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ANZAC Day is
commemorated by Australia and New Zealand on 25 April
every year to remember members of the Australian and New
Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who in the Battle of
Gallipoli landed at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War
I. ANZAC Day is also a public holiday in Cook Islands,
Niue, Samoa and Tonga.
Beginnings of the
Memorial Day
ANZAC Day - 25 April - marks the anniversary of the
first major military action fought by Australian and New
Zealand forces during the First World War. The acronym
(ANZAC) stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps,
whose soldiers quickly became known as ANZACs themselves.
The pride they took in that name endures to this day,
and ANZAC Day remains one of Australia and New Zealand's
most important national occasions.[1]
When war broke out in 1914, Australia had been a Federal
Commonwealth for only thirteen years, and the new
National Government was eager to establish its
reputation among the nations of the world. In 1915,
Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the
Allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli
Peninsula to open the way to the Black Sea for the
Allied navies. The plan was to capture Istanbul, capital
of the Ottoman Empire and an ally of Germany. They
landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce
resistance from the Turkish defenders. What had been
planned as a bold strike to knock Turkey out of the war
quickly became a stale-mate, and the campaign dragged on
for eight months. At the end of 1915, the Allied forces
were evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy
casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000
Australian and 2,700 New Zealand soldiers died. News of
the landing at Gallipoli made a profound impact on
Australians and New Zealanders at home and 25 April
quickly became the day on which they remembered the
sacrifice of those who had died in war.
Though the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military
objectives of capturing Istanbul and knocking Turkey out
of the war, the Australian and New Zealand troops'
actions during the campaign bequeathed an intangible but
powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as an
"ANZAC legend" became an important part of the national
identity in both countries. This shaped the ways they
viewed both their past and their future.
On 30 April 1915, when the first news of the landing
reached New Zealand, a half-day holiday was declared and
impromptu services were held. The following year a
public holiday was gazetted on 5 April and services to
commemorate were organised by the returned servicemen.
The date, 25 April, was officially named ANZAC Day in
1916; in that year it was marked by a wide variety of
ceremonies and services in Australia, a march through
London, and a sports day in the Australian camp in Egypt.
In London, over 2,000 Australian and New Zealand troops
marched through the streets of the city. A London
newspaper headline dubbed them "The Knights of Gallipoli".
Marches were held all over Australia in 1916; wounded
soldiers from Gallipoli attended the Sydney march in
convoys of cars, accompanied by nurses. For the
remaining years of the war, ANZAC Day was used as an
occasion for patriotic rallies and recruiting campaigns,
and parades of serving members of the AIF were held in
most cities. From 1916 onwards, in both Australia and
New Zealand, ANZAC services were held on or about 25
April, mainly organised by returned servicemen and
school children in cooperation with local authorities.
ANZAC Day was not gazetted as a public holiday in New
Zealand until 1921, after lobbying by the Royal New
Zealand Returned and Services' Association, the RSA. In
Australia at the 1921 State Premiers' Conference, it was
decided that ANZAC Day would be observed on 25 April
each year. However, it was not observed uniformly in all
the States.
One of the traditions of ANZAC Day is the 'gunfire
breakfast' (coffee with rum added), which occurs shortly
after many dawn ceremonies.
During the 1920s, ANZAC Day became established as a
National Day of Commemoration for the 60,000 Australians
and 18,000 New Zealanders who died during the war. The
first year in which all the States observed some form of
public holiday together on ANZAC Day was 1927. By the
mid-1930s, all the rituals now associated with the day —
dawn vigils, marches, memorial services, reunions, sly
two-up games — were firmly established as part of ANZAC
Day culture. With the coming of the Second World War,
ANZAC Day became a day on which to commemorate the lives
of Australians and New Zealanders lost in that war as
well and in subsequent years, the meaning of the day has
been further broadened to include those killed in all
the military operations in which the countries have been
involved.
ANZAC Day was first commemorated at the Australian War
Memorial in 1942, but due to government orders
preventing large public gatherings in case of Japanese
air attack; it was a small affair and was neither a
march nor a memorial service. ANZAC Day has been
annually commemorated at the Australian War Memorial
ever since.
Australians and New Zealanders recognise 25 April as a
ceremonial occasion. Commemorative services are held at
dawn, the time of the original landing, across both
nations. Later in the day, ex-servicemen and women meet
and join in marches through the major cities and many
smaller centers. Commemorative ceremonies are held at
war memorials around both countries. It is a day when
Australians and New Zealanders reflect on the many
different meanings of war.
