The RSL Salute

In London on Armistice Day 1920, during the ceremony to unveil and dedicate the Cenotaph in Whitehall, a funeral procession accompanying the remains of The Unknown Soldier, which had arrived from France the previous day, was to halt at the Cenotaph during the ceremony before proceeding to Westminster Abbey for interment.

The official party included the Empire's senior soldiers, sailors and politicians and as many Victoria Cross winners as could be assembled. The ceremony concluded with a march past. The Regimental Sergeant Major of the Guards Regiment conducting the ceremony, faced with a gathering of highly decorated and high ranking military men (including the Victoria Cross winners), all wearing rows of medals, decreed that all would salute the Cenotaph as they marched past by placing their hand over their medals, signifying that "No matter what honours we may have been awarded they are as nothing compared with the honour due to those who paid the supreme sacrifice".

The RSL maintains that tradition to honour the dead by placing the right hand over medals (not our heart, our medals) during a march-past at a ceremonial occasion, or at a wreath laying ceremony.

History of the Dawn Service

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 parade 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 ANZAC's 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 White returned to Australia in 1919, he was appointed relieving 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."

That is 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 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.

Eventually, White was transferred from Albany to serve other congregations, the first in South Australia, then Broken Hill where he built a church, then later at Forbes NSW. In his retirement from parish life, he moved to Herberton where he became Chaplain of an Anglican convent. However, soon after his arrival (on September 26, 1954) he died, to be buried so modestly and anonymously as "A Priest".

White's memory is honoured by a stained glass window in the all Soul's Church at Wirrinya, a small farming community near Forbes NSW. Members of the parish have built the church with their own hands and have put up what they refer to as "The Dawn Service Window", as their tribute to White's service to Australia.

History of Reveille or Rouse

"Reveille" originated in medieval times, possibly around 1600, to wake the soldiers at dawn; "Rouse" was the signal for the soldier to arise. Rouse is the bugle call more commonly used in conjunction with the Last Post and to the layman is often incorrectly called Reveille. Although associated with the Last Post, Reveille is rarely used because of its length.

Today, the Rouse is associated with the last Post at all military funerals and services of Dedication and remembrance. It is played on the completion of one minute's silence, after the Last Post has been sounded. It calls the soldier's spirit to rise and prepare for another day.
The bugle call played after the 'Silence' during any ANZAC Day ceremony is:

• ANZAC Day Dawn Service: 'Reveille'.
• ANZAC Day services and Remembrance Day services at other times of the day: 'Rouse'.

Words to Reveille

Rev-eil-lee! Rev-eil-lee is sounding
The bugle calls you from your sleep; it is the break of day.
You've got to do your duty or you will get no pay.
Come, wake yourself, rouse yourself out of your sleep
And throw off the blankets and take a good peek at all
The bright signs of the break of day, so get up and do not delay.

Get Up!

Or-der-ly officer is on his round!
And if you're still a-bed he will send you to the guard
And then you'll get a drill and that will be a bitter pill:
So be up when he comes, be up when he comes,
Like a soldier at his post, a soldier at his post, all ser-ene.

Words to Rouse

Get up at once, get up at once, the bugle's sounding,
The day is here and never fear, old Sol is shining.
The Orderly Officer's on his rounds

The Significance of Silence

At every league (Returned Serviceman's) function, no matter how small, members' stand in silence for a brief interval to remember departed comrades.

At league clubs around Australia the remembrance silence has become part of the nightly nine o'clock ritual, when any light other than a memorial flame is dimmed, members stand in silence, and then recite the Ode.

A brief silence, usually one or two minutes, characterises many other remembrance ceremonies throughout the British Commonwealth.

The concept of a remembrance silence appears to have originated with an Australian journalist, Edward George Honey, who had served briefly in World War One with an English regiment before being discharged due to ill health. Honey was born in St Kilda, Melbourne, in 1885 and died of consumption in England in 1922.

In 1962, a group of Melbourne citizens formed a committee to obtain recognition for Honey as the man 'who taught the world how to remember'. For many years, a South African politician, Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, had been credited with the idea. The Melbourne committee succeeded in establishing that 'the solemn ceremony of silence now observed in all British countries in remembrance of those who died in war' was first published by Edward Honey.

Honey published a letter in the London Evening News on 8 May 1919 under the pen name of Warren Foster, in which he appealed for five-minute silence amid all the joy making planned to celebrate the first anniversary of the end of the War. 'Five little minutes only', he wrote, 'Five silent minutes of national remembrance. A very sacred intercession ? Communion with the Glorious Dead who won us peace, and from the communion new strength, hope and faith in the morrow. Church services, too, if you will, but in the street, the home, the theatre, anywhere, indeed, where Englishmen and their women chance to be, surely in this five minutes of bitter-sweet silence there will be service enough'.

