The dawn service on Anzac Day in Gisborne at the Cenotaph will be a combined service again this year and Returned and Services Association preparations for it are well in hand. Photo / Murray Robertson
The dawn service on Anzac Day in Gisborne at the Cenotaph will be a combined service again this year and Returned and Services Association preparations for it are well in hand. Photo / Murray Robertson
An RNZN officer from the East Coast is the guest speaker at this year’s Anzac Day dawn service in Gisborne.
Last year featured a combined dawn service only at the Cenotaph on The Esplanade, rather than the traditional two services - dawn and civic (held later in the morning).
The 2025 service drew the biggest crowd seen in Gisborne on Anzac Day morning for many years.
“The combined service will be a permanent fixture on Anzac Day from now on,” commemoration convenor and Gisborne RSA acting manager Paul Bayly said.
“It was a decision based on the numbers of people involved and the costs of staging two commemoration parades.”
The guest speaker at this year’s service is Warrant Officer Darren Crosby from the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN).
Warrant Officer Darren Crosby, the most senior Warrant Officer in the Royal New Zealand Navy, will be guest speaker at the combined dawn service on Anzac Day in Gisborne. Photo / Supplied
Crosby, who comes from Tokomaru Bay and attended Gisborne Boys’ High School, is the Warrant Officer of the Navy - the most senior Warrant Officer in the RNZN. He reports to the Chief of Navy and provides advice to Navy senior leadership about issues affecting sailors.
Crosby joined the Navy in 1988 as a radio operator and has served on frigates HMNZS Southland, Te Mana, Te Kaha, Canterbury and Wellington.
Meanwhile, the annual collection for the Returned and Services Association is well underway.
“The poppy collection boxes are out there,” Bayly said. “They went out on April 1 to dairies, other shops and outlets. The Poppy Day street collection will be held on Friday, April 17.
RSA vice-president Wendy Cossgrove with one of the collection boxes that have gone out to dairies and other outlets ahead of the Poppy Day street collection on April 17. Photo / Supplied
“We will be collecting in force, thanks to heaps of support from the high schools, which is really good,” Bayly said.
