Cyclone Gabrielle: Anzac Day commemorations go on at Eskdale War Memorial Church

Linda Paterson, board member of Eskdale War Memorial Church, places a flower in a road cone marking support for the cyclone-stricken community's servicemen and women.

A very small, very special Anzac Day will be marked in the flood-damaged Eskdale War Memorial Church on the country’s day of remembrance.

The stone building that was damaged in Cyclone Gabrielle will host an intimate local event, featuring a livestream of an Anzac Day service for its community.

The choir will feature singers from Hukarere Girl’s College. The students were evacuated just hours before the deadly floods tore through their hostel. A wreath will be laid by people who are part of the tiny service.

The church’s board member Linda Paterson said she was inspired by Christchurch’s post-quakes tradition of placing flowers in road cones. This Anzac Day she remembers the community’s fallen and and is keen to shows how the community is determined to carry on.

The Esk Valley church on SH5 was built in memory of Percival (Percy) Moore Beattie, 30, 2nd Lieutenant in the New Zealand Rifle Brigade, who was killed in action at Le Quesnoy in France on November 4, 1918 – the day of the town’s liberation and a week before the armistice with Germany at 11am on November 11.

It is also a memorial to all those killed in action during the Great War, especially service men and women from Eskdale.

This year the community that endured the worst of Cyclone Gabrielle also remembers the Anzac Day flood of 1938 that also devastated homes and livelihoods.