COMRADES-IN-ARMS

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 265, 5 August 1931, Page 10

COMRADES-IN-ARMS

First Battery Celebrates REUNION IN WELLINGTON Possibly in no unit which served with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force during the Great War was there such a espirit de corps as in the Ist Battery, N.Z.F.A. Ever since 1920 the surviving members of the battery have assembled each year to revive reminiscences of the stirring days they spent together on Gallipoli, in Egypt, and in France from 1914 until 1918. The an nual gathering, held in the Returned So’diers’ Club-rooms last evening, was opo of the most successful reunions yet held. Lieut.-Colonel G. Lyon, M.C., presided, and among those present were Colonel P Symon, C.M.G., D. 5.0., Major V. Learning, Captain G. B.‘Parkinson, and Lieutenants R. E. Bennett, M.C., E. R. Me Killop, and C. R. McKenzie, besides some thirty members of the battery. The chairman said he was very pleased to see so many of the old familiar faces, though many well-known figurer. were missing. The memories they held and the friendships formed overseas were not readily forgotten, and even if only half a dozen of them were availah'e the annual reunion would never be allowed to lapse. They had all beep delighted, last week to read the announcement in the Press that Colonel Symon, the first commander of the Ist Battery, had been appointed A.D.C. to his Majesty tt’ King, which made- them feel that the battery had at last come into its own. They were also pleased to read that Lieutenant E. R. McKillop had won the Fulton Gohl Medal for the best paper supplied to the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers but were surprised to learn that the subject of the paper had been “Water.” Colonel Symon, who was given an ova tion, said that he had received letters of congratulation from gunners in all parts of the Dominion upon his appointment as A.D.C. to his Majesty, but felt that the honour was not so much a personal one as a compliment to the New Zea’and gunners who had served in the Great War. He made an appeal to the members of /.he Ist Battery to help the new territorial movement in every way they could. It was not so much a question of finding the men, as of finding instructors. There was no difficulty with the artillery, however, and he was pleased to say that D Battery were turning recruits away. The gathering opened with the Royal toast, and other teases honoured were “Absent Comrades' 1 and “The Infantry.” The evening was spent in recalling incidents of the great adventure,