It’s Monday 25th April 2011 and I’ve just attended the ANZAC Day Memorial Service at Gaythorne Community War Memorial in the Sid Loder Park Tel-El-Kebir St Mitchelton.
The ceremony is organised by the Gaythorne Returned Services League Sub-Branch. The Gaythorne Sub-Branch Management Committee would like to express thank to:
[ul]Members of the 129 Army Cadet Unit
Grovely State School Choir
Sgt Paul Jones
Adam Regnart
the Gaythorne RSL Women’s Auxiliary[/ul]
The order of ceremonies was:
6:15am March assembles
6:30am March from the park around Samford Rd and back to park.
Mount Catafalque Party (flags)
Call to Worship
Australian National Anthem
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn – Amazing Grace: Grovely State School Choir
President’s Address: Mr Merv Brown Gaythorne RSL President
ANZAC Day Resolution: Mr Adam Hankey Gaythorne RSL Vice-President
Prayer of Remembrance: Padre Jack Phillips
Bible Reading: Thomas Hassell
Prayer for Peace: Jalessa Simpson
Supplication: Padre Jack Phillips
Last Post: Bugler – Sgt Paul Jones
Ode: Mr merv Brown Gaythorne RSL President
Minute Silence
Reveille: Bugler – Sgt Paul Jones
Wreath Laying Ceremony
Lament: Mr Adam Regnart
Hymn – Our God Our Help in Ages Past: Grovely State School Choir
The Blessing: Padre Jack Phillips
Dismount Catafalque Party
Song – Two Little Boys: Grovely State School Choir
Parade Dismiss
I went around the crowd interviewing people and recording impressions of what was happening. I was pleased to see young people from our local schools and groups:
[ul]Ferny Grove State High School
Ferny Hills State School
Grovely State School
Mitchelton-Grovely Scouts Troup
The Girls Brigade and The Boys Brigade[/ul]
Local elected politicians (and some candidates) were there and laid remembrance wreaths – Member for Ferny Grove – Minister the Hon Geoff Wilson MP Minister for the Environment the Hon Kate Jones MP Member for Everton Murray Watt Member for Ryan Jane Prentice MP Dale Shuttleworth representing the Member for Dickson – Federal Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing Peter Dutton MP Councillor Andrew Wines Councillor Brian Battersby Tim Mander.
The Grovely State School Choir under the baton of music teacher Annie Rossouw sang the Australian National Anthem the hymn Amazing Grace the hymn Our God Our Help in Ages Past and the song Two Little Boys. Principal Vicki Baker was also in attendance. The children were dressed in uniform and gave a fine performance we can all be proud of.
The children’s groups in the march were all represented by local groups. Ferny Hills State School had a large group of children in uniform and the Mitchelton-Grovely Scouts had a large group in uniform (with lots of badges) – mainly cubs. When it came to wreath laying representatives of all our local groups came up and laid wreaths.
The ceremony was also a call to worship led by Padre Jack Phillips in long white robes. No-one could doubt that the Christian faith is strong in this region.
The cadets played a major part. I hadn’t come across them before – they operate out of Enoggera during their high school years.
All around the crowd and ceremony were men and women and young people even little children with medals on their chests. Some had multiple bars of ribbons and medals. There were all ages from very old to very young. Some wore the medals of their parents or grandparents. They represented many different wars.
As I went around with the little microphone interviewing these people it was very difficult not to cry. Without a doubt the mood of the crowd could not fail to touch your heart. Warriors who had served were proud of their service. The children of fathers and grandfathers who had served held deep value and meaning in what they had done. Children were proud of their parents.
Most touching of all to me was watching some little children with their fathers. The fathers were fine looking men dressed in dark suits ties and shiny shoes with bands of medals across their chests. The tiny boy and three little girls with these men showed me children who loved and respected their fathers like nothing I have ever seen before. One father held and talked with his son in a most profound manner. Two other fathers pushed their little girls on swings while another clutched her daddy’s leg. These were men who had bravely fought in wars while at the same time they had little children at home.
There were wives and some mothers without a man at their side. One had a toddler a girl with a medal on her chest. I wonder where her daddy was.
The younger veterans of wars like Afghanistan and Timor are as fine specimens of Australian manhood as I’ve ever met. These are not only upstanding physically fit men. They also have a strength and collectedness about them that is awe inspiring.
There was an old veteran in the front row in a wheelchair who had been coming every year for heaven knows how long. He was a veteran of World War II.
The services band in kilts gave rousing lead to the march with bagpipes and drums returning from the march playing a Scottish song that always deeply touches me: When the Battle’s O’er.
The Ode
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.
