EDITORIAL: THINKING ABOUT ANZAC DAY

Every year at this time our thoughts turn towards Anzac Day and the commemoration of the sacrifices made by our soldiers on battlefields across the British Empire and the Commonwealth, and elsewhere in the world where our service men and women have served.

For many of us this is quite personal. For most of our older citizens, we are the product of the men and women who served overseas or on the home front during WW11. My father was a pilot who served with the RNZAF and my mother served back in NZ with the WAAF’s. The children that I went to school with had parents who had served overseas, many of whom spoke of a father who was still carrying wounds, both physical or mental, and struggled every day to make sense of the quiet, withdrawn man who was their dad. There were others, usually a bit older who never knew their dad. Those fathers went off to war when they were very young or not yet born and never came home. So yes, Anzac Day for many of us is very personal. A time to reflect on those parents no longer with us or the classmates who we still remember that had struggles because “Dad” was never quite right.

It is wonderful to see so many of our children and our grandchildren getting up early on the morning of the 25th April, getting tidily dressed, putting on Granddad’s medals and their poppies and standing proudly to remember the sacrifices that were made by their relatives from a distant past. While we should never, ever, glorify war, we should always acknowledge the courage and the achievements of our past family members who served their country and preserved the freedoms we enjoy today.

As a foot note to this; we also need to remember those who served in the Anglo-Boer War. In Shannon there is a lone monument to a soldier who served in South Africa and never came home. We all acknowledge that Gallipoli was the start of our major leap into nationhood but let us not forget the sacrifices our men and women made in the wars at the turn of the century in South Africa. Eight thousand, five hundred 500 men and women (nurses) served in South Africa along with over 8000 horses. Seventy-two of those soldiers were killed in action and 166 were wounded.

This month, Grey Power will have Linda Fletcher, an Anzac Historian speaking at our Members’ Meeting on Friday 22nd April about the legacy of Gallipoli and then Roger Parton on “Animals of War”. Members of the general public are welcome to attend our meeting and listen to our two presenters ahead of Anzac Day.

In support of this ANZAC Day Special we have included a poem that may well stir the memories of some of us. We hope that you appreciate this.