui RSA support manager Peter Moss at the Pāpāmoa cenotaph where the first joint Armistice Day service will be held. Photo / Andrew Warner

Local Returned and Services' Associations are going all out for Armistice Day next week, with Tauranga and Mount Maunganui RSAs uniting for a combined service at the Pāpāmoa cenotaph.

Mount Maunganui RSA support manager Peter Moss said although the idea for a united service had come from the Tauranga RSA, it had been on the cards since the Mount Maunganui RSA opened the Pāpāmoa cenotaph last year.

"The Tauranga RSA has had small services for quite a few years, and last year we opened the cenotaph at Pāpāmoa . . . We were asked, after that one, would we please hold an Armistice Day service?" Moss said.

"There really hadn't been any formalised service for a while, so we put a programme together."

Moss hoped the joint service would become an ongoing annual event.

"It's representing Tauranga . . . It's a pretty important day for New Zealand, and the rest of the world," he said.

"Everywhere else has their equivalent of Anzac Day on Remembrance Day. . . It's a big day around the world."

Armistice Day commemorates the signing of the armistice agreement which signified the ending of World War I. It was signed on November 11, 1918 at 11am.

Moss said the service would start at 10.55am, with a march up to the cenotaph before new mayor Tenby Powell formally welcomed the public.

After the welcome, there will be prayers, and then the national anthem will be sung, led by Mount Maunganui College student Saffron O'Donnell.

Moss said representatives from the French and Australian embassies in Wellington would be present at the service, to commemorate New Zealand soldiers liberating the French town of Le Quesnoy in November 1918.

Greg Moyle, chairman of the New Zealand War Memorial Trust Le Quesnoy, has been invited to speak at the service.

Moss said Tauranga City Council was instrumental in enabling them to hold the service.

"The council have actually [paid] for a traffic management plan and portaloos and that sort of thing . . . It's a joint effort, I think."