Information from Te Manawa Museum:
'According to the information supplied to us by the donor [now deceased], the snare drum belonged to her brother, Laurence 'Sonny' or 'Bud' Hemmingsen. He lived by the Palmerston North railway yards and station, two blocks over from the Palmerston North showgrounds, and used to go on route marches with the Māori Battalion around the streets and up to the showgrounds where they were based. Sonny was on the station platform [then] in Main Street, Palmerston North when the Battalion left for overseas and some of the soldiers presented him with the drum.
The drum was used for the 'colours' ceremony in the 1990s at the Palmerston North Showgrounds. The Crown presented the Pioneer Battalion (the first Māori Battalion) and all other colonial battalions in World War I with colours after the war. This flag was embroidered with the battle names in which the battalion had distinguished itself. The colours were lost and only discovered in the early 1990s at the Museum of New Zealand / Te Papa. Following restoration, the colours were laid to rest at this ceremony.
The drum was played in slow time by one of our museum staff to lead the march of members of the 28th (Māori) Battalion from World War II into the showground’s for the ceremony.'
Do you know anything else about this drum, or other drums and instruments used by the 28th?
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