Rosella Gardens Narrabeen Dawn Service; with ANZAC biscuits and morning tea afterwards. Photo courtesy of Francesca Dolly
At Avalon Beach RSL the Service conducted by Sub Branch President, Captain Michael Maley CSC DSM announced this years Anzac Day Commemorative Dawn Service was devoted to Private James Charles Martin who died at Gallipoli aged 14 years, 9 months and 22 days.
Captain Maley, in opening his address, spoke of those who had similarly gathered in darkness and silence prior to moving into boats that would take them to the beaches of Gallipoli. In closing the Service he asked all present to return the Service given those who have Served and defended Australia in 3 ways; 1. Nurture the Living - 2; Care for the Injured, including those whose wounds remain unseen, and 3; Remember and Honour the Fallen.
''In the half light of early dawn, April 25th 1915 thousands of Australia’s and New Zealand’s finest stormed the beaches of Suvla Bay. Before the first gun shots echoed the world had not really heard the word ANZAC. By nightfall of that day, the world could never forget the name ANZAC and the Symbolism that is contained within it. A symbol of immense loss of life, a symbol of courage in the face of adversity, a symbol of Australian tenacity and most importantly a symbol by which to remember continued sacrifice. A symbol that ensures we that are left to grow old will never forget.
We will never forget the sacrifices of those that fell on the shores of Gallipoli, those that fell on the battlefields of the Western Front – Ypres, the Somme, Villiers-Bretonneux. The seeds of Australian sacrifice were sown across the many battlefields of France, Belgium and Germany. And at the end of World War 1 over 60, 000 of our finest had paid the ultimate sacrifice. To put that in perspective, the population of Avalon is around 9000 people, the Australian population at that time was approximately four million. Within two years of wars’ end the same number had died of their war wounds upon return to Australia.
We will never forget those that heeded the call when the world once again went to war in Europe and the Pacific. We will not forget those that perished in aircraft over the Solomon Islands, nor those that went to watery graves entombed in ships or those that slogged it out in Kokoda, never to return home. When the guns fell silent in 1945 another 29, 000 had paid the ultimate sacrifice. And for the first time in our history brave men and women were killed on Australian soil, with more bombs falling on Darwin than Pearl Harbour.
As the years progressed Australian Sacrifice continued to be made with the occupation of japan, the Korean War, and the Indonesian confrontation. In my lifetime alone we have sent brave men and women to Vietnam, the Solomons, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. They went, they fought with distinction, and sadly many were returned home in a flagged draped casket.
For those that lay in foreign battlefields -we will never forget you. Those that lay beneath the sea – we will never forget you – and those that have been returned home in a flag draped coffins and buried on home soil – we will never forget you. You are all ANZACs to the core.'' - Captain Michael Maley CSC DSM, President of Avalon Beach RSL Sub Branch, Dawn Service Address, 2021
Avalon Beach RSL Anzac Day Dawn Service 2021
The Service was conducted by Capt. Michael Maley CSC DSM assisted by Mark Houlder, President of the Avalon Beach RSL Club.
The Catafalque Party was formed from the 201 Army Cadets, 305 Squadron Australian Air Force Cadets and Pittwater House Army Cadets.
Also in attendance - Bugler: Michaela Visser, Vocalist: Samantha Shaw, Bagpiper: Eric Meppen.
VALE
Read by Cmdr. Ian Campbell RAN (Sub Branch) and Mark Houlder( Avalon Beach RSL Club)
We remember with deep respect members of the Avalon Sub Branch and the Avalon Beach RSL Club who have passed on since our 2019 Dawn Service.
Sub Branch Service Members: Phil Alston, Vic Callaghan, Peter Carver, Colin Casey, Doreen Cherry OAM, Harry Holmes, Noel Hurley, Ian Lewis, Trevor Newman, Frank Russell, Norma Zakinthinakis.
Avalon Beach RSL Club Members: Pauline Bones, Valentine Dougherty, Daphne Hindes, Margaret Hurley, David Lanham, Andrew Montague, John Montgomery, Gregory Mullins, Michael Samways, John Seaton, Bruce Sinnot.
Laying of Wreaths by Vice-Presidents of Avalon Beach RSL Sub Branch Tamara Sloper-Harding OAM, LCDR RAN and Cmdr. Ian Campbell RAN and Mark Houlder, President of the Avalon Beach RSL Club.
'Flanders Fields - recited by Barrenjoey High School student'
Ode for the Fallen: Leut. Jerome Cordaiy.
Private James Charles Martin
James Charles Martin was born at Tocumwal, New South Wales, on 3 January 1901. Keen for all things military, Jim joined the cadets at school and the year after leaving school he took up work as a farm hand. In 1915, Martin was eager to enlist with the Australian Imperial Force. His father had previously been rejected from service and Jim, the only male child of his family, was keen to serve in place of his father. Anyone under the age of 21 required written parental permission to enlist, and although Martin looked old for his age and his voice had broken he could not pass for a 21-year-old.
