Former Alexandra resident Lisa Kelliher had the honour of representing the New Zealand Army in Belgium on Anzac Day, which had a very personal touch as well.

Colonel Kelliher attended the Tyne Cot service and placed a poppy at the memorial of her great uncle Peter Flannery, of Poolburn - a rifleman who was killed in action in Pascendale in 1917.

She first dreamed of joining the New Zealand Defence Force while at Dunstan High School, but applied to study accounting and mathematics at the University of Otago before deciding last minute to sit a test and join the armed forces. What made her trip to Belgium even more special this year, was she turned 50 the day after Anzac Day.

Col Kelliher has been to South Sudan and Timor and was one of New Zealand’s most decorated soldiers for active service.

Brought up at her family’s sheep and beef farm near Alexandra by parents George and Daphne, she is now based in Waiouru but came home to Central Otago at least once a year to visit her father and brother (Gary).

Col Kelliher's great uncle was one of two brothers killed in the war from the Flannery family, Peter on the battlefield and Michael in hospital later on.