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Letters from the war - ANZAC Day 2015

Havelock North performance artist David Guerin has spent much of the last year consumed by the war time experiences of Alfred Owen Wilkinson who fought at Gallipoli, Passchendaele and the Battle of Somme.

The results of part of this work will be seen for the first time at the Hastings City Art Gallery on ANZAC Day.

In five interactive performances over the day, David Guerin will read from a few of the hundreds of letters that Private (and later Captain) Wilkinson sent home from the war.  The performance is supported by the artist’s collection of photos and war memorabilia. The audience is invited to make a drawing of their response and leave it attached to a temporary cardboard cenotaph.  People are also able to comment and talk to the artist during the performance. 

David Guerin said “Alfred Owen Wilkinson was an accountant in his twenties when he joined up as a private in the New Zealand Artillery.  By the end of the war he was in charge of 60 men and 120 horses and was attached to the quartermaster’s corp.  He survived Gallipoli and France without a scratch – a remarkably resilient man.  His letters show how he felt his faith in God and the love and support of his family brought him home safely.”

He plans to read from letters the soldier wrote to his family from Chunuck Bair in Gallipoli.

For more information about the ANZAC Day 2015 programme, see Hastings Remembers

For more information:

Dianne Joyce 
Communications Manager
06 871 5056

4 October 2017

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