Le Quesnoy bell

Le Quesnoy bell

• Height  686 mm
• Width  850 mm
• Weight  366 kg
• Note  B

This bell was given in memory of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade and contains a large replica of the badge of the brigade, which features the crest of the Earl of Liverpool – a lion rampant holding a pennant surrounded by a laurel leaf, above the regimental motto, Soyes ferme (Stand fast). The bell also contains the words ‘To the Memory of Fallen Colleagues 1914 – 1918’.

New Zealand Rifle Brigade

The Rifle Brigade was created in April 1915 as a second New Zealand infantry brigade, to complement the brigade then serving at Gallipoli, and its members were recruited from throughout the country. In January 1916, New Zealand’s infantry was reorganised into three brigades, and the Rifle Brigade became officially known as the 3rd New Zealand (Rifle) Brigade. It moved to the Western Front in April 1916 and spent the rest of the war there.

At Le Quesnoy

The name of the bell, Le Quesnoy, commemorates the French fortress town that the New Zealand Division liberated from the Germans on 4 November 1918, just before the end of the war. The Rifle Brigade played a particularly prominent part in this action, which established an enduring connection between the people of the town and New Zealand. 

In the decades that followed, the Wellington Carillon’s 'Le Quesnoy' bell was sounded during special recitals held to mark the anniversary of the battle.  It was also played for brigade reunions such as one in 1934, when 200 members of the brigade paraded to the Carillon to listen to the bells, and view the flags presented to the brigade by the grateful people of the town. In 1928 Le Quesnoy rebuilt its belfry tower, which had been destroyed by the Germans. New bells were cast from the bronze of the old, and the largest bell, the bourdon bell, was dedicated to New Zealand’s liberation of the town.

Further reading:

W.S. Austin, The official history of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade (the Earl of Liverpool’s Own): covering the period of service with New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Great War from 1915 to 1919, Watkins, Wellington, 1924; reprinted by John Douglas Publishing, Christchurch, 2013