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When it comes to repairing and refurbishing the graves of soldiers, Ahuroa’s George Stewart-Dalzell is a veteran.
Since October, Stewart-Dalzell has been the northern regional coordinator for the New Zealand Remembrance Army (NZRA), a nationwide network of volunteers committed to restoring the graves and memorials of people who served.
However, Stewart-Dalzell says she’s been hanging out in cemeteries most of her life.
“I’ve actually been doing headstone restoration for over 30 years. Part of my childhood was spent living across the road from Waikumete Cemetery in Glen Eden,” she says.
“We had a really lovely monumental mason at Thompson Memorials, and I used to go and hang out in there when I was a kid – I had the best childhood ever.”
These days she works with her daughter Carter, who is a local NZRA coordinator, finding where veterans are buried and then cleaning, repairing and repainting their headstones.
For Anzac Day, Stewart-Dalzell says placing ceramic poppies on veterans’ graves is a far more eco-friendly option than their plastic counterparts, which are often left behind and go into the ground.
“The ceramic poppies cost more but don’t damage the surrounding environment,” she says.
In general cost is always a consideration and each NZRA region is required to raise their own funds for the refurbishment work.
“I reach out to the RSAs or the community and say, we need a thousand dollars to put in this headstone.
We look at a variety of fundraising initiatives.”
You could be forgiven for thinking the pair do this full time, but both are self-employed medics.
“But when we’re not at work, we’re in a cemetery, taking on these projects,” she says.
Since November, Stewart-Dalzell and her daughter have been working at local cemeteries in Makarau, Kaipara Flats, Glorit, Wellsford and Warkworth, “documenting all the headstones and finding all our veterans”.
For the most part, unless a gravestone is privately owned it won’t be well-maintained, she says.
“Often you find gravestones heavily overgrown, completely covered in moss, lichen and mould. There’s no paint left on them so they’re totally illegible and you don’t know who it belongs to.
“If it’s completely unmarked then we try and locate the family because when you get buried someone has to purchase the plot and we can trace them that way.
“As a rule, I like to find descendants of a family before I go ahead and clean or refurb a headstone.
Because they’re private property, and often an expensive piece of their history. Also, not everyone wants them clean, some people like them degrading.”
Stewart-Dalzell says if it’s just her and Carter they can restore one gravestone a day.
And they’ve had great feedback from the families of veterans, some even thinking the grave had been replaced instead of refurbished.
“One woman said the grave we had spent six hours on looked brand new. It’s really very satisfying.”
To donate visit: https://givealittle.co.nz/org/the-remembrance-army-charitable-trust. Please state in the public comments section whether it’s for Warkworth or Wellsford etc. To have a veteran’s grave cleaned email George at: nzra.north@outlook.co.nz
Achievements of the NZ Remembrance Army (Source, Veterans’ Affairs NZ)
Over 150,000 graves restored
Over 200,000 volunteer hours
Over 3000 historical stories recorded
Over 5000 volunteers and 57 regional teams established
Restoration of war graves in 80 cemeteries
60 unmarked graves given