DAWN SERVICE
Flags on the Wellington cenotaph for the 2007 Dawn
Service. Note the flags of New Zealand, the United
Kingdom and Australia (left to right)
The dawn service on ANZAC Day has become a solemn
Australian and New Zealand tradition. It is taken for
granted as part of the ANZAC ethos and few wonder how it
all started. Its story, as it were, is buried in a small
cemetery carved out of the bush some kilometres outside
the northern Queensland town of Herberton.
Almost paradoxically, one grave stands out by its
simplicity. It is covered by protective white-washed
concrete slab with a plain cement cross at its top end.
No epitaph recalls even the name of the deceased. The
inscription on the cross is a mere two words - "A Priest".
No person would identify the grave as that of a
dedicated clergyman who created the Dawn Service,
without the simple marker placed next to the grave only
in recent times. It reads:
"Adjacent to, and on the right of this marker, lies the
grave of the late Reverend Arthur Ernest White, a Church
of England clergyman and padre, 44th Battalion, First
Australian Imperial Force. On 25th April 1923, at Albany
in Western Australia, the Reverend White led a party of
friends in what was the first-ever observance of a Dawn
Service on ANZAC Day, thus establishing a tradition
which has endured, Australia wide ever since."
Reverend White was serving as one of the padres of the
earliest ANZACs to leave Australia with the First AIF in
November 1914. The convoy was assembled in the Princess
Royal Harbour and King George Sound at Albany WA. Before
embarkation, at four in the morning, he conducted a
service for all the men of the battalion. When Reverend
White returned to Australia in 1919, he was appointed
receiving Rector of the St John's Church in Albany. It
was a strange coincidence that the starting point of the
AIF convoys should now become his parish.
No doubt it must have been the memory of his first dawn
service those many years earlier and his experiences
overseas, combined with the awesome cost of lives and
injuries, which inspired him to honour permanently the
valiant men (both living and the dead) who had joined
the fight for the Allied cause. "Albany", he is quoted
to have said, "was the last sight of land these ANZAC
troops saw after leaving Australian shores and some of
them never returned. We should hold a service (here) at
the first light of dawn each ANZAC Day to commemorate
them."
So on ANZAC Day 1923 he came to hold the first
commemorative dawn service.
As the sun was rising, a man in a small dinghy cast a
wreath into King George Sound while Reverend White, with
a band of about 20 men gathered around him on the summit
of nearby Mount Clarence, silently watched the wreath
floating out to sea. He then quietly recited the words:
"As the sun rises and goeth down, we will remember them".
All present were deeply moved and news of the Ceremony
soon spread throughout the country; and the various
Returned Service Communities Australia wide emulated the
ceremony.
After the First World War, returned soldiers sought the
comradeship they felt in those quiet, peaceful moments
before dawn. With symbolic links to the dawn landing at
Gallipoli, a dawn stand-to or dawn ceremony became a
common form of ANZAC Day remembrance during the 1920s.
The first official dawn service was held at the Sydney
Cenotaph in 1927. Dawn services were originally very
simple and followed the operational ritual; in many
cases they were restricted to veterans only. The daytime
ceremony was for families and other well-wishers and the
dawn service was for returned soldiers to remember and
reflect among the comrades with whom they shared a
special bond. Before dawn the gathered veterans would be
ordered to "stand-to" and two minutes of silence would
follow. At the end of this time a lone bugler would play
"The Last Post" and then concluded the service with "Reveille".
In more recent times the families and young people have
been encouraged to take part in dawn services, and
services in Australian capital cities have seen some of
the largest turnouts ever. Reflecting this change, the
ceremonies have become more elaborate, incorporating
hymns, readings, pipers and rifle volleys. Others,
though, have retained the simple format of the dawn
stand-to, familiar to so many soldiers.
Each year the commemorations follow a pattern that is
familiar to generations of Australians. A typical ANZAC
Day service contains the following features:
introduction, hymn, prayer, an address, lying of wreaths,
recitation, the playing of "The Last Post", a minute of
silence, "Reveille", and the playing of both New Zealand
and Australian national anthems. At the Australian War
Memorial, following events such as the ANZAC Day and
Remembrance Day services, families often place red
poppies beside the names of relatives on the Memorial's
Roll of Honour. In Australia sprigs of rosemary are
often worn on lapels [2]and in New Zealand poppies have
taken on this role [3].
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