HORSHAM’s Anzac Day 2017 dawn service drew a strong crowd with overnight rain giving way before the ceremony.
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Young and old gathered beneath an overcast sunrise at Sawyer Park to observe the 100th anniversary of World War One’s penultimate year.
Horsham RSL member Paul Creek asked attendees to consider the Western Front and the Battle of Beersheeba during the centenary of the war’s latter years.
“Two years ago we say the centenary of Anzac, 100 years sine the fateful day that Australian and New Zealand forces landed at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli.
“Many men paid the ultimate sacrifice.
“Like everything, time moves on and our reflection should be more towards the Western Front and this year marks the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Beersheba, which is also recognised as the last great cavalry charge of the Australian Light Horse.”
Mr Creek said it was also 99 years since Australian forces captured the French village of Villers-Bretonneux.
“There is s a school there that also celebrates Anzac Day, and they recite ‘never forget Australia’,” Mr Creek said.
A new addition to this year’s ceremony was a new section of Crosses of the Fallen, which recognised 69 Wimmera servicemen who returned from war but were later buried in plain graves that did not reflect their service to the nation.
RSL Horsham president Robert Lockwood read a requiem for Anzac soldiers who fell in all the battlefields around the world in the Great War, as well as the Korean War, Vietnam War, East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq.
“May they all rest proudly and in peace in the knowledge of their achievements, and may their successors prove worthy of their sacrifice.”
Royal Australian Corps of Signals Brigadier Marcus Thompson AM, who has seen active service in East Timor, Iraqi and Afghanistan, was the dawn service’s guest speaker.
Brigadier Thompson said was an honour and a great privilege to be part of the service representing the Australian Defence Force in his home town.
“We meet here to day not to celebrate battle nor to glorify war, but to remember those who have serviced our country during conflict and crisis,” he said.
“To all Australians, Anzac Day is a tradition paid for in blood and celebrated in our freedom.
“It’s a day in which we not only salute the Anzacs, both past and present, for their sacrifice, but also re-invigorate our national pride.”
Brigadier Thompson said Anzac Day should recognise all Australian service men and women who put themselves at risk for their country.
“We remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice and those who did return, and also those who suffered significant would and scars, not all of which are necessarily visible,” he said.
Don Mitchell read from a trooper’s poem written to find humour in the harsh desert conditions faced by Anzac Forces during their Middle East Campaign.
Mark Radford performed the Last Post and Reveille on the bugle and Ron Abbott played the bagpipes while attendees placed flowers on the Crosses of the Fallen once the ceremony had ended.