When Jim threatened to run away, join under another name and not to write to her if he succeeded in being deployed, his mother reluctantly gave her written permission for him to enlist. Martin succeeded in enlisting at the age of 14 years and 3 months, almost 4 years under the minimum age. After training for several months at Broadmeadows Camp, he departed with the 21st Infantry Battalion from Melbourne aboard HMAT Berrima on 28 June 1915.
From Egypt Martin and the other reinforcements of the 21st Battalion were deployed to Gallipoli. Their transport ship was torpedoed en route by a German submarine and Martin and several others spent hours in the water before being rescued. Martin eventually landed on Gallipoli in the early hours of 7 September and took up position near Wire Gully. In the following few months casualties from enemy action were slight, but the front-line work, short rations, sickness, flies, lice, and mosquitoes took their toll on the unit. Martin sent several letters to his parents from Gallipoli. In late October he contracted typhoid fever and was evacuated to hospital ship HMHS Glenart Castle on 25 October 1915. By this time he had lost half his weight and was in a bad state. Despite the best efforts of the medical staff aboard, in particular that of Matron Frances Hope Logie Reddoch, Martin died of heart failure just under two hours later. He was three months short of his 15th birthday. Martin was buried at sea and is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial on Gallipoli. The day after his death, Matron Reddoch wrote a heartfelt letter to Martin's mother back in Australia about her young son.
While he may not have been the youngest Australian to serve during the First World War, James Martin is considered the youngest to have died on active service.
Service number 1553
Birth Date 03 January 1901
Birth Place Australia: New South Wales, Tocumwal
Death Date 25 October 1915
Death Place At sea: Nearest landform, At sea (Glenart Castle)
Final Rank Private
Service Australian Imperial Force
Units 21st Australian Infantry Battalion
2/21st Australian Infantry Battalion
Retrieved from AWM: www.awm.gov.au/collection/P11013283
.JPG?timestamp=1619302801529)
.JPG?timestamp=1619302838824)
.JPG?timestamp=1619303055911)
.JPG?timestamp=1619303147606)
.JPG?timestamp=1619303178283)
.JPG?timestamp=1619303244016)
.JPG?timestamp=1619303290531)
.JPG?timestamp=1619303325055)
.JPG?timestamp=1619303365017)
.JPG?timestamp=1619303777372)
.JPG?timestamp=1619303909571)
.JPG?timestamp=1619303851547)
.JPG?timestamp=1619304013425)
.JPG?timestamp=1619302644829)
.JPG?timestamp=1619302671153)
.JPG?timestamp=1619304093473)
.JPG?timestamp=1619304188837)
.JPG?timestamp=1619302696765)
.JPG?timestamp=1619304272290)
Avalon Beach RSL Sub Branch Vice Presidents flanking their President. L to R: Cmdr. Ian Campbell RAN, Captain Michael Maley CSC DSM and Tamara Sloper-Harding OAM, LCDR RAN.
11am Anzac Day Commemoration Service At Avalon Beach RSL Cenotaph
The Service was co-ordinated by Captain Michael Maley CSC DSM, President of Avalon Beach RSL Sub Branch.
Guests: Captain David Frost RAN, The Hon. Rob Stokes MP for Pittwater, Chief Inspector Craig Thorp, NSW Police, Councillor Alex McTaggart, Councillor Rory Amon, Tim Baker, Deputy Chair of Northern Beaches Legacy.
Assisted by:
Barrenjoey High School Band – conducted by Joshua Hughes
Vocalists: Samantha Shaw and The Big Sing
Bugler: Michaela Visser
Bagpipes: Eric Meppen
The Catafalque Party and Honour Guard was formed from Pittwater House Schools’ Army Cadet Unit and 305 Squadron Australian Air Force Cadets.
The Ode was Read by Leut. Jerome Cordaiy
Laying of Wreaths and Books by Vice-Presidents of Avalon Beach RSL Sub Branch Tamara Sloper-Harding OAM, LCDR RAN and Cmdr. Ian Campbell RAN and Mark Houlder, President of the Avalon Beach RSL Club, Captain David Frost RAN, The Hon. Rob Stokes MP for Pittwater, Chief Inspector Craig Thorp, NSW Police, Councillor Alex McTaggart, Councillor Rory Amon, Tim Baker, Deputy Chair of Northern Beaches Legacy, Students of Maria Regina Catholic School Avalon.
Prologue: Captain Michael Maley CSC DSM, President Of Avalon Beach RSL Sub Branch.
