Field of Remembrance installed

Rotorua's annual Field of Remembrance consecration will be held this Thursday. Photo/Stephen Parker

Rotorua's annual Field of Remembrance consecration will be held this Thursday at 5pm with 103 white crosses installed in Government Gardens.

The crosses, which will be in place under the Cenotaph for six days, commemorate the Rotorua men who died during World War I.

The men remembered in the Remembrance Field, have a connection to Rotorua and the wider district. Some were born and had family here, others enlisted in Rotorua but may have been living elsewhere and others came back to the district after the war and died here.

The crosses, made by members of Menz Shed Rotorua, will feature the serial number, rank, initials and surname of a soldier. One will be for "The Unknown Soldier, Known unto God" - representing the many men who died during World War I but are not known or not recorded.

A special addition to this year's ceremony will be the unveiling of the plaque for the Gallipoli Lone Pine opposite the Cenotaph.

One of 50 seedlings collected from a Turkish red pine growing at Paeroa Golf Course , which is an authenticated descendent of the Gallipoli peninsula's original Lone Pine. The seedling planted at the 2015 Field of Remembrance ceremony has thrived over the past year.

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick often checks on its progress during walks through the Government Gardens.

"It's great to see it flourishing. It's a very special part of the gardens now. It will be a feature of the Field of Remembrance each year," she said.

Ceremony details:

Date: Thursday April 21
Time: 5pm - 6pm
Where: Government Gardens by the Cenotaph
Road closure: Queens Drive from 4.45pm - 6pm - from cnr of Hinemaru St and Queens Dr (the arches) to the roundabout on Oruawhata Dr (near Museum).