On 4 September 1939, the newspaper headlines declared: “THE EMPIRE AT WAR”. This was the beginning of the Second World War for the people of Ashburton.

More than 2000 local men saw active service overseas, and a considerable number of Army nurses went with them. The Home Front was just as busy. During the first half of the war, over 1700 locals had enlisted in the Home Guard, and the Women’s Land Service also saw considerable interest.

An upcoming exhibition at the Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum tells the war stories of a bicycle shop apprentice, a private nurse, a farm labourer, and a hospital office clerk, all from the Ashburton district.

Director Shirin Khosraviani said the gallery and museum wanted to honour this year’s Anzac Day by shedding light on the lives of locals.

“These people put themselves in danger during the Second World War, to aid and to fight for the freedom of others.”

The exhibition Land, Sea and Air will explore the lives of:

• Arthur Noal Wilson, a motorcycle dispatch rider in the North African campaign
• Alan Charles Bray, an RNZAF pilot seconded to the RAF in England
• Thyrza Margaret Whillans (nee Whiteside), an Army Nursing Service, who served in North Africa and Italy
• Mervyn Beauvais, Navy, who served aboard the HMNZS Gambia

Included in the exhibition are items of clothing, photographs, and other items of interest from the military service of these four locals.

“Each experienced the Second World War in their own unique way, while sharing a common ideal that they were contributing positively to defending their country, their allies, and the countless innocent lives that were endangered by the Axis threat,” Shirin said.

There will be a free public opening event for the exhibition on Sunday 23 March at 2pm, featuring a talk by Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum archivist and exhibition curator, Connor Lysaght. This event will coincide with the opening of another exhibition Sharing Histories: Gifts of 2024.

On Anzac Day, Friday 25 April at 2pm, the gallery and museum will be hosting a special Anzac Day talk with Sarah Johnston, titled “With the Girls Overseas” – the voices of World War II New Zealand nurses.

Sound historian Sarah Johnston is researching recordings made between 1940-1945 by New Zealand’s mobile broadcasting units, which travelled overseas with our forces. The units reported on the fighting and recorded the voices of New Zealanders at war. These recordings were sent home to be played on a popular radio programme, “With the Boys Overseas”, which aired several times a week during the war.

In this Anzac Day talk Sarah will shed light on recordings the broadcasters made of New Zealand nurses. Courtesy of RNZ and Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, she will play some of these 80-year-old recordings and talk about the men and women who we hear in them.

Land, Sea and Air will run from 15 March until 25 May