Pages tagged with: empire day

Empire Day (24 May), was celebrated widely in New Zealand from 1903 and was a major event in the Vice-regal calendar.

Why did we celebrate Empire Day?

24 May, Queen Victoria's birthday, was Empire Day. Most people welcomed this link to 'Queen Victoria the Good' in the days when the celebration of the sovereign's birthday changed with each new monarch.

The first Empire Day was commemorated in 1903

The parades, building openings, flag salutes and earnest speeches of 1903 set the pattern for later Empire Days.

Children were key targets for Empire Day.

Empire Day was a special cause of Charles Bathurst, Lord Bledisloe, our Governor-General between 1930 and 1935

Empire Day segued into Commonwealth Day in 1958 when 100 people gathered around Queen Victoria's statue in Albert Park to hear Governor-General Lord Cobham say that 'the British Empire had now given way to the noble concept of a Commonwealth of free peoples'

F. J. Williamson's bronze statue of Queen Victoria, unveiled in Albert Park as a Diamond Jubilee project in 1899

Lord Ranfurly, who was Governor of New Zealand 1897–1904

The symbolic highpoint of our first Empire Day came when Lord Ranfurly laid the foundation stone for the veterans' home that later came to bear his name. Ranfurly saw successive generations of war veterans such as these blind men seen enjoying their pipes on the veranda, as reinforcing imperial links.

Parades, flag raising ceremonies and unveilings and openings were common on Empire Day. The Victoria Ward of the Wanganui public hospital opened on Empire Day 1903

For years schools lined up children for patriotic addresses before giving them the rest of Empire day off as a holiday

Lord Bledisloe, Governor-General of New Zealand 1930–35, presided over the Empire Day Movement for many years

Sir Bernard Freyberg used Empire Day to deliver some of his more significant speeches