No official action was taken on the idea, however, until, more that five months later, on 27 October 1919, one Lord Milner forwarded a suggestion from his friend, Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, to the King's private secretary, Lord Stamfordham, for a period of silence on Armistice Day, 11 November, in all countries of the British Empire.

Sir Percy wrote, 'When we are gone it may help bring home to those who will come after us, the meaning, the nobility and the unselfishness of the great sacrifice by which their freedom was assured'.

King George V was evidently very moved by the idea and took it up immediately. There is no record that Sir Percy was prompted by Honey's letter in the London Evening News, but with the King, both Honey and Sir Percy attended a rehearsal for a five-minute silence involving the Grenadier Guards at Buckingham Palace. Five minutes proved too long and the two-minute interval was decided upon.

On 7 November 1919 the King issued a proclamation asking 'that at the hour when the Armistice came into force, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, there may be for the brief space of two minutes a complete suspension of all our normal activities ? so that in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead'.

The Melbourne committee noted, 'The idea of silence as a token of respect to the dead was not new, of course, for here was silence on the death of King Edward VII ?. and there was silence in South Africa when World War I was going badly for the allies, and there was silence in Australia for miners killed during the reign of Queen Victoria ? the originality of Honey's suggestion is based on the fact that this was the first time in history that a victory had been celebrated as a tribute to those who sacrificed their lives and their health to make the victory possible'.

Just how the concept of the remembrance silence was adapted by the League to become an essential feature of League functions, and particularly the nine o'clock ceremony is not clear. Some members have tried to explain the League's nine o'clock ritual in terms of the nightly eight o'clock ceremony at the Menin Gate in Belgium. An extract from a 1980 edition of The Thirty-niner, published in the Highgate sub-branch newsletter in 1981, sought an explanation in the chiming of the bells of Big Ben in London at nine o'clock each evening. According to this report, the practice of silencing BBC radio transmissions while Big Ben chimed nine began in November 1940 'as a propaganda symbol to free men in the captive nations of the world. Moreover, this account has it that the then chairman of the Big Ben Council which introduced the practice had been influenced by a fellow officer who, in a premonition of his own death in a World War I battle, had asked on behalf of the dead, 'We will help you spiritually ? Lend us a moment of your time each day and by your silence give us our opportunity, the power of silence is greater than you know.'

Some League members take a more practical view and, in the absence of written records, say the most likely reason for the timing of the nine o'clock service in Australia is that; that is when meetings would have finished, giving members time to catch the tram home in those early days, and that the men would have chosen to close their meetings with the remembrance silence. This view hold that a simple coincidence of practicality, and the wish to remember dead mates in any way promulgated by the King gave rise to the Australian ritual.

In any case, the South Australians had developed a nine o'clock service before World War II and at the League's twenty first annual congress in Adelaide in 1936, the national congress resolved 'that it be a suggestion to state branches that at all meetings of ex-servicemen a simple ceremony of departed comrades be carried out at 9pm similar to that observed in South Australia'.

The League's national president Gilbert Dyett had introduced the practice of beginning Federal executive meetings with a minute's silence in memory of departed comrades in July 1930.

And similar rituals to the League's nine o'clock ritual had occurred in other countries before 1930. The program for an ANZAC Day dinner in Durban in South Africa held by the Memorable Order of Tin Hats (MOTHs) in 1929 notes: 'The toast of "Fallen Comrades" will be taken in silence, during which the room will be placed in darkness and a "Light of Remembrance" is lit by the Commander. The MOTH anthem 'Old Soldiers Never Die' will be sung, after which the light will be restored.'

History of the Ode of Remembrance

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.

FOR THE FALLEN

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children
England mourns for her dead across the sea,
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow,
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

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.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again,
They sit no more at familiar tables of home,
They have no lot in our labour of the daytime,
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires and hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the night.

As the stars shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are stary in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

NOTE:
Each year after Anzac Day and Remembrance Day debate rises on the word 'condemn' or 'contemn'. The Ode used is the fourth stanza of the poem For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon and was written in the early days of WW1. By mid September 1914, less than seven weeks after the outbreak of war, the British Expeditionary Force in France had already suffered severe casualties. Long lists of the dead and wounded appeared in British newspapers. It was against this background the Binyon wrote For the Fallen. The poem was first published in The Times on 21 September 1914 using the word 'condemn'. Some people have suggested that the use of 'condemn' in The Times was a typographical error. However, The Winnowing Fan, published a month or two later and for which Binyon would have had galley proofs on which to mark amendments, 'condemn' was again used.

