Auckland RSA

17/06/2026

Thank you for your service, Major Wright.

STORY📰 Healthcare, running water, electricity and sealed roads are all things you take for granted in New Zealand - Waikato soldier Major Dylan Wright says South Sudan is nothing like that.

Major Wright has just completed a nine-month deployment to Operation Sudden, as a military staff officer to the United Nation's peacekeeping mission to South Sudan (UNMISS).

United Nations Peacekeeping, the largest and most visible representation of the United Nations, seeks to secure commitment and cooperation towards peace and security in volatile environments, particularly through the deployment of peacekeepers.

South Sudan is in the midst a humanitarian crisis driven by ethnic conflict.

The goals of the mission are to protect civilians, facilitate humanitarian assistance, provide electoral support, support the peace process and monitor, report and investigate violations of human rights.

“There are crazy driving conditions, opportunistic crime, small-scale conflicts, and police and military checkpoints with varying degrees of confrontation.” ~ Major Dylan Wright

Despite the adversity he witnessed, Major Wright said he had gained a lot from the experience and opportunities that couldn’t be replicated elsewhere.

Full story ➡️ nzdf.mil.nz/MAJ-Dylan-Wright

11/06/2026

https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/06/11/book-of-the-week-once-were-warriors/

Christopher Pugsley celebrates a history of the SAS, but laments the current state of the NZ military.

11/06/2026

This week President Graham Gibson, Carol and Glennis celebrated 110 years of the oldest RSA in the country at the monthly Executive Committee meeting.

09/06/2026

For 110 years Auckland RSA has continued to be a place of comradeship, support and remembrance for the Armed Forces community and our Auckland community.

The story continues . . .



PHOTO CREDITS

Anzac Day 2026
Photo Wawa Jordan

09/06/2026

9 June 1916
AUCKLAND RSA BECOMES THE FIRST RSA TO INCORPORATE

The story continued ... 5/5

By 1922, Anzac Day was a close holiday but even more so a holy day, held at a temporary Cenotaph outside the Auckland Town Hall.

With the provincial war memorial museum project, decided in 1920, taking the rest of the decade to complete, former Auckland RSA president Mayor Gunson suggested that the RSA establish a Soldiers’ Memorial at Waikumete Soldiers’ Cemetery, which was unveiled on Anzac Day 1921.

Auckland RSA also ran a schools essay competition with the winning school awarded the Anzac Banner — Lest We Forget.

By the end of the decade the Auckland War Memorial Museum was nearing completion but the rising cost called for the abandonment of the planned Cenotaph and Court of Honour. It was only because of Auckland RSA mounting a strong campaign to ensure these significant commemorative features were completed and the No. 8 wire efforts of the architect and ANZAC veteran, Malcolm Draffin, who drafted the Whitehall Cenotaph from the opening scenes of newsreels at his local picture theatre, that ensured The Cenotaph and Court of Honour was opened on 28 November 1929 at the same time as the Auckland War Memorial Museum.



PHOTO CREDITS:

The Court of Honour and the Auckland Cenotaph in front of the War Memorial Museum in the Auckland Domain, opened 28 November 1929. Photo James Douglas Richardson. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 4-07100

A large crowd of people around a decorated cenotaph at the front of the Auckland Town Hall, corner Queen Street and Greys Avenue (at right), during Anzac Day. This was a temporary, movable cenotaph, used for Auckland's Anzac Day service during the 1920s. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 755-ALB18-02-3

Unveiling of the war memorial erected at Waikumete Cemetery by the Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association on Anzac Day 1941 Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19210505-33-01

Belmont School students with Auckland RSA Anzac Day banner, 1926. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections T6736

09/06/2026

9 June 1916
AUCKLAND RSA BECOMES THE FIRST RSA TO INCORPORATE

The story continued ... 4/4

Apart from comradeship, the Auckland RSA provided returned soldiers with advocacy, operating an employment bureau to find jobs for returned soldiers and a land and property bureau aimed to assist them onto the land and into homes, as well as putting together war pension claims for disabled soldiers and war widows. From 1922, Auckland RSA provided its own welfare as well with the introduction of first Poppy Day Appeal on the day before Anzac Day.



PHOTO CREDITS:

An original Poppy made in France that were sold on the first Poppy Day on 24 April 1922. Private Collection

Poppy Day, 1923. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19230503-48-05

09/06/2026

9 June 1916
AUCKLAND RSA BECOMES THE FIRST RSA TO INCORPORATE

The story continued ... 3/3

With the bulk of the soldiers back in the country by 1920, Auckland RSA hit its postwar peak of 12,000 members and opened its own Returned Soldiers’ Club on Albert Street, with harbour views from new top-floor extension, and the ‘best billiard room in the city’, lounges, dining rooms and accommodation, including special lower floor accommodation for ‘limbies’, returned men with amputated legs.