.JPG?timestamp=1619324570839)
I’d like to welcome our honoured guests today. I’d also like to make a second acknowledgment to anyone who is here today who is under the age of 18. You have turned out to Commemorate Anzac Day today.
Do you know what makes Anzac Day so special for us? It’s you, turning up to help us Commemorate Anzac Day, to respect and honour the Fallen. For all of you over the age of 18, please give a round of applause for these young people.
And kids, I’d like you to give a round of applause for all the people you see here today wearing their medals as we’re not only here to Commemorate the Fallen, we’re here to Honour and Remember to Honour the Living and Heal the Wounded – so please put your hands together for all the people here wearing their medals.
Yu are here today to help us to never forget – to never forget those who have died, to never forget those who have been wounded, and never forget to honour and remember those who wear medals and thank them for their Service.
Those who left these shores to disembark at Suvla Bay 106 years ago today could not have known the impact they would have on a our national psyche, and our commitment to remember their commitment forever.
I’d like to quote a famous song by Eric Bogle;
‘And how in that hell that they call Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
Johnny Turk, he was ready, he primed himself well.
He rained us with bullets, and showered us with shell,
And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us all to hell,
Nearly blew us back home to Australia.’
And when the first ANZACs stepped onto that beach and spilled blood, that was now uniquely Australian and New Zealand’s, they gave us not only a day of national significance but a day on which we as Australians Remember all of our war dead, all of our wounded and all of our survivors.
In this 106 years we’ve left over 102 thousand brave men and women in the battlefields of Europe, the Pacific, Asia, Korea, Vietnam, and more recently, Afghanistan. For every one of those 102 thousand whose names are engraved on our War Memorial in Canberra, let is not forget that they have wives, husbands, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and friends whose loss is uniquely catastrophic and personal.
Today we are in Avalon, which is probably one of the most beautiful places on the planet, to remember each and every one of those 102 thousand in a ceremony that does not glorify war, but recognises their commitment, their effort, and their sacrifice.
We do this not as individuals but as Australians and New Zealanders of all heritage, of all persuasions, of all genders, under the banner of Anzac.
For today we come together to Remember, today we Honour, and today we Commemorate with those immortal words – Lest We Forget.
I’d like to now call on our Barrenjoey High School Captains, Astrid Twibill-Hall and Ben Ritchie, to read the Prayers for the Fallen.
.JPG?timestamp=1619325145317)
.JPG?timestamp=1619325208886)
Captain Michael Maley CSC DSM:
I’d like to introduce the Speaker who will be giving our 2021 Commemorative Address, Captain David Frost RAN. He’s a Captain at the moment but he found out in the last 438 hours that he is to be promoted to the rank of Commodore. So hearty congratulations to David.
As a dual qualified Bridge Watch-Keeper and Navy Aviator and Aviation expert. He has had a long and varied career of over 30 years serving in HMAS Adelaide, Melbourne and Darwin. Active service and numerous multinational exercises. He has been deployed to two commitments in the Middle East and was the Recipient of Operation Command Citation for his efforts in Operation Falkiner in 2003 in the Iraq war. Dux of international Aero Systems Masters Degree awarded the prestigious Sir Humphrey Medal.
He’s also served in the United States as Commanding Officer of 725 Squadron in Jacksonville Florida USA.
He’s currently working as Director of the Maritime Warfare Centre and responsible for Test and Evaluation, Tactics Development and Operational Analysis for all maritime capabilities.
I’d like you all to welcome David and congratulate him on his promotion to Commodore as well.
Commemoration Address 2021:
Director Of The Maritime Warfare Centre, Captain David Frost. RAAF
.JPG?timestamp=1619325985481)
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls – firstly, thank you very much for inviting both myself and Susan to Remember both those who have fallen and those who continue to serve.
Yesterday Susan and I took the opportunity to just wander around town and we went to the rockpool and sat there and watched the incredible skills of the surfers and the amazing break you have here in this wonderful town. It came to me then that this sort of lifestyle is only achievable through the sacrifices made by so many who have come before us, and so it is fitting that today we remember those sacrifices and those people.
In the pre-dawn darkness of 25th of April 1915 the first soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand armies, the first ANZACs, landed on the Gallipoli peninsula.
By the end of that first day over 16 thousand men had surged ashore and more than 2000 were dead or injured. These men did not set out to be immortalised, but their conduct on that day, and over subsequent months, has made them legendary.
Today we honour the sacrifices of those first ANZACs, and those who fought alongside them on the sea and in the air, not only at Gallipoli but throughout the Great War.
We also remember the many thousands of Australian men and women who have followed their examples in other conflicts; World War 2, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan – on UN Peacekeeping missions and in many other operations.
