Handover of NZ Soldiers Dog Tags - Somme, France

Speech notes for Mahara Okeroa's address for the handover ceremony of dogtags found on Somme, France

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.

Bon jour; greetings; tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

And special greetings to Monsieur Nicolas Corselle and Mademoiselle Zoë Corselle, who found the tags that now begin their journey home.

It gives me great pleasure to be here today, receiving the identity tags of New Zealand soldier Richard Kemp. He was one of the more than 100,000 young New Zealand men who travelled here, so far from their homes, to stand alongside France in the Great War of 1914 to 1918. Over 12,000 of them are buried here in France or just over the border in Belgium.

Our two countries forged a bond in those times, and we remember and honour it still. Back in 2004 New Zealand and France signed a Shared Memories Arrangement so that our joint heritage of war is remembered and future generations can understand our shared past. Today’s ceremony is part of the way we remember our efforts and sacrifices all those years ago.

The land we stand on saw more than its share of conflict and bloodshed 90 years back. Our grandfathers and great uncles, or maybe even our fathers and uncles, fought here on the battlefields of the Somme in 1916, and again in 1918. Too many lost their lives, or were injured in body or soul. Over 200,000 French were killed or wounded in the battle that raged here from July 1916. Alongside them, nearly 6000 New Zealanders were wounded and 2000 lost their lives. Here in France, and back home in New Zealand, families and communities were torn apart. The memories run deep.

The sheer numbers involved in that war easily overwhelm us. We need to take a moment to think of the individuals, the ordinary person caught up in those huge events. Richard Kemp was such a one.

He came from the tiny settlement of Te Kao, at the very tip of Te Ika a Maui (the North Island of New Zealand). Even now it’s a wee dot of a place — much smaller than Albert, with about 350 people and only 24 children at the local primary school. Te Kao is in the rohe (the ancestral tribal lands) of Te Aupouri — an iwi or Maori tribe of New Zealand. Richard was also known as Richard Keepa, and he was one of the many men from this small town who went off to war.

Richard was working in the Railways when he signed up. He joined the Wellington Infantry Battalion, and sailed from home on 16 October 1914. He was one of the few Maori in the historic landing and ultimately unsuccessful attack on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. His Battalion was also involved in the famous assault on Chunuk Bair in August 1915. After nine long months, the Allies withdrew, leaving behind 44,000 of their dead — British, Australian, French, and New Zealand.

Then Richard came to France, and to the battlefields in this region. New Zealand's Somme experience began on 12 September 1916 when the artillery went into action. Three days later, on 15 September, it was the infantry's turn. Perhaps Richard lost his tags when the New Zealanders went over the top at dawn that day. About 6000 of them saw action that day; some 1200 were wounded or missing, and about 600 were dead.

But Richard Kemp was not among them. He fought out the war and returned home to New Zealand where he married, and lived among his family and friends, into his 70s. His son lives in England; some members of his whanau (extended family) live in Te Kao to this day.

Richard’s family have asked me to give their greetings and their thanks to the Corselle family who discovered the identity tags. They are very happy to have the tags returned, and grateful to everyone who has taken the time to trace the family and to see that these treasures are returned home. Richard’s nephew and niece, Ani Keepa (Kemp) Horo and Ihaka Keepa Horo, live in New Zealand and through them we will contact Richard’s son to hand back the tags.