Lest We Forget

On the 25th April Australia commemorated ANZAC Day with services across the country. ANZAC Day is a day to recognise the sacrifices made by our defence forces and families during war times (in the past and those currently serving). Australia could not be the free country that it is today without them.

It is also a time to reflect on the meaning of war and the need for peace. My mother and I shared a number of stories with each other about our family's contributions to our freedom.

"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."    

The Ode of Remembrance taken from Laurence Binyon's poem "For the Fallen."

Sitting atop a camel this is my My Great Great Uncle Cyril. 

 He was on his way to Gallipoli, from Egypt and last seen alive April 25, 1915. Cyril was 22.

His picture was up on the Lone Pine memorial wall for the ceremony on ANZAC Day.

This is my great great grandfather 'Pongo.' He was a Lighthorseman in the middle-east (Egypt) in World War I. In these early days of photo-shopping he had this photo taken, photo-shopped and sent home to let his beloved know how much he was thinking of her.

My grandfather (left) served in Papua New Guinea during World War II. He was a wireless mechanic. His father, my great grandfather, (right) served in PNG as well and had also served during World War I.

During his time in PNG my grandfather went AWOL for the weekend, hitched a lift on an american DC3 to Buna and found his dad.

This is a picture of them both with my grandfather's mother, my great grandfather's wife.

 

During World War II the Australian Women's Land Army was established to combat labour shortages in the farming sector. These are photographs of my grandmother who served in the AWLM in Bung Bung Victoria, Australia.