Historian Joan McIntyre and Woodville RSA president Dale Stokes by the grave of Allen Scott Dickens - the first to be buried in the RSA Cemetery.
Historian Joan McIntyre and Woodville RSA president Dale Stokes by the grave of Allen Scott Dickens - the first to be buried in the RSA Cemetery.
There will be three services in Woodville on Anzac Day to commemorate the sacrifices of those from Woodville and district who were involved in the two world wars.
Following the Dawn Service at 6am in Fountaine Square there will be a service at the RSA Cemetery adjacent to the Old Gorge Cemetery starting at 7am. This will be followed by the traditional breakfast in Woodville with the Civic Service set for 10am again in Fountaine Square.
When the RSA established the RSA Cemetery, there were originally services on Anzac Day but when the road next to it became State Highway 2 they were cancelled.
Members of Woodville Lions and Woodville and Districts RSA had a working bee at the RSA Woodville Cemetery.
With the closing of the Manawatū Gorge, RSA president Dale Stokes and his committee decided it became feasible to re-establish the ceremony and Woodville Lions joined RSA members to run a working bee on April 6 to spruce up the cemetery which had been kept in pretty good order by TDC workers.
Joan McIntyre says the history of the Woodville RSA Cemetery reserve on the eastern side of the rail line began in the 1930s.
“[This was] when 15 acres of cemetery reserve which went up beyond the present Old Gorge Cemetery was swapped for seven acres of flat land on the flats opposite the cemetery and alongside the railway line. The area changed slightly when the state highway cut through that land.”
She says newspaper reports from January 1944 indicate that the Woodville RSA was looking for a portion of the local cemetery for RSA plots.
“By October 1945 an amended plan had been approved for the lawn cemetery for deceased servicemen and women. The Manawatu Times of 19th October 1945 reported this plan was approved at a meeting of the borough council.”
The first three burials are particularly significant and poignant, Joan says, with some of the story provided by the descendants of the Dickins family.
“The first burial in the new RSA cemetery was on the death of Allen Scott Dickins [who] was buried 24th March 1948.”
She says Allen was born on July 10, 1920, but he raised his age by two years so he could join the army along with his Territorial Force mates from Papatawa, Woodville and Dannevirke. His army number was 30110.
“He sailed from Wellington on board the troopship Empress of Britain to Southern England. He then proceeded to Egypt and Greece onto Crete.”
The history notes that Private Scott Dickins was taken prisoner on May 21, 1941.
On August 24, 1941 he was included in a group of a thousand POWs who were taken by train on a 10-day journey all the way from Salonika up to Germany and on to Poland to Lamsdorf-Stalag VIII-B.
As a prisoner he worked in the salt mine at Wielczka, near Krakow.
Joan says shortly after Scott was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the spine and he was placed on the camp list of POW officially approved for repatriation, but this was delayed until October 1943, by way of a prisoner exchange at Barcelona, Spain.
He finally got back home (Papatawa) on December 15, 1943. He got his official discharge in May 1944. He was able to do light duties on the family farm. By 1947 his health began to deteriorate and after time in hospitals, he died on March 22 at only 27 years of age.
His father Allen Ernest Dickins was the third soldier to be buried at the Woodville RSA lawn cemetery. He had been keen to enlist in August 1914 as a trooper in the New Zealand Mounted Rifles, but after a few weeks training at Camp Awapuni, Palmerston North, he was rejected as being under age.
He re-enlisted in 1916, but it wasn’t until April 1917 as a member of the 25th Reinforcements that he sailed for England on the HMNZT 83 Tofua. He served in both France and Belgium and was wounded twice at Passchendaele and on October 12, 1917, he was transferred back to England for treatment.
After being classed as medically unfit, he returned to New Zealand and was officially discharged in November 1918 after two years and 125 days.
Ill health as a result of his shrapnel war injuries, dogged him for the rest of his life, but he overcame many difficulties to take a full interest in district and local school affairs. During WWII he was a member of the Woodville Home Guard.
When the new soldiers’ cemetery was being developed at Woodville, he was on the RSA Ccommittee and it was a sad day for him when his son Allen Scott Dickins was the first returned serviceman to be buried there.
The beautifully manicured Woodville RSA Cemetery.
Allen Ernest Dickins passed away on October 27, 1954 at the age 60 years and was buried in the RSA Cemetery next to his son. In October 1974 Maude Evelyn Dickins joined her husband Allen Ernest Dickins following her death at the age of 81 years.
The second burial here was William Cattanach. Bill had opted to be buried in plot A3, leaving plot A2 for Allen and Maude Dickins (his best friends) so they could be right next door to their son.
21st Reinforcements, Engineer Specialist Company: Signal Section 1 NZEF. Bill was a very neat shearer with seldom a nick or stray lock of wool. He loved ballroom dancing and while dancing at a friend’s daughter’s 21st birthday party on April 17, 1951 he collapsed and died at age 61 years.
Dave Murdoch is a part-time photo-journalist based in Dannevirke. For the past 11 years he has covered any community story telling good news about the district.
