Handymen honour our war dead

REMEMBRANCE: Graeme Saunders of MB Brown and Merv Brown of Henley Men's Shed, with one of the 560 white crosses for Wairarapa's Field of Remembrance.

Preparations for Wairarapa's own World War I Field of Remembrance began last week, with the first crosses taking shape.

Henley Men's Shed is taking part in the Fields of Remembrance Trust's White Crosses project, creating hundreds of white crosses to commemorate the centenary of the Anzac landing at Gallipoli and honour the region's fallen soldiers.

The project, supported by the three Wairarapa district councils, was announced in April and the Men's Shed began work on the crosses at the end of last week.

Men's Shed member Merv Brown is working on machining the timber required, and said his fellow members will shortly begin assembling and painting the crosses.

"The guys at the shed are all mad keen on the idea," said Mr Brown.

"They can't wait to get cracking."

The Men's Shed - with assistance from the two South Wairarapa Men's Sheds, will need to make around 560 crosses - 544 to represent the Wairarapa soldiers who perished during World War I, plus "a few extra".

The crosses will be displayed in each Wairarapa town, starting from Anzac Day 2015.

"We lost a lot of men in World War I. Wairarapa would have only had about 10,000-odd people back then," said Mr Brown. "So 544 is a huge percentage.

"It'll be a big job but we're looking forward to it."

Each cross, modelled on the white crosses engraved on headstones of World War I dead in New Zealand cemeteries, will be 600mm by 400mm and bear a dead soldier's name, regimental number, rank and decorations awarded. Kiwi Lumber and Tumu Timbers have donated 800 metres of radiata pine rough-sawn timber, which Mr Brown and his colleagues at MB Brown have been hard at work cutting, planing and sanding.

White paint for the crosses will be donated by Resene.

Mr Brown said the crosses commemorating the Masterton dead would most likely be displayed outside Masterton Town Hall, and Youth Council members would hopefully be assisting with the placing of the crosses.

The crosses will be displayed for about five days and will be displayed again every Anzac Day until 2018.