SS Otaki Commemoration

Along with many other distinguished guests, the College was delighted to welcome His Excellency, Dr Richard Davies, Vice Regal Consort, and Her Worship, Janet Holborow, Mayor of the Kāpiti Coast District, to the 2024 SS Otaki Commemoration, held on March 10.  They were joined by Barbara Rudd representing Ngā Hapu o Ōtaki, Mr Derek Whitwam, (President, Arctic Convoy Club NZ) and other Club members, representatives of the Merchant Navy community, Mr John Pearson, Deputy British High Commissioner, Mr Klaus Sattel, First Secretary of the Federal Republic of Germany, Rear Admiral David Proctor, Chief of Navy, SLT Emma Whight, representing the New Zealand Airforce, and Ms Wendy Mohan, representing the Ōtaki District Memorial RSA.

 The focus of the 2024 Commemoration was the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Landings.  On 6 June 1944, known as D-Day, German soldiers standing on the slopes above the Normandy shoreline, and gazing out across the English Channel, would have seen what has been described as ‘the largest seaborne invasion in history.’  In some of the ships in that invasion force, were teenage sailors who, eighty years later, were able to attend the Wreath Laying Service at Ōtaki College.  

Derek Whitwam had been involved in deception operations in HMS Berwick, Stan Welch was there in HMS Apollo and Syd Wells in HMS Magpie.  Other Arctic Convoy Club members were represented by their families, including George Billing who passed away recently aged 99.  Principal, Andy Fraser acknowledged the members of the Artic Convoy Club, noting that “their presence here today allows us to reflect that, while the long years since D-Day have diminished the numbers of these Second World War veterans, those years have served to add to the lustre of their achievements in that war.”