It was a large attendance at the Remembrance Day service last Tuesday at the Mechanics Hall in Lakes Entrance, all appreciating the move from the Cenotaph due to the inclement weather.
Commander Retired RAN Sue Bigham ably emceed the proceedings in her warm and informative manner, St Brendan’s Primary School students read the poem In Flanders Field, Tyson Pollard, Royal Australian Regiment 2, read the Ode, and Reverend Colin Oakley read the Commemoration to the Fallen.
The Nowa Nowa Men’s Choir were appreciated for their songs throughout
the service.
Main speaker was president of the Lakes Entrance RSL, Peter Tunnage, who delivered a thought-provoking address emphasising the role of medical and nursing staff in bygone wars.
“In places like Egypt, the Greek Islands adjacent to the Battlefields of Gallipoli, in several localities in France, as well as several major facilities in England, our medical
and nursing staff performed their difficult tasks under a great deal of duress,” Mr Tunnage said.
“With the ever present threat of disease, the shock of horrific injuries to cope with, the lack of medicines and drugs that we now take for granted, and in some AGH’s there was the ever present possibility of coming under attack,” Mr Tunnage said.
“This was the case on the night of July 27, 1917, when German aircraft attacked the No. 2 Australian Casualty Clearing Station located close to the trenches at Trois Abres near Armentiers. Alice Ross-King and three other nurses, Dorothy Cawood, Mary Jane Derrer and Claire Deacon were awarded the Military Medal for either carrying the victims to safety or by placing tables over their beds in an effort to protect them.
“These valiant efforts would have no doubt gone down in the annals of nursing history and have been an inspiration to those who followed in their footsteps. For example, Vivienne Bulwinkle and nurses from the Byner Brooke which was torpedoed off Banka Island following the fall of Singapore and were either massacred or interned on Sumatra for the remainder of WWII.”
Peter also referred to nurses who took up the calling in all conflicts involving Australians, including Lakes Entrance resident Penny Wigg in Vietnam.
“So, the importance of this significant day of remembrance should live on in histories page and the sacrifices, whether large or small, should remain in our hearts forever. Lest We Forget.”