Binyon was a highly educated man and very precise in his use of words. There is no doubt that had he intended 'contemn', then it would have been used.

Dr John Hatcher, who in 1955 published a biography of Binyon, does not refer to any doubt over condemn/contemn, despite devoting a solid chapter to For the Fallen.

The British Society of Authors, executors of the Binyon estate, says the word is definitely 'condemn', while the British Museum, where Binyon worked, says its memorial stone also shows 'condemn'. Both expressed surprise when told there had been some debate about the matter in Australia. The condemn/contemn issue seems to be a distinctly Australian phenomenon. Inquiries with the British, Canadian and American Legions revealed that none had heard of the debate.

'Contemn' is not used in Binyon's published anthologies and the two volumes set Collected Poems, regarded as the definitive version of Binyon's poems, uses 'condemn'. The RSL handbook shows 'condemn' and a representative of the Australian War Memorial said it always used 'condemn' in its ceremonies.

Origins of Saluting

The Origins of Saluting

by WOFF Chris Dunne,
Air Force Warrant Officer Disciplinary

There are a number of origins of the military greeting of saluting. In the age of chivalry the knights were all mounted and wore steel armour, which covered the body completely. When two friendly knights met it was the custom for each to raise the visor and expose his face to the view of the other. This was always done with the right hand, the left being used to hold the reins. It was a significant gesture of friendship and confidence, since it exposed the features and also removed the right hand from the vicinity of a weapon (sword). Also in ancient times the freemen of Europe were allowed to carry arms: when two freemen met, each would raise his right hand to show that he held no weapons in it and that the meeting was friendly.

The Coldstream Guards appear to have been the first to depart from this practice as a Regimental Order of 1745 reads: 'The men are ordered not to pull off their hats when the when they pass an officer, or to speak to them, but only to clap up their hands to their hats and bow as they pass them'.

An extract from the Royal Scots Standing Orders of 1762 stated: 'as nothing disfigures the hats or dirties the lace worn more than taking off the hats, the men for the future are only to raise the back of their hands to them (hats) with a brisk motion when they pass an officer'.

From this beginning, although there was some resistance, saluting, as we now know it developed. Saluting in a form can also be traced back to the Stone Age when the open hand held high indicated friendliness; while the holding of the head erect is a reminder that officers and airmen are free men not required to avert their eyes from an overlord.

Regardless of its origin, the salute is a symbol of greeting, of mutual respect, trust and confidence initiated by the junior in rank, with no loss of dignity on either side. It is also a sign of loyalty and respect to the Service of which a member forms part and the general tone and spirit of the Service is indicated by the manner in which airmen/airwomen offer the salute and officers return it.

Saluting by airmen/airwomen is recognition of the Queen's Commission, being indirectly a salute to the Sovereign through the individual holding Her Majesty the Queen's authority. Returning a member's salute is not only acknowledgment of a salute to the officer personally, but a recognition of the fact that through an officer, members have given an outward sign of their loyalty to Her Majesty the Queen, Australia and the RAAF.

Saluting, however, should be undertaken intelligently and only when headdress is worn. Salutes, for example, should not be attempted in places where the presence of crowds or where the distance from the officer makes it impracticable to salute. Saluting may be executed in slow time, Quick time or at the halt. A member marching in Double time is to change to Quick time to salute. All members are to salute with the right hand unless physically unable to do so, in which case they are to salute with the left hand. The junior member is to salute first and the senior member is to return the compliment. Her Majesty the Queen, members of the Royal Family, the Governor-General and State Governors are to be saluted at all times by all ranks.

Explanations and illustrations detailing the correct saluting actions/procedures/methods are set out in the chapters of the DI (AF) AAP 5135.002 Manual of Ceremonial.

All non-commissioned personnel are to salute officers of the Australian Defence Force including Naval Midshipmen; (excluding Officer Cadets) holding the Queen's Commission and officers of any foreign service at all times (except in prescribed non-saluting areas). It is the responsibility of all members to be able to recognise the badges of rank of other Australian Services and, where appropriate foreign Services. Members of the Air Training Corps are not saluted.

