Last Thursday, 11th November 2004 I had the honour of giving the commemorative address at the West Wallsend Remembrance Day service.
Following is the transcription of my address:
"Remembrance Day Address.
West Wallsend, Thursday 11 November 2004.
On this day and at this hour eighty six years ago on the blood drenched battlefields of France and Belgium, the big guns ceased firing, the killing stopped, and the horrific destruction of the Great War of 1914-1918 ended.
The Great War, the war to end all wars, the war for civilisation, was finally over.
Over 416,000 Australians volunteered for service in World War I.
324,000 served overseas.
More than 60,000 Australians were to be killed in action or died of wounds or other causes.
Over 8,000 of these men died on the Gallipoli Peninsula between
25 April and 20 December 1915.
More than 45,000 died on the Western Front in France and Belgium between July 1916 and November 1918.
The First Armistice Day
Early in November of 1919 a message from King George V and addressed "to all the peoples of the Empire" contained the following:
"To all my people:
Tuesday next, November 11th, is the first anniversary of the Armistice which stayed the world-wide carnage of the four preceding years, and marked the victory of right and freedom.
I believe that my people in every part of the Empire fervently wish to perpetuate the memory of that great deliverance and of those who laid down their lives to achieve it.
To afford an opportunity for the universal expression of this feeling it is my desire and hope that at the hour when the Armistice came into force, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, there may be for the brief space of two minutes a complete suspension of all our normal activities.
During that time, except in the rare cases where this might be impractical, all work, all sound and all locomotion should cease, so that in perfect stillness the thoughts of every one may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead".
Here in Australia, November 11 became known as Armistice Day.
It was a day on which to remember those who died in the Great War.
Sixty five years ago on 3 September 1939, Great Britain declared war on Germany and PM Robert Menzies announced that Australia was also at war.
The Second World War was to continue until 15 August 1945.
After the end of World War II, the Australian and British governments changed the name of Armistice Day to Remembrance Day.
In October 1997, the Governor-General issued a proclamation declaring 11 November as Remembrance Day and urged all Australians to observe one minute’s silence at 11.00 am on 11 November each year to remember the sacrifices of those who died or otherwise suffered in Australia’s cause in wars and war-like conflicts.
Ladies and gentlemen, this magnificent memorial was unveiled on 28 January 1922 by Major H. J. Connell, MP late of the 35th Infantry Battalion.
The memorial commemorates the 273 men from West Wallsend and district that enlisted and served overseas during World War One.
72 of these men paid the supreme sacrifice.
6 at Gallipoli 2 in Egypt 32 in Belgium 27 in France
5 in England
It is to remember the sacrifice of those men and women in the First World War and the Second World War and in the later conflicts in Korea, Malaya and Vietnam that we gather here today and pause in grateful remembrance.
Today, we honour their sacrifice with gratitude and with thanks.
THE ODE TO THE FALLEN
They went with songs to the battle,
They were young, straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow;
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn:
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We will remember them.
“Lest We Forget”
One minutes silence.
Bugler: Last Post.
Bugler: Reveille.
Copyright David H Dial OAM 2004
