Gallipoli bugle plays at Rotorua services

WELL TRAVELLED: The pre-World War I vintage infantry bugle which will be played in Rotorua today also sounded its call on the beaches of Gallipoli and on the Western Front. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER

This year's Anzac Day in Rotorua will sound a little different with the playing of a real piece of Anzac history at the city's two largest commemoration events.

While things will look much the same, the playing of The Last Post and Reveille during the dawn parade and civic service will be of special significance as they will be played on a vintage military bugle that was also played 100 years ago on the beaches of Gallipoli.

Rotorua musician Ken Douglas has taken on the task of playing the pre-World War I vintage infantry bugle at both services today - a task he has taken very seriously as he is well aware of the bugle's past.

World War I veteran Frederick William Johnson plays the bugle he carried with him for the entire war in the Rotorua RSA for the Gallipoli 50-year reunion in 1965.

It once belonged to Private Frederick William Johnson, Military Medal, a professional soldier who along with his older brother Charles joined the New Zealand Army before war broke out in 1914 and was in his mid-20s when they were shipped off to Egypt before the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign.

Johnson and his brother survived Gallipoli only to be thrown into the living hell that was the Western Front.

Unlike his brother Charles, Fred Johnson survived the war and lost the bugle when he threw it up into the air when armistice was signed on November 11, 1918.

The bugle was found by another Kiwi soldier who brought it back to New Zealand where, eventually, it was reunited with its owner some years later.

The bugle now belongs to Fred's great nephew, former Rotorua surveyor Luke Martin.

Mr Martin said it would be an honour and a privilege to hear the bugle played once again, after it was last played in Rotorua's RSA by its original owner to mark the 50th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings.

Mr Douglas said the bugle was a challenge to play.

"It's very different, for a start it's a different pitch. It's also got a few war wounds and dents in the tubing. But I've had lots of practice with the wife hounding me to make sure I've got it right - it's something you don't want to get wrong."

Mr Douglas has done several RSA funerals over the years as well as civic ceremonies in Rotorua and a few dawn parades as well.

He said playing the historic bugle got the hairs standing up on the back of his neck. "It's just amazing this was played at Gallipoli 100 years ago. It's quite an honour."

Mr Douglas is also a member of Rotorua Brass where he usually plays the cornet.

"Trumpets and cornets have valves, bugles do not, so all of the sound is produced by the tension of your lips."

Rotorua RSA president William McDonald said hearing the bugle played on Anzac Day would be a unique experience for all in attendance.

"I think it's just magic that we have a local connection with the battlefields of Gallipoli and the Western Front and that its owner also lived and worked in Rotorua and played the same bugle at the 50th anniversary of Gallipoli in our RSA."