Pilot Officer Harold Bayliss by PNBHS Archives

Anzac Prayer

Mr Murray – Rector PNBHS 1919 – 1946 - read the prayer below in assembly in 1944. The prayer was found in our school archives on a handwritten note and with the prayer were the details of the death in service of Pilot Officer Bayliss who died in the Solomon Islands – drowned at sea on active service in 1944. We share this prayer annually at our school ANZAC service.

Below are photographs of Mr. Murray’s note from our archives.

“Dear Lord

Lest I continue my complacent way:

Help me to remember,

Somewhere out there,

A man died for me today.

As long as there be war,

I then must ask and answer,

Am I worth dying for?”

Mr. Murray was regularly required to inform the students and staff of the school of the death of Old Boys during the Second World War. Many of these men would have been well known to the students and staff and the toll that the war took on the school community and wider Palmerston North community is hard to comprehend.

Mr. Murray - Anzac Prayer — Image by: PNBHS Archives
Mr. Murray - Anzac Prayer — Image by: PNBHS Archives