Boer War Memorial Service

A wreath will be laid at Marlborough’s memorial at Tua Marina cemetery at 10.00 am on Friday, 21 October, to commemorate the departure of the first troops to leave our shores for the Boer War and to remember the eleven Marlborough casualties of that conflict.

New Zealand was the first of the British colonies to send troops and the first Marlborough soldiers arrived in South Africa less than three weeks after war was declared.

The first contingent of Blenheim Mounted Rifles left for South Africa, on 10 October 1899 led by Lieutenant D’arcy Chaytor, son of the Marlborough military family who farmed the family estate at Marshlands.

His elder brother Lieutenant Edward Chaytor also served in South Africa, leading the North Island Company of the Third (Rough Riders) Contingent.

During the course of the conflict, the Marlborough Mounted Rifles sent sixty men with the various New Zealand contingents to South Africa.

Marlborough RSA president Ernie Thomson will lead the service and the guest speaker will be Marlborough Girls’ College principal Karen Stewart.

The service is held at the memorial to the South African war, at the Tua Marina cemetery.