Going to war was part of being a citizen

Rotorua's RSA is preparing to help the community commemorate the "Glorious Dead" who paid the price for our citizenship and freedom in World War I.

Great Britain and its colonies declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary on August 4, 1914 - August 5 in New Zealand time.

For the next four years more than 100,000 New Zealanders served overseas with many historians saying the war was the price of citizenship and inclusion in the Commonwealth.

Rotorua war veteran and RSA member William McDonald said New Zealand's involvement in World War I did not begin at Anzac Cove in 1915, it began when New Zealand forces invaded and captured German Samoa on August 29, 1914.

Mr McDonald is helping organise the RSA's commemoration programme for the next four years and wants the younger generation especially to embrace the idea of citizenship and to remember their own family members who took part in the first war.

"These men gave up their lives for the price of citizenship and we want people to participate, rather than just going to Anzac Day parades or listening to diatribes about the war.

"Every New Zealander will have a story about a relative who took part in the war and we want to hear from them."

Mr McDonald said plans were underway to involve the city's youth in writing competitions and, if possible, trips overseas to see and experience the battlefields where our soldiers fought and died.

"To me these commemorations are about the living and we need to look beyond Gallipoli to all the other battlefields in which New Zealanders fought and died such as Passchendaele, Messines and Le Quesnoy."

He encouraged people to visit the Rotorua Museum's World War I exhibition in the hope they would come up with memorabilia and stories of their own families.

The Rotorua District Council will formally open and dedicate the new bridge over the Sulphur Lake in the Government Gardens to Rotorua's fallen World War I soldiers on Tuesday, marking the 100th anniversary of the start of the war in New Zealand.

The dedication will take place at 2.30pm. The council also plans to commemorate the region's soldiers who died in the war with a field of remembrance full of crosses for everyone who died.

-If you would like to help or be a part of Rotorua's World War I commemorations email Mr McDonald at willymacbet@gmail.com.