Second Canterbury Nelson Marlborough West Coast Battalion Group Charter Parade

Saturday 3 December 2005

Good afternoon, and welcome. Greetings first to:

Colonel Craig Ruane, Deputy Commander of Headquarters 3rd Land Force Group.

To Honorary Colonel, Second Canterbury, Nelson, Marlborough, West Coast Battalion Group, Brigadier (retired) Rick Menzies.

To Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Russell Keetley.

To Sergeant (retired) Eric Bachelor, DCM and Bar and Mrs Batchelor. Eric is our highest decorated New Zealand soldier still living.

And finally to all those who are taking part in the parade.

I congratulate everyone on the very high standard of presentation and drill here today. I am always impressed and humbled by the standards the regiment sets on parade, in fact, before setting forth, I personally like to double check for things like, do my socks match?

The last Charter parade was back in 2002. It is great to see you marching again in the streets of Christchurch. The Canterbury region has played a significant role in the formation of the New Zealand Army. This began on 28 March 1866 with the formation of the No1 Battalion, Canterbury Rifle Volunteers.

Since then the New Zealand Army has had a presence in the Canterbury region. While there have been quite a few name changes and restructurings along the way the core concept of voluntary service has not changed. Today our soldiers from the region work closely with their Regular Force counterparts. This has given the Territorial Force a real focus.

In recent times the Battalion Group has deployed personnel on operational service to Sinai, Bougainville, Israel and to East Timor. This began with one person with the 1st Battalion, RNZIR Group, then subsequent Battalions 2, 3, 5 and 6. Some of you are present here today in this parade.

There were around 135 soldiers deployed to East Timor. At present the Battalion Group has people deployed in the Sinai, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Sudan and in the New Year in the Solomons. Our thoughts go out to them and their families.

To all those interested here today the Queen’s colour and Regimental colour you see before you will be housed at the Council on public display for the next three months. Please take the time to come and view these links with our history, both present and our future.

Today has been a colourful day in the life of the city. Let me finish by congratulating all those who have received medals today.