Saluting without arms

When a non-commissioned member:

• Is to be presented to an officer. He/she is to march to and halt two paces from the officer; salute, step forward one pace and when the officer extends his/her hand shake the officer's hand. When the officer has addressed the member and made any presentation, the officer will again offer his/her hand and after the hand shake the member is to step back one pace, salute, turn and march off.
• Addresses an officer. He/she is to march to and halt two paces from the officer, salute and after the address salute again, about turn and march off.
• Is halted and an officer is passing. He/she is to face the officer, stand at attention and salute when the officer passes by.
• Is passing by an officer. He/she is to salute right/left three paces before reaching the officer.
• Recognises an officer in uniform or dressed other than in uniform. He/she is to salute.
• When two or more non-commissioned members:
• Are sitting or standing together. The senior member present is to order the group to attention, then that member is to face and salute the officer.
• Are walking/marching together. They are all, to salute together when passing an officer. When they are being marched as a group, the member in command is to order 'EYES RIGHT/LEFT', and he/she is to then salute as they pass.

History of Remembrance Day

At 11 am on 11 November 1918 the guns of the Western Front fell silent after more than four years continuous warfare. The allied armies had driven the German invaders back, having inflicted heavy defeats upon them over the preceding four months. In November the Germans called for an armistice (suspension of fighting) in order to secure a peace settlement. They accepted the allied terms of unconditional surrender.

Cambrai, France. 11 November 1918.
Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, centre front, with British Army commanders on Armistice Day

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month attained a special significance in the post-war years. The moment when hostilities ceased on the Western Front became universally associated with the remembrance of those who had died in the war. This first modern world conflict had brought about the mobilisation of over 70 million people and left between 9 and 13 million dead, perhaps as many as one-third of them with no known grave. The allied nations chose this day and time for the commemoration of their war dead.

Sydney, NSW, 8 November 1918.
Crowds in Martin Place waiting with upturned faces for the flag to be hoisted and bells to be rung to mark the German agreement to terms for an armistice to end the war.

On the first anniversary of the armistice, 11 November 1919, the two minutes' silence was instituted as part of the main commemorative ceremony at the new Cenotaph in London. The silence was proposed by an Australian journalist working in Fleet Street, Edward Honey. At about the same time, a South African statesman made a similar proposal to the British Cabinet, which endorsed it. King George V personally requested all the people of the British Empire to suspend normal activities for two minutes on the hour of the armistice "which stayed the world wide carnage of the four preceding years and marked the victory of Right and Freedom." The two minutes' silence was popularly adopted and it became a central feature of commemorations on Armistice Day.

Melbourne, Vic,11 November 1942.
All traffic stops and service personnel stand to attention during the two minutes silence on Armistice Day.

On the second anniversary of the armistice, 11 November 1920, the commemoration was given added significance when it became a funeral, with the return of the remains of an Unknown Soldier from the battlefields of the Western Front. Unknown soldiers were interred with full military honours in Westminster Abbey in London and at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The entombment in London attracted over one million people within a week to pay their respects at the Unknown Soldier's tomb. Most other allied nations adopted the tradition of entombing unknown soldiers over the following decade.

Canberra, ACT. 1946-11-10.
Wreaths cover the Stone of Remembrance after the first Remembrance Day ceremony in front of the Australian War Memorial.

In Australia on the 75th anniversary of the armistice, 11 November 1993, Remembrance Day ceremonies again became the focus of national attention. On that day the remains of an unknown Australian soldier, exhumed from a First World War military cemetery in France, were ceremonially entombed in the Australian War Memorial. Remembrance Day ceremonies were conducted simultaneously in towns and cities all over the country, culminating at the moment of burial at 11 am and coinciding with the traditional two minutes' silence. This ceremony, which touched a chord across the Australian nation, re-established Remembrance Day as a significant day of commemoration.

Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier in the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial.

Four years later, in November 1997, the Governor-General, Sir William Deane, issued a proclamation formally declaring 11 November Remembrance Day and urging all Australians to observe one minute's silence at 11 am on 11 November each year to remember those who died or suffered for Australia's cause in all wars and armed conflicts.

Why is the Parade Ground sacred?

After a battle, when retreat was sounded and the unit has reassembled to call the roll and count the dead, a hollow square was formed.

The dead were placed within the square and no-one used the area as a thoroughfare.

Today, the parade ground represents this square and hence, a unit's dead.

It is deemed to be hallowed ground, soaked with the blood of our fallen and the area is respected as such by all.

Why are Australian Soldiers called "Diggers"?

The nickname 'Digger' is attributed to the number of ex-gold diggers in the early army units and to the trench digging activities of the Australian soldiers during World War I. The actual origin of the name has been lost in time but the Australian soldier is known affectionately around the world as the Digger.

