We hope you are all coping well with the current situation with everybody in lockdown.
 
We have set up a telephone tree to contact members to check on your welfare and offer support if needed. You would have heard from them by now. Unfortunately, many of the telephone numbers on our membership list were out of date.
 
If you have recently changed your details (address, email and/or phone number) We would appreciate it if you could email devonportrsa@xtra.co.nz to update our information.
 
As you will be aware our Anzac Day service has been disrupted for the second time in two years. Chris Mullane and others are working on a virtual service for members and the community. We will not be laying out the Field of Remembrance for Anzac Day. However, we hope to make Remembrance Day on Wednesday 11 November 2020 a much more fitting commemoration this year so that members and the community can participate in a meaningful way.
 
RSA National has set up a volunteer delivery service, they can pick up groceries and pharmaceutical products for you. There are protocols in place to keep the volunteers and you safe, and they will be considered essential services. Please do get in touch if you would like any help.
 
Stay home, stay well and wash your hands.
 
Yours faithfully,

Howard Mace
President

In these uncertain times we need to take stock of what we are doing in the light of the current COVID-19 virus pandemic.
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It is clear that older members are at greater risk if they develop the infection. Currently, we do not appear to have community spread of the infection. However, we do not want to run the risk of transmitting the virus should it become a community spread disease.
 
We have received direction from RNZRSA National Office to the effect that Anzac Day services will not be held and that Poppy Day has been postponed.  However, we are in the process of developing a virtual program which people can log into and participate in. This will be made available to members and also to the Devonport community.
 
Also, we have considered the risks we run in having our usual fortnightly Monday member meetings. With fewer people attending it may mean that it is not worthwhile running them. The Executive Committee have decided that we should not continue with the meetings. Until further notice the Monday meetings will not be held. They will recommence when appropriate and we will advise you when this is to happen. However, we will try to keep people informed by electronic means and by letter. If people know of someone in difficulty, please let us know so that we can do the best we can to help. A regular phone call to five other members is a reasonable thing to do.
 
For all of us, please keep in touch by phone or email so that social activity continues although in a different form. Visits to older people are being discouraged and we are following the advice in the New Zealand Herald today. Wash and dry your hands and stay healthy.
 
Yours faithfully,

Howard Mace
President

​We are excited to announce we have upgraded our premises! The Devonport RSA before and after photos are below. We have painted new wall colour, we were able to remove some of our light beams when we upgraded our lights. The stage was removed to create a bigger space, upgraded our kitchen to be able to use for events and painted our entrance.

​More photos below of the transformation. Thank you to everyone evolved with the project!! 

Article from The Devonport Flagstaff, dated 19 April 2019.
​For the first time in a century, war veterans will not march down Victoria Rd and neither will there be a solemn service of remembrance at the Devonport cenotaph.
Police instigated the cancellation of Devonport’s Anzac Day ceremonies due to security concerns in the wake of the Christchurch terror attack.

At a meeting of the three North Shore RSA presidents and police, it was decided to hold just one service in Browns Bay. “I was disappointed, of course,” said Devonport RSA president Howard Mace. “But we have to be pragmatic, and the advice we received from police is Browns Bay was the best place to secure.”

The Devonport cenotaph is surrounded by several roads, which makes security more
problematic, Mace said. The Anzac Day parades are of more concern to police than gatherings, such as concerts, because they take place on the streets and in public places, he said. “You could have an idiot terrorist drive a truck through it.”

Asked why defence forces couldn’t provide security, Mace said it wasn’t just a question of personnel. Auckland Council would also need to be involved, for example, providing concrete barricades and other barriers.

An informal gathering will still take place at the Devonport RSA at Devonia Hall, 61
Victoria Rd at 10am. It has capacity for 150 people. “The Devonport RSA will hold a small service inside, because it can be secured,” Mace said. The Navy band will be missing, but a Navy bugler and chaplain will attend, with Mace also saying a few words. The Devonport cenotaph will still have a rack for floral wreaths and poppies.

Anzac Day services and commemorations have been held in New Zealand since 1916, when the Anzac Day holiday was gazetted. Mace is unsure when the first Devonport service was held, but it was almost certainly before the Devonport RSA was set up in 1927. Devonport’s druid Chris Mullane will act as MC and two Takapuna Grammar students will speak at the Browns Bay ceremony.
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• A dawn parade will leave from the Browns Bay police station at 5.30am and proceed to the beach cenotaph. At 8.30am, the civic service will start with a second parade following the same route. People are advised to go early, as there will be road blocks and security checks.

New Zealand War Memorial Museum link www.nzwmm.org.nz

Blog post coming soon …….

​August 2018 | Written by R. J. Nelson
I joined the Royal New Zealand Navy as a Reservist in 2013 after a chance encounter with the Musical Director of the RNZN Band while I was busking on the main street of Devonport. I was asked to tour around the North Island with the band and before I knew it I was signing the dotted line. I had never considered joining the New Zealand Defence Force but now I couldn’t imagine my life without it. I have had so many incredible opportunities including singing at major commemorations in Gallipoli, France and Belgium.

Who would have thought, from busking on the streets of Devonport to singing for royalty at their private estate? And all thanks to the Royal New Zealand Navy. I must make a very special thank you to the team at NGAPONA who helped make this all possible. I am so grateful for all the opportunities I have had since joining the RNZN, I have so much respect for all those that serve and I am always so proud to wear the uniform.