Jo Davies-Colley has her bag packed for France.
Jo Davies-Colley
Jo Davies-Colley thought she had her suitcase all packed and under control for her trip to Cambridge’s sister city Le Quesnoy this week until someone told her there was a bed bug crisis in France.
The Cambridge Community Board chair and Waipā mayor Susan O’Regan are next week representing the district at the opening of the New Zealand Liberation Museum – Te Arawhata.
“It will probably be one of the greatest things I will ever do,” Davies-Colley told The News on the eve of her departure.
“It is a huge honour and privilege. I’m just going to do the best I can for Cambridge over there.”
Susan O’Regan
News of the bed bug scourge had her heading to the chemist for a can of bed bug spray which she popped into her suitcase alongside the gifts from Cambridge.
Waipā District Council have paid $10,180 for Davies-Colley and O’Regan to travel economy class to France. They will link up with deputy mayor Liz Stolwyk who paid her own way over. Stolwyk was influential in establishing the sister city relationship more than 20 years ago when she worked at the town’s information centre.
The relationship is actively nurtured by the Cambridge Le Quesnoy Friendship Association and the Le Quesnoy Sister City Working Group of the Cambridge Community Board.
Liz Stolwyk
Te Arawhata will be the only centre in Europe sharing stories of New Zealand’s participation in both world wars.
Just a week before the end of the First World War in November 1918, the New Zealand Division captured the French town of Le Quesnoy. It was the New Zealanders’ last major action in the war.
The New Zealanders scaled a ladder set against the ancient walls of the town and took the remaining Germans as prisoners.
The Le Quesnoy Statue in Cambridge
A 6m high, five tonne Le Quesnoy memorial sculpture designed by artist and kaumatua Fred Graham was unveiled in Cambridge in 2019. Its concept was based on a well-known Parisian Tower, with the fern leaf reaching up two sides, like a ladder.
Across the road at St Andrew’s Church, a war memorial window shows New Zealand soldiers scaling the wall.
Because of that special relationship, Waipā council granted $150,000 in 2018 towards the renovation of Te Arawhata – a mansion house bought by the New Zealand Memorial Museum Trust in 2017. It was the former World War One mayoral home and later the headquarters of the local gendarmerie (police).
Davies-Colley said she was looking forward to hearing stories like those of her grandparents Lansley and Meva, who met in World War 2. He was serving in the New Zealand Army and helped liberate Trieste in Italy where he met Meva who used to play the piano accordion at dances for the soldiers.
“It was a beautiful love story, they had a long marriage,” said Davies-Colley.
“I think the trip will be overwhelming – a lifelong, amazing memory that I will look back on and say that was so special.”
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- Andrew Reymer – Pirongia committee member and Liz Stolwyk’s husband – with sons Curtis and Nathan – outside the wall close to where the ladder was laid to scale the Le Quesnoy wall.
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- Exchange buddies: Helene Lebon and Waipā deputy mayor Liz Stolwyk in Le Quesnoy last week. They first met through the Rainbow Warrior Friendship Fund, established in 1991 following the bombing of the Greenpeace ship in Auckland. Both were managers of their respective visitor information centres. Stolwyk visited Le Quesnoy and Lebon came to Cambridge. They have been friends ever since. Photo: Supplied.
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- Walking around the outside of the ramparts
O’Regan is travelling with her husband John Hayward, who is paying his own way.
“He’s never been to Europe, and I only had a fleeting visit 20 years ago.
“I feel so fortunate to go and represent Waipā. The French would be hugely insulted if we didn’t send a contingent from Cambridge.
“The people who hold that sister city relationship in such high esteem, and there are a lot of them, would be offended as well.
“I’ll go and wave the Waipā flag, and I hope I’ll represent the district well,” she said.
“This is a crucial piece of telling New Zealand history in an area where there is a paucity of New Zealand stories.
“The connection Cambridge has to Le Quesnoy and the town has with us is so important.”
Events for the official opening are over two days starting on Tuesday October 10 at 7am (6pm NZ) with a dawn blessing by Ngāti Waewae. The official opening of the museum will be the following day at 11am (10pm NZ).
Le Quesnoy – New Zealand: Through the Years
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- Walls of Le Quesnoy. Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association :New Zealand official negatives, World War 1914-1918. Ref: 1/2-013786-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.
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- Crowds around a New Zealand regimental band playing in Le Quesnoy, the day after its capture. Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association :New Zealand official negatives, World War 1914-1918. Ref: 1/2-013705-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand
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- New Zealand soldiers assembled in Le Quesnoy market square after the town’s recapture in World War I. Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association :New Zealand official negatives, World War 1914-1918. Ref: 1/2-013704-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.
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- Bridge built by New Zealand engineers in Le Quesnoy. Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association :New Zealand official negatives, World War 1914-1918. Ref: 1/2-013775-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.
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- Divisional commanders entering Le Quesnoy, France, after its capture. Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association :New Zealand official negatives, World War 1914-1918. Ref: 1/2-013708-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.
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- Lord Milner speaking at the unveiling of the New Zealand monument in Le Quesnoy, France, 15 July, 1923. “Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand” Photograph taken by Central Press, Fleet Street, London.