The Red Poppy

The Red Poppy

On and around 11 November each year, the RSL sells millions of red cloth poppies for Australians to pin on their lapels. Proceeds go to the RSL welfare work. Why a red poppy?

Colonel John McCrae, who was Professor of Medicine at McGill University in Canada before WW1 (joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto), first described the red poppy, the Flanders' poppy, as the flower of remembrance.

Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the Boer War as a gunner, but went to France in WW1 as a medical officer with the first Canadian contingent.

It was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and MAJ John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime. As a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, MAJ McCrae, had spent seventeen days treating injured men -- Canadians, British, Indians, French, and Germans -- in the Ypres salient.

It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. MAJ McCrae later wrote of it:

"I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days .... Seventeen days of Hades!

At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done "(1).

One death particularly affected MAJ McCrae. A young friend and former student, LT Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May. LT Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae's dressing station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain.

The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. At the second battle of Ypres in 1915, when in charge of a small first-aid post, he wrote in pencil on a page from his despatch book a poem that has come to be known as "Flanders' Field" which described the poppies that marked the graves of soldiers killed fighting for their country. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry. In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe, and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook (2).

A young soldier watched him write it (written May 3, 1915 after the battle at Ypres). Cyril Allinson, a twenty-two year old sergeant major, was delivering mail that day when he spotted McCrae. The major looked up as Allinson approached, then went on writing while the sergeant major stood there quietly. "His face was very tired but calm as we wrote," Allinson recalled. "He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave." When he finished five minutes later, he took his mail from Allinson and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the young NCO. Allinson was moved by what he read:

The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. The word blow was not used in the first line though it was used later when the poem later appeared in Punch. But it was used in the second last line. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene (3).

In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer -- either LTCOL Edward Morrison, the former Ottawa newspaper editor who commanded the 1st Brigade of artillery (4), or LTCOL J.M. Elder (5), depending on which source is consulted -- retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. "The Spectator," in London, rejected it, but "Punch" published it on 8 December 1915.

McCrae's "In Flanders' Fields" remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915.

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.

COL McCrae was wounded in May 1918 and was taken to one of the big hospitals on the coast of France. On the third evening he was wheeled to the balcony of his room to look over the sea towards the cliffs of Dover. The verses were obviously in his mind, for he said to the doctor ""ell them, if ye break faith with us who die we shall not sleep." That same night COL McCrae died.

Each Remembrance Day the British Legion lays a wreath on his grave - a tribute to a great man whose thoughts were always for others.

The wearing of the poppy to keep faith began when an American, Miss Moira Michael, read the poem "In Flanders Field" and was so greatly impressed that she decided always to wear a poppy to keep the faith. Miss Michael wrote a reply after reading "In Flanders Field" entitled "We Shall Keep the Faith":

Oh! You who sleep in Flanders' fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew;
We caught the torch you threw;
And holding high we kept
The faith with those who died.
We cherish, too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valour led.
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders' Fields.
And now the torch and poppy red
Wear in honour of our dead
Fear not that ye have died for naught
We've learned the lesson that ye taught
In Flanders' Fields.

Miss Michael worked for the YMCA in America and on Saturday 9 November 1918 hosted a meeting of YMCA wartime secretaries from other countries. When several of the secretaries presented her with a small gift of money to thank her for her hospitality, she said she would spend it on poppies and told them the story of McCrae's poem and her decision to always wear a red poppy.

The French secretary, Madame Guerin, conceived the idea of selling artificial poppies to raise money to help needy soldiers and their families, and she approached organisations among the countries of the world that had fought as allies in Europe to promote the concept.

In England in 1919, the British Legion was formed to foster the interest of ex-servicemen and their dependants, and the late Field Marshal Earl Haig, the first Grand President, sought an emblem which would honour the dead and help the living. He adopted the Poppy as that emblem, and since then the Red Poppy has been accepted as the Emblem of Remembrance. The day chosen for the wearing of the emblems was 11 November, a Day of Remembrance to honour the dead of both World Wars, Korea, Malaya and Vietnam.

The League adopted the idea in 1921, announcing, "The Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia and other Returned Soldiers Organisations throughout the British Empire and Allied Countries have passed resolutions at their international conventions to recognise the Poppy of Flanders' Fields as the international memorial flower to be worn on the anniversary of Armistice Day.

