Who of our clients are famous? None. Rather, the stories we bring to light represent important markers of what it is to be a human being living at a particular time and place.

This social history celebrates 75 years of Raglan and Districts RSA. It includes interviews with local men and women who provided information of national significance, as well as rare photos and personal insight which may not otherwise have been shared.

Commissioned by the Raglan and Districts RSA with financial assistance from the Veteran Community Grants Fund, Donny Charitable Trust and WEL Energy Trust.

"We were retreating back into Athens but we got locked up in the Larisa Valley with only goat tracks over the mountain range to get out. All the division was in there and they had us locked up the whole day. We couldn't go anywhere, we had no cover – no anti-aircraft – and the German planes were just flying around machine-gunning and bombing us. It was continuous all day. The birds had to walk because there was no room in the air for them to fly, there were too many enemy planes up there. That was a terrible day. It was murder, just plain murder.

I've always gone down to Anzac Day and taken my wife and family. I've never worn my medals but I've always worn my RSA badge. I never went in the parades but I like to hear the service and to think back."
– Stan Jerome

Recommendation

Moved by what she'd read in the Raglan RSA book, film maker Maryann Tuao has produced an intriguing period drama based on accounts of mysterious lights seen at night on Mt Karioi and the possibility that Japanese agents had come ashore on the Ruapuke coast just south of Raglan.

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