1 July 1916.

**Rós Ó hAllmhuráin** · 15th August 12, 02:53 AM

New Zealand had one of the highest casualty & death rates in WWI per capita, about a 58% casualty rate, about 16,697 New Zealanders were killed and 41,317 were wounded. We also suffered pretty badly in WWII as well, all for mummy england. I still reckon our fighting spirit came/ comes from our Celtic/ Scots/ Irish ancestors as contry to belief just as many if not more Scots settled NZ (and not just in the south island) as english.

ANZAC day is always a sombre day here so i agree with those who said it above Lest we forget!

**Peter Crowe** · 15th August 12, 03:47 AM

"When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today"

(John Maxwell Edmonds 1875-1958)

**ScotFree** · 15th August 12, 06:07 AM

Originally Posted by Peter Crowe

"When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today"

(John Maxwell Edmonds 1875-1958)

Simple, evocative, and to the point. Very well said John Maxwell Edmonds.

**Peter Crowe** · 15th August 12, 06:47 AM

Originally Posted by Peter Crowe

"When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today"

(John Maxwell Edmonds 1875-1958)

This is often called the Kohima Epitaph because it is written on the memorial which commemorates the British and Indian war dead at the famous World War II battles of Kohima and Imphal where the Japanese advance was halted and turned around at very high cost. It also has strong support from the Burma Star Association. However, I believe it predates the 1939-45 war and was published among other epitaphs for the war dead in 1916. It is the epitaph for our fallen that always left me with a lump in my larynx even as a young boy. Edmonds was a classics scholar and wrote it about the Spartans who fought to the last at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC.

**georgeetta** · 15th August 12, 12:23 PM

I know my Uncle Douglas was a "lifer" in Scots Guards as a Sgt Major . He got out to get married in 1938 ..I believe his pals were on a river peninsula in Burma or somehwere in jungle combat somehwere and were terribly done over by the enemy . He was a strong guy but he'd say "all my chums're dead" .

d

**Rós Ó hAllmhuráin** · 15th August 12, 01:59 PM

"Scotland is poorer in men,
But richer in Heroes"

Magersfontein memorial.

**Singlemalt** · 15th August 12, 05:53 PM

Every small town in Canada has a war memorial with the names of those from the community who gave their lives. I always try and visit them when I have the time. I always find it sobering when you see that the list of war dead from the First World War is usually three to four times as long as the one from WW II, especialy when you consider there were only about 6 million Canadians in 1914.

**Phil** · 16th August 12, 01:25 PM

My wife's grandfather served at Gallipoli then the Somme with the KOSB. I just couldn't imagine the horrors they must have endured and it was something he never talked about. Not an experience anyone should have to bear. We have an embroidered picture of the various locations he served in. He left it in a shed after the war to deteriorate and fall to pieces. I wonder if the memories were just too painful to recall and were best forgotten.

**creagdhubh** · 16th August 12, 01:35 PM

Originally Posted by Phil

My wife's grandfather served at Gallipoli then the Somme with the KOSB. I just couldn't imagine the horrors they must have endured and it was something he never talked about. Not an experience anyone should have to bear.

Indeed.