Among those to survive were New Zealand Expeditionary Force members George Kay, John Robin Harris Cooksey, Herbert Samuel Hughes and Bright Ernest Williams, and NZ Rifle Brigade member Arthur George Williams, all of whom were to settle on farm blocks at Rissington.
At the time of his death, aged 105 in 2003, Bright Williams had been the last-surviving New Zealand veteran.
Just in time for the commemoration, Soldiers Settlement Rd had just the previous day had its place on the Poppy Places Register formalised, with the sign now sporting the poppy which is becoming more familiar around the country denoting streets with names linked to the war years.
Officiating, Rev Di Woods said in the commemoration the conditions were nothing compared with what the men had gone through in the trenches and battles.
Co-organiser Ruth Dawson, a Rissington Community Board member who lives in Soldiers Settlement Rd, said later: "For our forefathers it was months, and years. For us it (the rain) was few minutes' discomfort."
Up to 300 people braced the weather, including a couple from Oregon, US, tagging the event into their itinerary, a cyclist who'd biked from Napier – having said before he would if the weather was good enough, and six bike-riding member of the Patriots Defence Force Motorcycle Club riding from Auckland especially for the commemoration.
They joined local service veterans and RSA representatives, Scouts, Country Women's Institute members, locals and the Hastings District mayor for the commemoration on the Absolom family bloc, with a special feature the servicemen's redwood tree carving by timber sculptor Hugh Tareha, who died earlier this year.
The tree is also on the poppy places register.
