Hi everyone,
I hope you are all safe, well and dry
Many of you know that every March we hold the National .303 shoot called the Dick Travis VC competition in remembrance of New Zealand’s most decorated WWI soldier.
Also every year, we are honoured to host Dick Travis’ nephew Noel and his wife Denise who travel from Australia and Dick’s niece Rita and her husband Keith who travel down from Opotiki to support the competition.
In the last couple of days two things have happened. The first is that we received an email from Noel & Denise to everyone at Karori Rifle Club. It reads:
Hope you are all well and safe
We have been thinking of you all. NZ has been having a hard time lately with earth quakes.
Give our thoughts to all the Karori Rifle Club members and we hope they managed to of got over this without any damage.
Looking forward to seeing you all at the next Dick Travis VC shoot.
Just been looking at a photo of you all.
Happy and smiling faces so keep safe and keep smiling.
Regards,
Noel & Denise Bockett
The second thing to happen is Shane Davies posted on my Facebook page a recent visit of his to the Somme in France. He found the headstone of Dick Travis VC and photographed it along with the Karori Rifle Club DTVC Badge he earned at competition. Nice one Shane.
He wrote:
Dick Travis – Grave side visit 13 Nov 2016
I have just a few days ago visited the grave of Dick Travis VC at the Couin New British Cemetery in the Somme. There are 2 cemeteries here, one each side of the road. This one is the ‘New’ cemetery with people moved here from other places at various times. It was off the beaten track and I doubt too many visitors.
Here are a few photos of the headstone. Unfortunately the French don’t seem to take as much care of the headstones as they do in Belgium. It was a very cold and wet day when we visited but nice to see others have placed remembrance crosses previously. We placed our own remembrance cross at his headstone with comments about the DTVC shoot in his memory.
It is with regret I am unable to attend next years shoot as I am sure it will be a great event.
We will remember them.
Keep safe everyone and keep smiling.