A free public lecture series commemorating the 100th anniversary of the First World War is planned for later this month.

The University of Waikato and the Tauranga Historical Society have organised the eight-part series ‘Sons of Empire: New Zealand and World War One'.

The free lecture series will share stories about soldiers in the Great War.

Lectures will start on September 17 at Tauranga's Bongard Centre with the first introducing speakers University of Waikato's Professor of Law Alexander Gillespie, and Stefanie Smith, president of the Tauranga Historical Society.

They will be followed by the inaugural presentation by Dr Kirstine Moffat, senior lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, titled ‘The Monstrous Anger of the Guns: Poetry, Protest, and World War I'.

The weekly presentations focus on delivering a unique New Zealand perspective of WWI, the voices of soldiers from the battles and the trenches to their legacy of literature, the diaries, the images and the poetry.

The first lecture is on Wednesday, September 17 at 6.30pm in Tauranga Bongard Centre's Lecture Theatre.

Registration for the free lectures is essential. Email [email protected] or phone 577 5376.