'In adopting the Poppy of Flanders' Fields as the Memorial Flower to be worn by all Returned Soldiers on the above mentioned day, we recognise that no emblem so well typifies the Fields whereon was fought the greatest war in the history of the world nor sanctifies so truly the last resting place of our brave dead who remain in France'.

'The Returned Sailors and Soldiers of Australia join their comrades of the British Empire and Allied Countries in asking people of Australia to wear the poppy; firstly in memory of our sacred dead who rest in Flanders' Fields; secondly to keep alive the memories of the sacred cause for which they laid down their lives; and thirdly as a bond of esteem and affection between the soldiers of all Allied nations and in respect for France, our common battle ground.'

'The little silk poppies which are to be worn on Armistice Day are an exact replica in size and colour of the Poppies that bloom in Flanders' Fields. These poppies have been made by the war orphans in the devastated regions of France and have been shipped to Australia this year for Armistice Day.'

The League bought one million poppies from France to sell on 11 November 1921 at one shilling each. Five pence per poppy was to go back to France towards a fund for the children of the devastated areas of France, with sixpence per poppy being retained by each State branch and one penny going to the national office. The League kept up this practice for several years, and of course kept the tradition of selling poppies to mark 11 November and raise money for welfare work, even when the poppies were no longer obtained from France. Poppies now sold in Australia are often made locally by League members themselves.

Although the Red Poppy of Flanders is a symbol of modern times, legend has it that the poppy goes back even to the time of the famous Mongol leader, Genghiz Khan, as the flower associated with human sacrifice. In the 12th and early 13th centuries, the Mongol Emperor led his warrior hordes on campaigns south to the conquest of India, and west to envelop Russia as far as the shores of the Black Sea.

The modern story of the poppy is, of course, no legend. It is a page of history to which many thousands still with us can testify.

What are the soldiers' ID discs for?

It was not until the Boer War of 1899 - 1902 that British soldiers started wearing regulation methods of personal identity and these were in the form of strips of tape.

The strips were supposedly carrier in tunic pockets; however, it seemed that soldiers being soldiers, the strips could end up being placed anywhere and more often than not, a detailed search had to be conducted of the seriously wounded and dead to locate them.

In 1906, each soldier was issued with a tin disc and given specific orders that it was to be worn around the neck.

By the Great War, soldiers were issued with two discs, one was round and coloured red, while the other was octagonal and coloured green.

The discs were stamped with the soldier's name, religion and unit. The aim of the two colours was that the red tag was removed and attached to a small bag, carried by burial parties, containing the soldier's personal belongings.

The tag's dual purpose was to name the owner of the contents and assist in establishing a record of those killed. The green tag remained with the body for temporary burial, making the corpse identifiable when exhumed for proper burial later. (Legend has it that the two colours were to assist soldiers in remembering which tag went where: red, the colour of blood, was taken away indicating the owner was dead; while green, the colour of grass, was kept with the body).

Today, the Australian Army's Personal Identification Tags are referred to as Number 1 Tag (the octagonal shaped disc) and Number 2 Tag (the circular disc). They are embossed with the title AUST, the soldier's regimental number, initials and name, religion and blood group.

The circular tag is removed from the body and the octagonal tag should, given time, be placed inside the dead soldier's mouth, between the teeth and lips.

Full text of the poem "For the Fallen"

For the Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

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.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables at home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

World War One Photographs

In the lead up to Anzac Day in this 90th year since the end of World War One http://www.news.com.au/ and the Australian War Memorial open the archives to bring you extremely rare pictures from the nation's photo record.

"An Australian Light Horseman collecting anemones near Belah in Palestine". Picture: Frank Hurley, 1918

Squadrons of the 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade in formation at Gaza Picture: Frank Hurley, February 1918

Australians of the Imperial Camel Corps form up at Rafa, Egypt. Picture: Frank Hurley, 26 January 1918

The 3rd Australian Light Horse Regiment machinegun in action at Khurbetha-Ibn, Palestine. Picture: Frank Hurley, New Year's Eve 1917

Four camel ambulances attached to the Imperial Camel Corps at Rafa - used as a base for the attack on Gaza. Picture: Frank Hurley, 1918

The 2nd Australian Light Horse Regiment behind the front line barricades at Nalin in Palestine, one man passing across a grenade. Picture: Frank Hurley, January 17, 1918

Australian Flying Corps planes in Palestine. Picture: Frank Hurley, 1918

Waiting the order to fire a camouflaged eight inch gun from the 1st Australian Siege Battery before the main attack on Polygon Wood in Belgium. Picture: Frank Hurley, September 1917

