19TH BATTALION

Wanganui Chronicle, 6 October 1947, Page 4

19TH BATTALION

WANGANUI MEMBERS ATTEND REUNION IN P.N. A large number of Wanganui former members of the 19th NZ. Infantry Battalion and Armoured Regiment, 2nd N.Z.E.F., attended the iPTst national reunion, held at Palmerston North over the week-end. Personnel from all parts of the North Island, and from centres, including Dunedin in the South Island, made the trip to Awapuni Racecourse which, at 7 p.m. on Saturday, constituted the centre round which the activities of former comrades-ln-aims revolved.

During the day, Jhe committee members of the Palmerston North Association had been kept "hard at It ’ catering most successfully tor the visitors, who were accommodated in hotels and briefed as to the arrangements for all the reunion. All roads led to the racecourse, and'the stream of traffic was such that it roused memories within the minds c. those men, who as part of motorised columns and convoys, han been directed to parking and assembly areas in the barren expanse that was tlie Western Desert.

The assembly hall al tlie racecourse housed approximately 600 men. The loyal toast was proposed by the chairman (Brigadier F. 8. Varnham, M.C., E.D.), and the toast to the Regiment was proposed by Major-General H. K. Kippenberger, C. 8., C.8.E., D. 5.0.. E.D. Following a reply by Brigadier Varnham. Brigadier C. L. Pleasants, D. 5.0., M.C., E.D. (Wanganui) proposed the toast of “Absent Comrades.

Yesterday morning, at 10.30 o'clock, members of the 19th formed up outside the Grand Hotel nnd marened to the Cenotaph, headed by the Manawatu Scottish Pipe Band. Paraded HJ front of the Cenotaph, the 19th observed the laying ot a wreath, performed by Brigadiers F. S. Varnham and C. L. Pleasants. On the march once more, the impressive parade swung in an opposite direction, to where Major-General Kippenberger stood to take the sr.tuple. A formal church service was then conducted in the Opera House Padres C. Hyde and .1. S. Somerville officiating, in conclusion, Brigadier Varnham, remembered and loved as Hie 19th Battalion’s first commanding officer, addressed_thc gathering.