Call to Arms

Dunedin is about as far as you could get from the great wars of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Yet war and the threat of war have inspired thousands of Dunedin people to serve in military forces at home and abroad. This proud tradition of military service has cost the city dear. The whole Otago region is dotted with war memorials commemorating those who served and those who fell in the great conflicts abroad. Dunedin men and women lie in many foreign fields, far from the city that still mourns their loss.

The Dunedin Roll of Honour in the Lost Generations room contains 3,179 names. The accompanying digital interactive includes further details on each casualty, a portrait where we have one, and an image of the cemetery they are buried or commemorated in. There are 589 such cemeteries or memorials in our database spread across 44 countries, compelling evidence of the worldwide extent of Dunedin citizens’ war service.

In Call to Arms, we pay respect and remember the fallen – “We will remember them”.