Official photograph at Gallipoli taken in early 1919 for The Australian Historical Mission showing a landing barge, wire and entrenchments. Picture: George Hubert Wilkins

A thigh bone and other skeletal remains near the Turkish war memorial at the Nek are a grim reminder of the fighting in this photo taken February/March 1919. Picture: George Hubert Wilkins

Stretcher bearers of the 13th Field Ambulance resting at a dressing station on Westhoek Ridge on the Western Front. Picture: Frank Hurley, October 1917

Soldiers, mules and carts stopped on a street in the ruined village of Voormezeele on the Western Front in Belgium. Picture Frank Hurley, August 1917

Statue of the Virgin hanging from the Cathedral of Albert in France. Local superstition held that war would end when the Madonna fell. She collapsed in the spring of 1918 under shellfire. Picture: Frank Hurley, September 1917

The derelict hulk of a British tank on the Pozieres battlefield - a battle in which for Australian troops distinguished themselves but suffered heavy losses while taking the French village and ridge from the Germans. Picture: Frank Hurley, 1917

An Australian Light Horse Field Ambulance wagon on the Philistine Plain, Palestine. Picture: Frank Hurley, 1918

French Premier Georges Benjamin Clemenceau on his only visit to the Australian front at the Somme, pictured with 4th Division command including Brigadier General Thomas Blamey, CMG, DSO, second from left. Picture: Unknown, July 7, 1918

Scattered graves marked by simple white crosses on the old Somme battlefields in France. Picture: Frank Hurley, September 1917

ANZAC Day Protocol

What is ANZAC Day?

ANZAC Day, 25 April, is probably Australia's most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during World War 1. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they soon took in that name endures to this day.

The ANZAC Day Ceremony

Each year the commemorations follow a pattern that is familiar to each generation of Australians. A typical ANZAC Day service contains the following features: introduction, hymn, prayer, an address, laying of wreaths, recitation, The Last Post, a period of silence, The Rouse or The Reveille and the National Anthem. During playing of The Last Post, The Rouse, The Reveille and The National Anthem, for those able, it is correct protocol to show respect by standing, maintaining silence and removing hats.

Wearing of Medals

On ANZAC Day many veterans wear service medals, pinned above the left breast in the march and at ceremonies. These medals have been awarded for individual gallantry in action, for bravery, distinguished, conspicuous, meritorious, military or long service in Australia's Defence Force. Medals are worn in a strict order of precedence, according to the campaign and the nature of the medal. It should be noted that only the original recipient of the award is entitled to wear medals above their heart (left breast/side).

Recent times have seen an increase in the number of children wearing their deceased relatives' medals on their behalf. The correct method in such cases is for the medals to be worn on the right breast.

Unofficial or bought medals should not be worn at all. However, if for some reason someone feels compelled to wear such medals, they should be worn on the right side, under any deceased relative's medals.

While interest in Australia's wartime involvement is increasing, the number of veterans who served in those conflicts is diminishing.

The wearing of deceased relatives' medals in honour of their sacrifice is seen in most quarters as 'carrying on the torch'. The proper wearing of these medals on the right breast signifies to the community and fellow marchers that they are proudly worn in recognition of the deceased relatives' service in defence of our nation.

Laying of Wreaths

Flowers have traditionally been laid on graves and memorials in memory of the dead. Laurel and rosemary have been associated with ANZAC Day. Laurel was used as a symbol of honour, woven into a wreath by the ancient Romans to crown victors and the brave. Rosemary is commonly associated with Remembrance Day (11 November), has become very popular in wreaths used on ANZAC Day.

When laying an official wreath, no more than two people should participate and after laying the wreath, they should step back, salute or remove headdress (males only), and then return to their original position.

March Past Protocol

When marching past the Reviewing Officer and dais, the correct protocol is for parade participants to look at the Reviewing Officer and remove hats (males only). This should be conducted as a synchronised group with the orders "Group, eyes right" and "Group, eyes front" given by the group leader.

John Simpson Kirkpatrick - the Man with the Donkey

Gallipoli Hero

Most Australians are familiar with the story of the ANZAC +stretcher bearer John Simpson, whose heroic efforts in transporting wounded soldiers at Gallipoli have achieved almost legendary status. What many people do not realise is that this man, who has come to symbolise those qualities of courage, mateship and humour which we most admire in the Australian soldier, was in fact not born in Australia.

