This Saturday, August 8 will mark 100 years since the battle for Chunuk Bair at Gallipoli. A dawn service will be held at the Cenotaph to pay tribute to those who lost their lives on that day in battle.
Organised by Wellington City Council, the special service is one of many commemorations being planned all over Aotearoa and in Turkey to remember one of New Zealand's greatest stands and the huge loss on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
During the dawn service, soldiers in World War I uniforms will stand in formation, heads bowed, illuminated from below, facing the Cenotaph.
Each soldier will recite excerpts from Colonel Malone’s letters home, including lines penned to his wife just three days before the battle at Chunuk Bair.
Mayor Celia Wade-Brown says, “The Chunuk Bair dawn service is a time to reflect and remember the horror of war, the service and sacrifice of all those soldiers killed and wounded.”
The dawn commemorations will be highlighted by a wreath-laying ceremony, and readings read by Lt. Col. Nick Thornton and Mayor Wade-Brown.
A Catafalque Guard by the 5th and 7th Battalion will stand in formation at the Cenotaph while the last post is played to mark this anniversary.
The service will be held between 6.45am–7.45am.