LAST TRIBUTE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIX, 30 January 1936, Page 5

LAST TRIBUTE

ANZAC REMEMBRANCE THE “ROSEMARY LADY” When the late King is laid to rest two simple sprigs of rosemary, with a tiny silken New Zealand Ensign, will pay to him the Anzac tribute ot remembrancc (said Tuesday s Auckland i “Star”). In the mass of flowers it may j even pass unnoticed, but there is a ; message in it that was born in the heart j of a New Zealand mother, and that was j consecrated on the battlefields of Gallip- . oli and of France. That message is the j spirit of Anzac—and to-day it is ex- I tended to 1 lis Majesty as it was ex- , tended to fallen New Zealanders in. their baptism of blood. It is live gesture of Mrs A. I). Cambridge, Auckland's “Rosemary Lady, and it- was conveyed by air maii so as to reach England in time for the last ceremony. Mrs Cambridge is a little, white-haired, gentle lady, who now lives in retirement at Northcotc, but to | returned soldiers, whom she mothered, I and whose interests she guarded during | the years of the war, there is no better : known and loved woman in the Domi- j nion. She thought only of them during | the years of struggle—when her own sons were amongst them —and sho fights still on their behalf. WAR WORK Mrs Cambridge is not a New Zealander; in fact, her home is in England, close handy to Sandringham Castle, where the King breathed his last. Thus there is something of a personal as well as a national tribute in her thought. Mrs Cambridge came to New Zealand many years ago while still a young girl, j and it was in the South Island that her people settled. There she became the wife of Mr A. D. Cambridge, who was one of New Zealand’s greatest portrait painters. It is not, however, with that part of her life that the present story deals. This story begins in August, 1914, when a call went out to the Empire—a call that was answered with service and with sacrifice. Mrs Cambridge was in Sydney at the time on holiday, hut she also answered the call, and in company with Dr. Mary Hootli she organised the first attempt to provide for the comfort of the soldiers of Australia. She founded the first soldiers’ club, and in it laid also the foundation of a life of devotion to their interests. It was not a stiff, formal club,, with rules and regulations to worry and restrict already worried men. It was a home where they could rest, where they could write letters, where they could get refreshments, and where (bey could read tlieir news from home. There was more to it even than that. When the first wounded returned, those who were convalescent found in Mrs Cambridge a mother. In her own home and in the homes of friends she saw that they were cared for as though they wore her own sons. It was begun in Australia, but later Mrs Cambridge returned to New Zealand, and it was here that her work had its widest scope. In the privacy of an organisation founded by herself Mrs Cambridge did the samo work as she had begun in a public capacity in Australia.

BIRTH OF ROSEMARY If was in New Zealand thaOicr rosemary idea had its origin. In 1915, when the glory and tragedy of Gallipoli broke on the world, Mrs Cambridge thought of those, who had gone, and in tribute to them she conceived the idea of sending sprigs of rosemary to he, placed on their graves. In response lo an appeal she made she was sent rosemary from all over the world, wherever it was grown, and this she sent on first lo Gallipoli and lalcr also to France and England. It was a tribute which‘was appreciated Doth by. the mothers of New Zealand who sent to her lisls of names and also flowers fo" transportation to the graves, and by men themselves, who on one occasion, as a gesture of acknowledgment and of love, sent to Mrs Cambridge a specially-drawn and illuminated picture in which was embodied several sprigs of rosemary which they had taken after months of service from Gallipoli graves. On one occasion Mrs Cambridge sent in all 3000 sprigs. The late lit. Hon. W. F. Massey. then Prime Minister of New Zealand, and Bishop Averil! (now !he Primate) both conveyed shipments of (lie rosemary for distribution, and later the Graves Commission undertook that work. In the post-war years (lie rosemary was Gent lo Frame for Christmas and to Gallipoli and England lor Anzac Day. ROAD OF REMEMBRANCE The Road of Remembrance in Folkestone, England, dedicated to the Aus-

tralian and New Zealand soldiers who passed along that way towards the transports, is due to Mrs Cambridge. Again it was rosemary that began it. Mrs Cambridge seat rosemary bushes to the borough with the request that they should be planted at the ends of the road (then called Church road), and she asked also that two Stones should be creeled—at the top of the road in remembrance of the New Zealanders, and at the bottom of the Australians who passed that way.

In that connection there is a slorv (o be told. Mrs Cambridge asked that the bill for the stones should be sent to her, but she was informed that Folkestone would pay. Then Australia heard of it, and the Government there decided that it: should bear the cost. New Zealand also heard, and again the offer was made that the stones would ho paid for.

“Who did pay for them?” Mrs Cambridge was asked. “I don't knew .... ’’she said. “I don’t know if they were ever paid for.” For another incident connected with the visit of the Prince of Wales (now Edward VIII.) to Auckland, Mrs, Cambridge will be remembered. At the big service at the Town Hall Mrs Cambridge prepared the sprigs of rosemary, which were presented to llis Royal Highness and bis suite at the entrance, and prepared, too, the white satin de corated cushions on which the sprigs were arrayed. Mi's Cambridge is Hie “rosemary lady” of Auckland—and she is more in the hearts of the returned men. Thus her tribute to the late King on this occasion is something more than an individual gesture. It is a national tribute.