Anzac Day respects paid in Orkney

Anzac Day, the national day of remembrance in both Australia and New Zealand, was marked here in Orkney today, Wednesday, in a ceremony organised annually by the Kirkwall Branch of the Royal British Legion.

At the ceremony, held in St Olaf’s Cemetery, a wreath and crosses of remembrance were laid on the four graves of New Zealand servicemen who died in Orkney during wartime.

This year the wreath was laid by Reg Jamieson, a member of the Kirkwall Branch of the Royal British Legion, and member of the Royal Naval Association Orkney Branch.

It was laid on the grave of a New Zealand war casualty, Lt Lonsdale Hollis Wiren, a New Zealander from Lyall Bay, Wellington, of the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve, who was killed on June 4, 1943, aged 26, when his aircraft came down in the Orkney West Mainland.

The ceremony was conducted at 11am, by Kirkwall RBL branch chairman Eddy Ross, who said during the event: “It is up to us to continue to keep his memory alive, as well as the memory of others, by this small annual commemoration today.”

He also said that at the time of Lt Wiren’s death, the New Zealand serviceman was, like many others, a long way from home.