Bugle player Michael Chapman practising the Last Post for the Tinui Anzac service 2020. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
KAREN COLTMAN
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Wairarapa TV will broadcast the 2020 Tinui ANZAC service this Saturday via a Zoom video conference – as all participants will be in their respective living rooms in front of a computer screen.
Toby Mills of Wairarapa TV intends to broadcast the virtual event from 10.30am and have it streaming on the channel’s Facebook page to a world audience.
A practice held on Monday had gone well and the sound was fine, Mills said.
Tinui farmer Emily Wellbrock will sing the national anthem and guest speaker is Masterton resident Captain Blair Gerritsen MNZM RNZN.
Pupils from Tinui and Whareama schools would read the names of the fallen.
Carterton’s 14-year-old Michael Chapman has again been asked to sound out the Last Post bugle call but this year [unlike the two previous years] from home, rather than the Tinui Hall.
Chapman was trained by a former member of the British military, Don Banham.
“Don has played the Last Post for the Queen so I have been trained by the best,” Chapman said. “I am a bit nervous as it will be different to play via a Zoom channel but it should be fine.”
Chapman started playing brass when he was a nine-year-old. He plays with his dad in the Masterton District Brass band, but for the ANZAC service is performing as a member of Carterton Scouts.
Trust chairman Alan Emerson said he was “rapt” the service was going ahead.
“We aim to make it the same celebration as if it was at the Tinui Hall,” Emerson said.
“Tinui ANZAC Trust member Dick Tredwell will be doing the introductions and local vicar the Reverend Steve Thomson will be giving his unique country style ANZAC service that he has done many times before.
“Tinui hosted the world’s first ANZAC Day service in 1916 and the cross on Tinui Taipo is the first memorial erected to remember those who paid the supreme sacrifice at Gallipoli.”
Wairarapa Labour-list MP Kieran McAnulty offered the ANZAC club his parliamentary Zoom service to coach the participants and organise a full practice.
Emerson said the trust is grateful for McAnulty’s support of the service and for providing a technical solution.
“This year you can’t get to Gallipoli for ANZAC Day but you are most welcome to be part of Tinui’s ANZAC celebration,” Emerson said.
To view the service: Tune into Wairarapa TV Freeview channel 41; or watch the Wairarapa TV Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/WairarapaTV; or download the Wairarapa TV Smartphone app https://m.wairarapatv.co.nz/download; or YouTube https://www.youtube.com/WairarapaTV; or Web browser https://stream.wairarapatv.co.nz
As a descendent of four brothers who farmed in the Tinui region and answered the call, one of whom did not return, I feel insulted.
Still pushing the myth about the first service…
I’d take a happy pill Rog