MILITARY NOTES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5433, 10 June 1929, Page 1

MILITARY NOTES.

MEMORIAL PLAQUE & SCROLL. The Defence Department has received advice that it has been decided by His Majesty’s Government in Great Britain to extend the issue of the Memorial Plaque and Scroll which was originally designed to commemorate those who lost their lives in the Great War, to the next-of-kin of all those members of the N.Z.E.F. who have died since the war, but before September’ 1, 1928, and whose deaths were attributable to war services. The memorial takes the form of a bronze plaque of emblematic design and a parchment scroll with appropriate wording, and with each there is a letter from His Majesty. The memorial scrolls have been received by the Defence Department, and are to be issued to the blood next-of-kin of the deceased soldiers. The memorial plaques have not yet arrived, but are expected in a few months time. Under the regulations, the memorials will be issued to the deceased soldiers’ blood next-of-kin at the time of distribution (not the next-of-kin of the original next-of-kin, who may have died in the meantime). There is no question of legal succession to them, and they will not be issued to any legatee under a will in preference to the surviving next-of-kin. The following is the order of next-of-kin as authorised t — Widow, eldest surviving son, eldest surviving daughter, father, mother, eldest surviving brother, eldest sur viving sister, eldest surviving halfbrother, eldest surviving half-sister, and so on. Application for the memorials should be addressed to N.Z.E.F., Base Records Office, Wellington, and every applicant should quote the full name of the soldi*!’ concerned, his regimental number, and also the applicant’s relationship to the soldier and the address to which the plaque and scroll is to be posted. If the applicant is not the nearest blood next-of-kin he or she should give the name, addiess, and relationship to the soldier of the one to whom the memorials should be issued in accordance with the above list. It should be carefully noted that memorials are not issued unless the death, was the result of war service, and that it occurred before September 1, 1928. The memorials are issued only on account of those soldiers who have died since they were discharged from the N.Z.E.F. and before August 31, 1928, and that the death of the soldier must have teen due to war service.

The bronze plaque referred to is beautiful in design and workmanship. It was chosen from amongst a great number of designs submitted by the most eminent artists, sculptors, etc., in the Empire. By themselves, or framed with the parchment roll, they make a worthy tribute to those who fell. Quite a usual practice is to frame plaque, scroll, and medals together. Though a tribute small as. far as actual size is concerned, the immensity of the thought behind the plaque cannot be measured by mere mechanical rule. Behind the modest piece of bronze is the thought of His Majesty the King and of the whole British Commonwealth of Nations. For where one sees a plaque one sees represented in it the tribute of the vast Empire, the laying,down of one of whose son’s lives is commemorates and, at the same tiine, the lives of all those thousands who passed beyond the Pale in their country’s cause. Not only does it represent the name of the individual hero engraved on it, but the countless host that died with him.