This year’s Remembrance Day service at Lakes Entrance had a group of special visitors who joined the local community to commemorate those who sacrificed their life in times of war.
A group of veterans who all attended the HMS Ganges naval training ship in Shotley, England, attended the Lakes Entrance cenotaph.
HMS Ganges, which closed in 1976, was established as a training centre at which recruits could be inducted into navy life. It was an old laid up hulk, a 84-gun second-rate ship of the line HMS Ganges and was used as a base at which volunteers aged between 15 and 17 could spend a year being educated for future service in the navy. They were trained in seamanship and gunnery, as well as traditional aspects of sea life.
Many of the men who attended this training and subsequently joined the Royal Navy emigrated to Australia after wars end and an association was established. The Victorian division of HMS Ganges is still active and has seven core members with associates also involved.
The Association goes away on a vacation together twice a year and this year voted to go to Lakes Entrance for a week which included Remembrance Day.
They were heartily welcomed by members of the Naval Association East Gippsland Section and Lakes Entrance RSL, where they joined the service and refreshments after at the RSL.
