Armistice Day will be remembered on Thursday November 11 at 11am, with plans to fire the historic 25-pounder field gun, but no major ceremony will take place under current Covid-19 Alert Level 2 protocols. 

The Alexandra-Clyde RSA plan to fire the gun, pending official approvals from Council and Police. 

Gun crew leader Alan Pratley says those around Alexandra can prepare to mark Armistice Day in their own way, but they may hear the firing of the gun, barring any change of plans.

“There isn’t much of a ceremony at all, so at 11am we’ll be letting the gun go off,” Alan says.

“It (Covid-19 Alert Level 2) means we really can’t have more than a certain number of people there.” 

At Alert Level 2, there are no restrictions on the number of people that can attend an event at a venue, for example at a stadium, cinema, theatre, casino, concert hall or conference venue — as long as everyone can safely stay 1 metre apart. Attendees can be seated or standing.

This includes indoor and outdoor event facilities, and both ticketed and non-ticketed events.

However, crucially, events that are held outdoors but not at an event facility — for example a concert at a park, a parade, or an organised sporting event like an amateur club rugby tournament must follow the rules for social gatherings. These are limited to 100 people in any defined indoor or outdoor space.

Alan says the firing of the gun is a way for everyone, at home, school or at work, to hear and remember Armistice Day in a unique way.

Alexandra’s 25-pounder field gun was made in about 1940, and was in service with the New Zealand Army and was given to the Alexandra-Clyde RSA as a display unit more than 20 years ago.

“I learnt through a friend of mine who was a gunnery sergeant,” Alan says. 

“We use it for Armistice Day, Anzac Day and various other, ceremonial occasions.”

Alan says while it is a shame the ceremony cannot be held, he reiterated the importance people remember the occasion to preserve history. 

“I think it is a mark in our history and time,” he says. “Armistice Day goes back to the first world war when the treaties were signed.

“It’s a significant point in our history, and to bear in mind when all those things were going on, it was followed by the Spanish Flu.

“There are some similarities between then and now.”

Armistice Day is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, at 5:45am.

The armistice declared the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I, which took effect at eleven o’clock in the morning—the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918. 

But, according to Thomas R. Gowenlock, an intelligence officer with the U.S. First Division, shelling from both sides continued for the rest of the day, ending only at nightfall.

The armistice initially expired after a period of 36 days and had to be extended several times. 

A formal peace agreement was only reached when the Treaty of Versailles was signed the following year.