Guest Speaker – Rosalie introduced our own
Buddy Mikaere
Buddy gave us a history of the New Zealand Brigade's involvement in the liberation of LeQuesnoy in France and his subsequent involvement in creating a New Zealand war memorial.
In November 1918 the NZ Division was in France and had surrounded the German-occupied town of LeQuesnoy. Rather than bombard the town and risk civilian casualties the Division decided to take the medieval fortress using ladders the scale the walls.
The NZ Rifle Brigade successfully liberated the town on the 5th of November 1918 despite losing 140 men killed. There were no civilian casualties.
Buddy had a particular interest in one of the brigades- Winiata Tapsell from Maketu who made his own way into the fight and also managed to return with 2 chickens for his comrades in arms!
In 2017 Buddy was asked to join a group tasked with establishing a war memorial in LeQuesnoy- The NZ Liberation Museum Te Arawhata.
An ex Police station and associated buildings has been purchased with $1M raised and Weta Workshops involvement. The museum opened October 2023
The town is very supportive with an annual ANZAC service. There are hopes to have a meeting house on site at some stage.Cambridge, Waikato is the sister city for LeQuesnoy
