Anzac 2019

Anzac on Russell Island was well represented with a generous crowd of attendees at the %am Dawn Service, which was also followed by a Breakfast in the Club. The morning service was also well attended and the march ended at the RSL Club for the service, presentation of wreaths and the raising of the flag, which was lowered at the Dawn Service.

In Flanders fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae (1872–1918)

The flag was lowered after the playing of the bugle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p1Fcc-RaYE

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The Ode comes from For the Fallen, a poem by the English poet and writer Laurence Binyon and was published in London in the Winnowing Fan; Poems of the Great War in 1914. The verse, which became the League Ode, was already used in association with commemoration services in Australia in 1921.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; 
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. 
At the going down of the sun and in the morning 
We will remember them.”
https://www.army.gov.au/our-history/traditions/the-ode