The year following the donation, 2006, was officially designated Year of the Veteran. Auckland Museum was honoured to recognise this year with an exhibition that replicated the 21st Battalion Association clubrooms. At the opening of the exhibition, Clem Hollies, the last president of the association, addressed the veterans who were attending the event. ‘… I know most of you here,’ he said, ‘still re-live those turbulent years when as young men you left these shores and headed for the unknown. You will recall those comrades and friends of more than 60 years ago. Those with whom we went into camp and overseas, shared tents and cabins and bivouacs and billets and prisoner-of-war huts and hospital wards. Those whom we looked after or who looked after us. They were our cooks, our drivers, our medics, our mortar and anti-tank crews, our officers, our NCO’s. They were our mates on leave who made sure we got back to camp on time. Or perhaps they were those habitual over-stayers who finished up in the glasshouse. But they were all our comrades-in-arms and though none called themselves crusaders, each did his share…’
And here is the essence of the veterans’ association that can never be fully understood by those who did not serve, regardless of a desire to do so and to provide support: a cohort of men and women that is necessarily dispersed upon return to effectively disappear into a society that while once familiar may not be so easy to adjust to again. The 21st Battalion Association collection offers us a glimpse into this world and all that it meant.
Thank you 21st Battalion for that gift.
Image: 21st Battalion Association members' 'Last Post' noticeboard recording the members who had passed on or been taken ill since the previous newsletter. The blackboard carries the last list prior to the clubroom’s closure in 2006. Blackboard, 2019.62.326 © Auckland Museum CC BY