Museum extension opened

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 1, Issue 9, 2 August 1983, Page 13

Museum extension opened

The stage 2 extensions to the Queen Elizabeth II Army Memorial Museum were officially opened by the Prime Minister on Saturday 23 July.

The opening ceremony commenced — on a fine, sunny but cold day — with an inspection of the guard of honour mounted by men of the Regular Cadet Force in front of the Museum and before more than 200 invited guests. Many of these guests wefe Friends of the Keum who had donated as well as memorabilia le Museum which now has a total of more than a quarter of a million exhibits. Special guests at the opening included the Minister of Defence Mr David Thompson, King Country MP Mr Jim Bolger, the United Kingdom High Commissioner Sir Richard Stratton, and the well known New Zealand painter and World War II war-artist Peter

Mclntyre who has donated 40 of his paintings to the Museum. Major General R.G. Williams, Chief of Army General Staff, opened proceedings with a speech in which he said that the QEII Army Museum had become a 'national asset' which was being visited by about 1 10,000 people each year. Since the Museum opened in 1978 more than half a million visitors have seen the exhibits. The cost of these extensions ($536,000) had been privately funded by the Museum' s Trust Board and had increased the Museum's exhibition area by about two-thirds, he said . . . "and the work had been completed in 149 days — 10 days before schedule." These Stage 2 extensions

have also allowed for additional administration, workshop and storage space and had been achieved at no cost to the taxpayer. In acknowledging the contribution made by various individuals and organisations, Major General Williams also complimented the very fine workmanship of the engineers from the Army's No. 1 Field Squadron based in Papakura who had built both the original building as well as (his most recent extension. In his speech the Prime Minister referred to the fact that since the end of World War II there had been 130 wars causing a total of 32 million casualties. This Museum was not to honour war but to honour those New Zealanders who had died and suffered casualties in the two world and other wars — 23,000 killed and 81,000 other casualties. After performing the official opening ceremony by unveiling a plaque and cutting the ribbon the Prime Minister and official party toured the Museum extensions which included a display of 220 World War II photographs by Cecil Beaton. These photographs, normally held by the Imperial War Museum in London, were being made available for the first time Outside the U.K. to the QEII Museum in Waiouru. At the conclusion of the tour of the Museum extensions the official party viewed a impressive 12 projector/960 slide audio visual display in the 54-seat theatrette. One of the slides in that audio visual presentation included a certain Corporal Muldoon in Italy during World War II.