Presenting Flags

A large crowd of hospital staff and interested public gather outside the Town Hall in Lymington in Hampshire, England on 5 March 1919 to watch the principal matron present the New Zealand flag to the Mayor.

After the flag presentation the scene shifts to the graveyard at nearby St Nicholas’s Church, Brockenhurst – where 93 New Zealanders who died in the The No. 1 New Zealand General Hospital are buried. The No. 1 New Zealand General Hospital at Brockenhurst opened in June 1916 after being moved there from Abasseyeh in Egypt. By 1919, when it closed, 21,000 patients had been treated in the hospital. 

The final scenes show Lieutenant-Colonel Percival Fenwick and his staff walking among the graves as the camera pans across the graves and the church.

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Year: 5 March 1919

Length: 0:03:20

Production Company: Pathé

Source: Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Catalogue Reference: F245797 Pathé Gazette No. 541: Brockenhurst & Lymington. A Token of Appreciation (New Zealanders Present Flags Prior to Their Departure for Home)

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People: Lieutenant-Colonel Percival Fenwick, Mayor of Brockenhurst

Location: Brockenhurst, New Forest, Hampshire, England

Tags: 1919, Homecomings, war graves, World War One,WWI, New Zealand General Hospital Brockenhurst, Pathé, Lieutenant-Colonel Percival Fenwick, hospital

Subject: Homecomings, World War One, WWI, New Zealand General Hospital Brockenhurst

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