It was not just a case of quantity but quality in terms of its members such as Gallipoli veteran Cyril Bassett VC, the first New Zealand recipient of the Victoria Cross in the First World War, and Frank Massey DSO MC, son of wartime Prime Minister William Massey. Contrary to myth it was not just men either, with over 20 nurse members with their distinct RSA badge bearing a red cross.



PHOTO CREDITS:

The new Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association building in Albert Street, 1920. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19201104-41-05

RSA nursing badge, membership, Auckland Museum 2001.25.618

Lieutenant C.R.G. Bassett, VC, oils painting by artist Harley Griffiths, 1920. Archives New Zealand NCWA 461

09/06/2026

9 June 1916
AUCKLAND RSA BECOMES THE FIRST RSA TO INCORPORATE

The story continued ... 2/2

Auckland RSA was represented at the second NZRSA dominion conference in Wellington in late July–August 1916, which formalised the national structure of independent local associations affiliating with the NZRSA. After some reticence, the Auckland RSA affiliated with the NZRSA on 18 December 1916.

By the start of 1918, with the increasing number of wounded returning from the Western Front, Auckland RSA rapidly grew to a total of 2073 members. Half of the membership lived outside of Auckland as many local RSAs in the upper North Island owe their foundation to the sponsorship of the Auckland RSA, including Whangarei, Kawakawa, Kaipara, Waiuku, Te Awamutu, Taumarunui & District RSA, Tauranga RSA, Whakatane and Opotiki by 1919, while the majority of the suburban RSAs in Auckland today originated as branches. while the majority of the suburban RSAs in Auckland today originated as branches. In May 1918, it hosted the AGM of the New Zealand RSA in Auckland.

By this time, Mayor Gunson and fellow citizen members had stood aside to enable returned soldiers to take control of their own organisation. The first returned soldier president of Auckland RSA was Charles Ellis Waddingham (who had served with the New Zealand Medical Corps as a stretcher bearer at Gallipoli), while the secretary was the tireless organiser and returned soldier advocate Ernest Frank Andrews (who at 39 years of age, with a wife and two young boys, had enlisted to serve at Gallipoli with the Otago Infantry Battalion).



PHOTO CREDITS:

Auckland Returned Soldiers Association membership card, 1920-1921. Auckland Museum 1989.46

Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association : Anzacs' concert. Town Hall, Friday, Dec. 1st, 1916 in aid of Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association funds. Eph-A-VARIETY-1916-01-front. Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand.

Charles Waddingham, New Zealand Medical Corps. Herman John Schmidt, 19-14–15, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 31-W1249

Quick March Vol. 1, No. 03 (July 1918), Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections QM_19180701

08/06/2026

9 June 1916
AUCKLAND RSA BECOMES THE FIRST RSA TO INCORPORATE

On this day 110 years ago the Auckland Returned Soldiers’ Association was registered as an incorporated society on 9 June 1916 — making it officially the first and oldest RSA in the country.

Earlier in the year, on 23 January 1916, a meeting of returned soldiers at the Soldiers’ Club in Queen Street presided over by the Mayor [later Sir] Auckland James Gunson had resolved to form the Auckland Returned Soldiers’ Association, and elected Mayor Gunson as their first president with a mixed executive of citizens and returned soldiers. Its immediate task was to organise with Auckland Council the first Anzac Day observance on 25 April 1916, which included returned soldiers marching up Queen Street to a remembrance service in the Town Hall.

Auckland was absent from the foundation conference of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association in Wellington on 28 April 1916, but Gunson sent a message of goodwill and indicated that the Auckland RSA was taking measures to formally register as an incorporated society. This was achieved on 9 June 1916, making the Auckland RSA the first RSA in the country to officially form-up, and shortly afterwards it had its own distinct badge.

More stories of remembrance, support and advocacy from our early days to follow throughout the day ...



PHOTO CREDITS:

Auckland RSA members wearing a mix of the original Auckland RSA badge (front two) and the RSA badge (centre). Photograph Herman John Schmidt, 1917. 31-R2465 Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries

The original Auckland RSA badge. Auckland Museum N1573.1

Mayor James Gunson (centre) welcomes the arrival at Auckland of Brigadier-General George S. Richardson (later President of Auckland RSA ) in May 1919. From left: Mr C H Poole; MP, Mrs Richardson, wife of Brigadier-General Richardson; Major-General Sir Alfred Robins; Brigadier-General G S Richardson, CB, CMG; Dr W C Sadlier, Bishop of Nelson and senior chaplain to the New Zealand Forces; Mayor of Auckland James Gunson; Captain C E Elliott, president of the Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association; Mrs Gunson; Colonel H R Potter; and Mayor of Wellington J C Lake, MP. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19190508-31-01

Anzac Day parade up Queen Street arrives at the Auckland Town Hall on the first anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli Auckland, 25 April 1916. Libraries Heritage Collections SDR-19160504-32-01

08/06/2026