3/150 Captain Dr Ernest Augustus Boxer CMG, (1/8/1875-13/7/1927). "marked ability and success"

"Anzac Day 1920 was widely considered the most impressive yet held. The day fell on a Sunday and provided the ‘close’ conditions that the RSA was lobbying to achieve by legislation. In Auckland, Anzac Day also had the presence of the Prince of Wales on a worldwide ‘thank-you’ tour. But the occasion was enhanced too with the adoption of a new Anzac Day service.

In a move intended to secure uniformity in the manner of observance throughout the country, RSA national president Dr Ernest Boxer promoted a model Anzac Day service that represented a symbolic re-enactment of a burial at the front. It came complete with a solemn parade of returned soldiers behind a gun carriage accompanied by a uniform bearer party that later formed a catafalque guard, with bowed heads over reversed arms, around a symbolic bier consisting of wreaths and a soldier’s hat. Addresses were confined to mourning and remembrance. Marches and hymns were also deeply mournful. The climax came with the symbolic burial service conducted by an army padre, the silent pause symbolising the committal. The service concluded with a gun salute, followed by the sounding of the Last Post.

Boxer, effectively choreographing a ritual of mourning, stressed that the essential aspects of the service was to create a ‘sacred place’ and to achieve ‘the right mood for its sacredness’. Participants, for example, were to be requested not to applaud during the service. Although run by the RSA the mood was appropriate for the thousands of families who had been deprived of the solace of funerals for loved ones lost overseas. Boxer acknowledged that returned soldiers ‘may not feel this [mood]’ but that the relatives ‘certainly will’. Returned soldiers would have ample opportunity to remember in their own way within the confines of RSA receptions later in the day. It was the start of the private and public ritual of Anzac Day.

Many centres, such as Dunedin, adopted the entire ‘Boxer Service’, as it was known, while others incorporated parts of it into the service that they had developed over the preceding years. More than the form, however, it was the sentiment that was universal throughout New Zealand, an appropriate mood during the immediate postwar period. Although reformed in later decades, the ‘Boxer Service’ ritualised the solemn mood of Anzac Day observances in New Zealand, in stark contrast with the more celebratory nature of the observance in Australia."

Dr Stephen Clarke. Centenary of the Anzac Day Act. Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tāmaki Paenga Hira. First published: 7 April 2020.  -From the invaluable "Online Cenotaph."

OBITUARY.

DR. ERNEST BOXER, C.M.G., OF HASTINGS. 

Advice was received in Hastings this morning to the effect that Dr. Ernest Boxer passed away at the Palmerston South Sanatorium last night. 

This news will come as a great shock to his many friends in Hawke's Bay, for although it was realised that the doctor was seriously ill, it was not expected that his end was so near. 

The late Dr. Boxer practised his profession in Hastings for many years, and he was widely known all over the district. 

During the war period he offered his services to his country, and rose to the rank of major in the New Zealand medical corps. On his return to the Dominion he took a great interest in the welfare of returned soldiers, being at one time president of the New Zealand R.S.A., and also the Hastings branch of that body. 

He also gave his services to repatriation work and in recognition of his labours in this direction the order of C.M.G. was conferred upon him by the King in 1923. 

A couple of years ago Dr. Boxer made a special trip to England and the U.S.A., to study X-Ray work, and he carried on this work on his return to New Zealand. Last year, however, his health began to fail, and he gradually grew worse. 

A few months ago he was compelled to become an inmate of the Palmerston South Sanatorium and even at the time it was realised that his case was a very serious one. Of a kindly and gentle disposition, ever ready to present a helping hand to those in need, the late doctor made many friends and by these he will be sincerely missed, and the very deepest sympathy will be extended to his widow in her sad bereavement. 

The body will not be returned to Hastings but will be interred at Dunedin.  -Daily Times, 14/7/1927.

The Palmerston South Sanatorium was the tuberculosis hospital at Pleasant River.

DR. E. A. BOXER. 

Dr E. A. Boxer, a prominent member of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association, died here this morning. 

He enlisted in the New Zealand Medical Corps on the outbreak of war, and, holding the rank of captain in his unit, served in Egypt and Gallipoli. After being a considerable time on Gallipoli, Dr Boxer contracted a sickness which resulted in his being invalided back to New Zealand. He was then placed on the reserve list. After the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association had been organised Dr Boxer held the position of Dominion President for the years 1918 and 1919, which were the most critical years of the Association’s activities. His endeavors on behalf of returned men were worthy of the highest praise. There were many policy matters in regard to land settlement and repatriation which were dealt with by Dr Boxer with marked ability and success. He leaves a widow and a family of three.  -Evening Star, 14/7/1927.

Andersons Bay Cemetery, Dunedin.