The fascinating story continues in 2017 as the Giant Poppy journeys to France as a gift to the people of the town of Arras, where New Zealanders served in WW1.

This documentary can also be viewed here on the Giant Poppy YouTube channel.

I first built the Giant Poppy in the Auckland Domain in 2015. Over 25,000 New Zealanders and visitors helped me by placing their personal messages. Taking the Poppy to France will complete the circle of respect. However, to get to France and create the Poppy I need your urgent and generous help.

Tony McNeight – Artist

ARTIST TO TAKE MESSAGES TO FRANCE FOR CREATION OF GIANT POPPY

An urgent search is on for relatives of soldiers who were based in Arras France during World War I.

At the beginning of next month (April) this year a Giant Poppy art installation is to be created in the town square of Arras and the artist Tony McNeight wants to take messages from the New Zealand families to join the messages of respect from the French that will be part of the art.

The original Giant Poppy art installation was built in Auckland Domain in 2015 for World War 1 commemorations. It is being recreated in Arras for the commemorations of the Battle of Arras.

“It is important to me that the poppy includes the families whose great uncles and great granddads are being honoured when I build the Poppy,” said Tony McNeight, “ but I don’t know who they are and I am relying on the extraordinary New Zealand grapevine to find them for me.”

Interested parties can contact Tony McNeight with details of the relatives and messages: Email Tony McNeight

Arras has a unique relationship with New Zealand, as during WW1 NZ soldiers were key in building massive tunnels under the town, which were important for quartering animals and troops, and tunneling behind enemy lines. The 100-year commemorations for the Battle of Arras are being held in April.
http://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/arras-tunnels

BACKGROUND ON POPPY AND JOURNEY TO ARRAS

One cool evening, just before ANZAC Day in 2015, Frederic Leturque the Mayor of Arras, came down to the Auckland Domain with his colleagues and paid his respects to the men of New Zealand that had protected his town and his people 100 years before.

Placing one of the metal poppy petals with his message he was impressed the way the Poppy allowed everyone to engage so he asked for the Poppy art installation to be replicated in France.

BACKGROUND THE GIANT POPPY ART

During the WW1 100 year commemorations in New Zealand in 2015 the artist Tony McNeight built the Giant Poppy Art installation in the Auckland Domain.
His idea was to give everyone an opportunity to place their own personal messages.
To make it happen he privately raised the funds to finance the project which was a huge success with 25,000 New Zealanders and visitors placing messages

For further information

Email: Angela Griffen
Email: Tony McNeight

THE ITINERANT TUNNELLERS

“Bless you, it was a great life I wouldn’t have missed it in spite of my little lot.” So said Sapper H.M. Mannix, of Waihi, to an Auckland Star representative, in alluding to the lot of the men who burrow underground to reach the enemy.

“I can’t name the places where the tunnellers have been but they have been pretty well all over the Western front, and have had great experiences. We spent about three months at Arras, and some of the ‘big fellows’ told us we had been doing very good work. Every time we made the drive we beat the Fritzes, and on each occasion that they exploded a mine they were about 50 yards short. There was a very brave act carried out by one of our men. One night it was necessary for us to go over the top to destroy a German sap-head, and Lieutenant Durant failed to return. Sapper Edwards went back for him. Whether he got near to him I don’t know, but before he could reach the officer he had both his legs blown off, and he died just after he got back.

“One of our saps was 90ft deep and 500 yards in towards the German lines. The New Zealand tunnellers were fine workers, and, getting through hard chalk we used to advance 4 1/2 feet in eight hours. Two men would work at the face, working for eights hours, and then being off for 24. The exploding of a mine is a great experience. For a mile behind everything rocks and shakes, and when she is let go at night it is a spectacle never to be forgotten. At Arras we left behind us one of the biggest craters on the front.”

A message preserved on the tunnel wall. Arras, France.

Sapper Mannix finished his soldiering career on July 26th, when he was gassed underground. One of the little pleasantries of tunnelling is to leave underground cylinders of gas which are released, so that when enemy engineers mine in the vicinity they become victims to the poison in the galleries. Sapper Mannix caught some of the German gas, and came up to the daylight to collapse. The poisoning acted on his stomach, and for five months he has been in bed, his burly form weakened and emaciated by inability to take solid food. He comes home to undergo an operation, and is looking forward to recovering afterwards and to the joyful hour when he can tackle a well stacked plate of roast beef and kumeras. “When once I get my legs under the table I shall take some shifting, I can tell you.” Sapper Mannix speaks in glowing terms of the Scottish infantry regiments, with whom the New Zealand tunnellers came into contact. “We met some fine fellows amongst the British Army, but they were the best crowd.”

Sometimes working waist deep in water and mud, chilled to the marrow, when they had their first taste of snow and frost, the tunnellers have been foremost amongst the real hard grafters on the Western front.

But still they are smiling . “It’s a great life, and I wouldn’t have missed it even for this,” avers Sapper Mannix, and who’s to say him nay!

100 YEARS ON – ARRAS REMEMBERS

The small French town of Arras plans to replicate the Giant Poppy Art installation in their Town Square this April for the 100 year commemorations for the Battle of Arras.

Waihi’s Kimberley Tool and Design brought the giant poppy petals to life and some of those petals will now be placed in France.

I first built the Giant Poppy in the Auckland Domain in 2015. Over 25,000 New Zealanders and visitors helped me by placing their personal messages. Taking the Poppy to France will complete the circle of respect. However, to get to France and create the Poppy I need your urgent and generous help.

Tony McNeight – Artist