A NEW ZEALAND ROLL OF HONOR

Evening Star, Issue 19724, 26 November 1927, Page 2

A NEW ZEALAND ROLL OF HONOR

EMEERS CORPS’ PRIVILEGE DEDICATION IN KITCHENER GiIAPEL AT ST. PAUL’S The Roll of Honor of the New Zealand Engineers was dedicated at St. Paul’s Cathedral recently, and placed in a recess in the chapel to the memory of Lord Kitchener, who was himself a Royal Engineer. The New Zealand Engineers are one of the Dominion Corps which share with the Royal Engineers and the three corps of Indian happens and Miners the privilege of hiving their Rolls of Honor kept in the Kitchener Chapel, The roll consists of a parchment ■volume, bound in. leather, with the corps badge in gold on the cover. It is beautifully illuminated and ia inscribed with the names of 408 members of the corps who fell during tho war. It was sent to England from New Zealand in an elaborately carved casket of totara wood, made from one of the piles of tho Queen’s Wharf, Wellington. The casket is in tho form of a Maori treasure box, and boars the emblem of the Sun God, tho guardian of the contents, and two figures representing defiance. Those at the dedication ceremony included General Sir Bindon Blood, representing the Colonels-Commandant of the Royal Engineers; Sir James Parr, High Commissioner for New Zealand; Major-General P. G. Grant, Director of Fortifications and Works; General Sir George Kirkpatrick; Colonel Pridham; Colonel Pritchard; Colonel Addison; an'd Subadar Nausher Khan, and Company Havildar Major Abdur Rahman Khan, of King George’s Own Bengal Sappers and Miners, each of whom holds the Indian Order of Merit. The service was conducted by Canon Alexander. General Sir Bindon Blood, explaining tho ceremony, said the Royal .Engineers specially valued their privilege of keeping their rolls of honor in the Kitchener Chapel, because they remembered that great man and faithful soldier of his King and country as one of them. .When tho New Zealand Corps of Engineers came over to. join in the. Groat War, they were trained in Egypt under the supervision of Colonel Pridham, and had specially asked that he should put their roll of honor in tho place reserved for it. Sir Bindon- then handed tho volume to Canon Alexander, and Colonel Pridbani placed it in the recess in tho north wall of the chapel, which already contains other rolls of honor. Sir Bindon told a Press representative that, as there was no suitable place in the Cathedral in which to keep the casket, it would be placed in the R.E. Museum at Chatham. “ All ranks will lie able to see it there,” he said, “hi fact, it is a matter of routine in training recruits that they are taken to the museum and shown, tho corps’ memorials and records, which arc carefully explained to them. This happens more than once during their training, and we find it a very useful way of stimulating tho corps spirit.” Tile museum contains, among other tilings, a number of relics of Genera] Gordon, tho Waterloo map used by the Duke of Wellington, and a uniform coat worn by Lord Kitchener when Sirdar of Egypt, bearing the twenty-two ribbons to which he was entitled before tho South African War.