Purple Poppy Day commemorated in honour of the animals who died in war

Maarten Bazuin, from Wellington, attended Wednesday's Purple Poppy Day in Woodville. Photo Sue emeny

Woodville's Purple Poppy Day on Wednesday, which commemorated animals that served in world wars, looks set to become an annual event.

More than 30 people, some with pets, turned out for the event with some travelling from as far as Wellington and Hastings.

Maarten Bazuin, from Wellington, attended Wednesday's Purple Poppy Day in Woodville. Photo Sue emeny

Former South African soldier and Wellington regional chairman of the South African Military Veterans' Association Maarten Bazuin had a special interest in attending the event. He trained with the South African Army's equestrian centre as part of his intelligence training as a scout.

Purple Poppy Day has only recently been recognised in New Zealand, but was huge overseas, he said.

"I really hope New Zealand picks up on this."

The service was through the combined efforts of Rosemary McMillan of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Woodville Districts' Vision chairwoman Vicky Tomlinson and Woodville RSA president Ian Daily.

Woodville RSA president Ian Daily raises the flag at the conclusion of the ceremony.

In 2018 the War Animal Memorial was unveiled at the National Army Museum in Waiouru and February24 was designated Purple Poppy Day to remember and honour the animals that served and died in war and those that continue to serve.

Tomlinson also hoped Purple Poppy Day would become an annual event.

She told the story of a pigeon named Winkie who was credited with saving the lives of an air crew that ditched into the North Sea on February 23 1942.

The crew were returning from a mission over Norway, but their Beaufort Bomber had been hit by enemy fire and crashed into the sea more than 160km from home.

Struggling in freezing waters and unable to radio an accurate position back to base the four men faced a cold and lonely death.

But as the aircraft went down, the crew salvaged their secret weapon, Winkie, and set her free in the hope she could fly home to her loft in Broughty Ferry, near Dundee.

During World War II carrier pigeons were routinely carried by RAF bombers for this reason, though rescue was far from certain.

Winkie did make it home and was discovered, exhausted and covered in oil by owner George Ross who immediately informed RAF Leuchars in Fife.

The pigeon was not carrying a message, but the RAF was able to calculate the position of the downed aircraft using the time difference between the plane's ditching and the arrival of the bird, taking into account the wind direction and even the impact of the oil on Winkie's feathers to her flight speed.

A rescue mission was launched and the men were found within 15 minutes.

Winkie became the toast of the air base and a dinner was held in her honour. A year later, she became the first animal to receive the Dickin Medal - named after People's Dispensary for Sick Animal's founder Maria Dickin for "delivering a message under exceptional difficulties".

Tomlinson then recounted the story of Caesar, a bulldog trained by the Red Cross to rescue wounded soldiers.

Caesar was the mascot of A company, 4th Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade. His handler was Rifleman Thomas Samuel Tooman who was an ambulance driver.

Caesar would be sent onto the battle field to look for wounded men. When he found a soldier he would look for something to identify him such as a rifle, coat, hat or helmet. He would then carry this back to his handler and lead his handler and the stretcher bearers to the wounded man so they could carry him back to safety.

Caesar found many men wounded on the Somme battlefield, many of who would not have survived without his help.

He was one of about 10,000 Red Cross dogs who served in World War I. Amazingly they were trained to tell the difference between allied and enemy soldiers.

The dogs had harnesses equipped with medical supplies like bandages, water and writing material.

Caesar was killed in action and was found in No Man's Land alongside a soldier who had died with his hand resting on Caesar's head.

Tomlinson said Caesar was just one of 9 million animals killed in World War I alone.

After the laying of a wreath by Tomlinson the ceremony concluded with the playing of The Last Post.