[i]The Ode comes from For the Fallen a poem by the English poet and writer Laurence Binyon and was published in London in The Winnowing Fan: Poems of the Great War in 1914. This verse which became the Ode for the Returned and Services League has been used in association with commemoration services in Australia since 1921.[/i]
[url=http://www.anzacday.org.au/education/tff/tff-00.html]
ANZAC Day – Traditions Facts & Folklore[/url] explains some of the traditions.
Bugler Sgt Paul Jones played the Last Post and Reveille beautifully.
Afterwards the Grovely RSL held a ticketed event for veterans to remember.
Song: Two Little Boys
Lyrics to Two Little Boys :
Two little boys had two little toys
Each had a wooden horse
Gaily they played each summers day
Warriors both of cause
One little chap then had a mishap
Broke off his horses head
Wept for his toy then cried with joy
As his young playmate said
Did you think I would leave you crying
When there’s room on my horse for two
Climb up here Jack and don’t be crying
I can go just as fast with two
When we grow up we’ll both be soliders
And our horses will not be toys
And I wonder if we’ll remember when we were
Two little boys
Long years past war came so fast
Bravely they marched away
Cannon roared loud and in the mad crowd
Wounded and dieing lie up goes a shout
A horse dashes out out from the ranks so blue
Gallops away to where Joe lay then came a voice he know
Did you think I would leave you dieing
When there’s room on my horse for two
Climb up here Joe we’ll soon be flying
I can go just as fast with two
Did you say Joe I’m all a tremble perhaps it’s the battles noise
But I thinks its that I remember when we were two little boys
Do you think I would leave you dieing
There’s room on my horse for two
Climb up here Joe we’ll soon be flying
Back to the ranks so blue
Can you feel Joe I’m all a tremble perhaps it’s the battles noise
But I think its that I remember when we were two little boys
Two little boys had two little toys
Each had a wooden horse
Gaily they played each summers day
Warriors both of cause
One little chap then had a mishap
Broke off his horses head
Wept for his toy then cried with joy
As his young playmate said
Did you think I would leave you crying
When there’s room on my horse for two
Climb up here Jack and don’t be crying
I can go just as fast with two
When we grow up we’ll both be soliders
And our horses will not be toys
And I wonder if we’ll remember when we were
Two little boys
Long years past war came so fast
Bravely they marched away
Cannon roared loud and in the mad crowd
Wounded and dieing lie up goes a shout
A horse dashes out out from the ranks so blue
Gallops away to where Joe lay then came a voice he know
Did you think I would leave you dieing
When there’s room on my horse for two
Climb up here Joe we’ll soon be flying
I can go just as fast with two
Did you say Joe I’m all a tremble perhaps it’s the battles noise
But I thinks its that I remember when we were two little boys
Do you think I would leave you dieing
There’s room on my horse for two
Climb up here Joe we’ll soon be flying
Back to the ranks so blue
Can you feel Joe I’m all a tremble perhaps it’s the battles noise
But I think its that I remember when we were two little boys
Hymn: Our God Our Help in Ages Past
Our God our help in ages past
Our hope for years to come
Our shelter from the stormy blast
And our eternal home.
Before the hills in order stood
Or earth received her frame
From everlasting Thou art God
To endless years the same.
A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone:
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.
Our God our hope in ages past
Our hope for years to come
Be Thou our guard while troubles last
And our eternal home.
Hymn – Amazing Grace
Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved’
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers toils and snares
I have already come;
‘Tis grace that brought me safe thus far
And grace will lead me home.
Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who are in Heaven
Hallowed be Thy name
Thy kingdom come Thy will be done
On earth as it is in Heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those tht trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For Thine is the kingdom
The power and the glory
For ever and ever. Amen
Australian National Anthem
Australians all let us rejoince
For we are young and free
We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil
Our home is girt by sea
Our land abounds in nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare
In history’s page let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
The mounting and dismounting of the Catafalque Party is part of the tradition:
Legend has it that the first catafalque (cat-a-falk) parties guarded important and wealthy people’s coffins from thieves and vandals.
A catafalque normally a raised platform supporting a bier on which a coffin rests may be represented for ceremonial purposes by a shrine or remembrance stone.
At a memorial service for a distinguished personage which is being held at a different location or time to the actual funeral a representation of a catafalque may be erected in the churches concerned.
A catafalque party is a guard mounted over a catafalque on any one of the following occasions:
*
during a period of lying in state
*
during a military funeral in a church
*
at a memorial or special occasion such as ANZAC Day or Remembrance Day and
*
during a memorial service in a church for a recently deceased distinguished personage.
A catafalque party consists of four sentries a waiting member in reserve and a commander.
If a catafalque party is requested to be mounted for an extended period of e.g. ‘lying in state’ then a series of ‘watches’ divided into ‘vigil’ periods will be provided.
A catafalque party must not be senior in rank to the deceased over whom it is mounted.