Author(s): Peter Cooke

NZ Non Fiction

The Returned and Services Association (RSA) has been a significant part of Wellington's social, and at times political structure since 1916. It was founded in April of that year by people who saw a need for welfare, rehabilitation, job-finding and meeting-place services for physically and psychologically wounded soldiers who were beginning to return from overseas service in World War I. This is the story of Wellington RSA's development, heydays, then relative decline, over the next 91 years. The RSA movement has been at the forefront of national debates about welfare, defence, duty, remembrance, sacrifice, welfare and morality. For its membership it has lobbied hard for pensions, land grants, medals, rehabilitation, welfare, disability issues and other rights. Of the many RSAs in New Zealand towns and cities, Wellington's branch has been the most broadly influential because of its capital city location and because its establishment and development paralleled that of the national body.