These Australians offer themselves ion the Service of our nation and in the Service of peace and justice. They fought on land, in the air and at sea. They endured and they suffered. Many died in the course of their Service; in battle, of wounds, of disease, and in captivity.
Those who returned were never the same people again.
Their stories are at the core of our shared identity as Australians. The stories of these men and women are as wide and varied as the laces in which they Served. They were Australians form cities and the country, they served in jungles, deserts, in string and canvas aircraft, and submarines. They all served their country so that we could stand here today in freedom.
Their stories are our stories now, and I wish to share one of them with you today – the story of Ordinary Seaman, Edward ‘Teddy’ Sheean.
On the 1st of December 2020 Teddy was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross - 78 years to the day after he died in battle. In doing so he became the first member of the Royal Australian Navy to be awarded Australia’s highest honour for valour.
It’s appropriate that on this day we remember his sacrifice.
On December 1st 1942 Teddy was serving in the warship HMAS Armidale (1) which was operating off Timor, to Australia’s north, when they were attacked by no less than 13 enemy aircraft.
The little corvette manoeuvred frantically but was struck multiple times by torpedoes. At 15:15 a torpedo struck her port side and another hit the engineering spaces; finally a bomb struck aft. As the vessel listed heavily to port, the order was given to abandon ship.
The survivors leapt into the sea and were machine-gunned by the attacking aircraft. Once he had helped to free a life raft, Teddy scrambled back to his gun and strapped himself in on the sinking ship. Although wounded in the chest and back, the 18-year-old sailor shot down one bomber and kept other aircraft away from his comrades in the water.
He was seen still firing his gun as Armidale slipped below the waves. Only 49 of the 149 men who had been on board survived the sinking and the ensuing days in life rafts. many of these men credit the saving of their lives to Sheehan – one man who gave his all to save his shipmates.
Edward ‘Teddy’ Sheean was born on 28 December 1923 at Lower Barrington, Tasmania, not far from Devonport – the fourteenth child of James Sheean, labourer, and his wife Mary Jane, née Broomhall. He was only 18 years old.
Within today’s Defence Force Teddy’s spirit of service and sacrifice is captured in our shared values of Service, Courage, Respect, Integrity and Excellence.
Teddy’s heroism is a shining example to all Australians today. Together we are all proud of that brave young man, the recent recognition of his valour, and his selfless service for others.
Teddy’s Service, and that of many thousands of others across Navy, Army and Air Force continues to echo as we serve our nation in both war and in peace.
The past two years have seen some of the largest defence force operations at home. Throughout 2020 and 2021 many members of our Defence Force have given their selfless support for Australian citizens in distress. They have helped those affected by bushfires, storms and floods, and contributed significantly in every state and territory in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so many defence families were separated during a time of great distress and uncertainty. We acknowledge and thank them for their support.
But that support does not stop at our shores. Abroad the Australian Defence Forces continue to support others in ways that demonstrate both the Anzac Spirit and our Australian values.
Our Defence Force deployed people to help our near neighbours in Fiji over Christmas during the aftermath of Cyclone Yasa in Operation Fiji Assist and in support missions to Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste.
Further afield the Australian defence Force continues to deploy and represent our country throughout Asia and the Middle East.
Today we do not glorify war, we hope for peace. Today we show our respect for Service and reflect on all those qualities that make us better as individuals and greater together as a nation.
Today we are grateful that Australians fought for peace and justice for others for over 100 years. Their endeavours during difficult times have delivered to us a society in which we are able to speak freely, share opinions, and discuss issues openly. The sort of society where no one is held in contempt or viewed as lesser on account of gender, race, belief or other differences.
We honour those who served in order that we can enjoy the fruits of democracy.
We honour their service and most specifically we remember the 102, 866 people who have lost their lives in the Service of our country.
Their names are on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour. They keep watch over the Memorial’s Pool of Reflection and the Eternal Flame.
Th significance of their sacrifice is captured in the verse of John Maxwell Evans;
When you go home, tell them of us and say; for your tomorrow, we gave our today.
Lest We Forget.
.JPG?timestamp=1619326294085)
.JPG?timestamp=1619326895239)
.JPG?timestamp=1619326537729)
.JPG?timestamp=1619326961073)
.JPG?timestamp=1619326595780)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327022873)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327070792)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327112549)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327145878)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327192417)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327225435)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327256934)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327291116)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327327789)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327380503)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327426964)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327657673)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327470168)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327506345)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327723036)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327853854)
.JPG?timestamp=1619327916863)
%20EXTRA.jpg?timestamp=1619328153424)
.JPG?timestamp=1619328482749)
.JPG?timestamp=1619328529641)
.JPG?timestamp=1619328581142)
.JPG?timestamp=1619330570555)
.JPG?timestamp=1619328611832)