Hocken Digital Collections

Dunedin Returned Services Association : Records

Details

Reference NumberARC-0272CreatorDunedin Returned Services Association Inc.DescriptionThis large collection contains welfare claims files (1940s-1980s) and war pensions claims files (1970s-c.1991) with corresponding alphabetical index files. Also included are application cards for financial assistance, and members' record cards. Records of a less personal and more administrative nature include minutes (1917-1995), visitors' books (1983-2000), membership records (1893-1990s), annual reports (1933-1976), individual and subject files (1920s-1980s), some relating to health and hospitals, pensions, educational bursaries, property, land appeals and bequests, and papers and plans relating to pensioner flats. Other material includes photographs (1919-1996), plans (1940-1996), and various pamphlets, programmes and newsletters.
Records of other related committees, clubs and associations include World War II application files for relief from the Otago Provincial Patriotic Council (1940s-1980s), papers relating to the Tin Hat Club, Ex-Royal Navalmens' Association, Dunedin branch, Returned Servicewomen, Combined ANZAC Day Observance Committee (CADOC), Battle of El Alamein 50th Anniversary Committee, South East Asia Wars Dedication Committee, Territorial Association of Otago, Otago Gallipoli Veterans Association, Middlemarch R.S.A, Returned Soldiers Memorial Club Building Fund Committee, Old Diggers Barn Club, Gold Star Mothers' Club, Imperial Ex-Servicemen's Association of New Zealand, Inc., A.I.F. (Australia Imperial Force) Association of Dunedin, and the Eighth Army Veterans' Association.
Only a small part of this collection is digitised and available through Digital Collections. Information about other items can be found on the Hākena catalogue, through the Library Catalogues link above.History / BiographyTwo shortlived committees for returned soldiers were established in Dunedin during World War I. The Otago Old Boys formed themselves into the Soldiers' Club House Incorporated, while, at the same time, the YMCA opened a furnished clubroom in its premises for the Otago Soldiers' Club. In 1916 the Royal New Zealand Returned Services' Association itself was founded by wounded veterans returning from World War I. William Patrick, a local businessman provided the whole of the funds necessary to purchase premises, the former home of Dr Hocken in Moray Place. At the time, only soldiers and returned nurses were eligible for membership.
The Mayor of Dunedin called a public meeting in January 1918, at which a committee of prominent citizens was formed to establish a Returned Soldiers' Memorial Club. The foundation stone was laid in 1920 by Sir William Birdwood, commander of the ANZAC force in Gallipoli. At the end of its first year of existence, the Dunedin Returned Services Association had a membership of 283.
After World War II the scope was widened to include all returned servicemen and women and the name was changed to the Returned Services Association. Its establishment recognised a need to provide care for returning soldiers and to assist the families of those who would never return.
Following World War II the club rooms in Dunedin were modernised and extended and in 1962, following a fire, they were rebuilt and modernised.
By the 1980s, membership had grown to over 6,000. Members had served in the Boer War, First and Second World Wars, and wars in Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam.
After facing a financial crisis, the Dunedin RSA sold and vacated its building in 1996.
The Dunedin Returned Services Association Tin Hat Club was founded in 1954 and ceased to function in 2002.

Photograph

Five women in [can can] dance costume for Dunedin RSA 'Ladies Night'

Depicts Or Relates To

SubjectsReturned servicemen - New ZealandArmed forces

Digital Collections

Hocken Digital Collections

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Dunedin Returned Services Association : Records

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