John Simpson Kirkpatrick, (known as Jack to his family) was born in South Shields in the north of England. He came to Australia in 1910 when he was 17 years old, and worked at a variety of occupations, including brief stints as a cane cutter, station hand and coal miner and longer periods as stoker, greaser and steward on the ships that plied the Australian coastal routes. When war broke out he jumped ship in Fremantle and joined the Australian Imperial Force, enlisting under the name of John Simpson. He was assigned to the 3rd Field Ambulance, Australian Army Medical Corps and after some months in Egypt landed at Gallipoli with the covering force at dawn on 25 April 1915.

Simpson and other Gallipoli stretcher bearers had the difficult and dangerous task of transporting wounded men through an area known as Shrapnel Valley to the Casualty Clearing Station on the beach. Shrapnel Valley was exposed to snipers and was heavily shelled. The nature of their work often prevented stretcher bearers from taking cover as other could. C.E.W. Bean, the Official War Historian, tells the story of Jack Simpson at Gallipoli:

A number of donkeys?had been landed on April 25th for water carrying? and after the first days the donkeys ceased carrying and fed idly in the gullies... Private Simpson?was seized with the idea that one of these might be useful for moving men wounded in the leg. On the night of April 25th he annexed a donkey, and each day and a half of every night he worked continuously between the head of Monash Valley and the Beach, his donkey carrying a brassard round its forehead and a wounded man on its back. Simpson escaped death so many times he was fatalistic; the deadly sniping down the valley and the most furious shrapnel fire never stopped him. The colonel of his ambulance, recognizing the value of his work, allowed him to carry on as a completely separate unit. He camped with his donkey at the Indian mule-camp and had only to report once a day at the field ambulance. Presently he annexed a second donkey. On May 19th he went up the valley past the water-guard where he generally had his breakfast, but it was not ready. "Never mind," he called. "Get me a good dinner when I come back." He never came back. With two patients he was coming down the creek-bed, when he was hit through the heart, both the wounded men being wounded again. *1

Jack Simpson was buried that night on a little hill known as Queensland Point. He was 22 years old. It has been estimated that during his 24 days as stretcher bearer at Gallipoli he rescued somewhere in the region of three hundred casualties. *2

The man behind the hero

The Australian Dictionary of Biography tells us that John Simpson Kirkpatrick 'was 5' 8" (173 cm) tall, stockily built and weighed 12 stone (76 kg); his complexion was fair with blue eyes and brown hair. He was a typical digger: independent, witty and warm-hearted?' *3

We are fortunate that a number of Jack's letters, written after he left home at seventeen, have been preserved. These letters tell us a lot about his character. Jack was a devoted son and brother. He wrote regularly to his mother and younger sister Annie, telling them of his progress, and he went to great lengths to send them regular contributions from his pay. In a letter dated 13 September 1914, written from Blackboy Camp shortly after Jack enlisted he says: 'I left you 4/- a day out of my pay. We only have 5/- a day and 1/- - deferred pay. So you take 2/- a day for yourself and put 2/- a day in the bank for me when I come home from the war. I will be having a good holiday.' *4

Jack loved animals. In his letters home he asks about his dog Lilly and his pigeons. He was also a bit of a larrikin and enjoyed the occasional punch up. Writing to his mother about Christmas Day in 1912 aboard SS Koringal Jack tells her:

We drank each others health quite a number of times until each man thought he was Jack Johnston, champion of the world, when my mate suggested going over and having a fight with the sailors?things went pretty lively for the next half hour. You couldn't see anything for blood and snots flying about until the mates and engineers came along and threatened to log all hands forward. We all had trophies of the fray. Someone bunged one of my eyes right up and by the look of my beak I think someone must have jumped on it when I was on the floor but as they say all's well that ends well. *5

Jack's 'annexing' of the donkeys at Gallipoli indicates that he was a man of initiative, and that he was happy to dispense with regulations if he felt the occasion warranted it. Fortunately the colonel of his ambulance recognised the importance of Jack's work and was willing to allow him the necessary flexibility.

Jack was a cheerful and popular man. Captain H. Kenneth Fry writing to Jack's sister Annie after Jack's death describes him as always 'whistling and singing, a universal favourite.' *6

Jack Simpson was Mentioned in Despatches but was never awarded the Victoria Cross which many, including his commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Sutton, felt he deserved. In 1967 Australian leaders including the Prime Minister Harold Holt, the Governor General, and the Chief of General Staff, petitioned the British War Office on behalf of the Australian people requesting that a posthumous Victoria Cross be awarded to John Simpson Kirkpatrick, but their request was refused. As Tom Curran says in Across the bar:

It says a great deal for the Australian character, that the people of Australia should have chosen for their national military hero, not a successful general or admiral - not a Wellington or a Nelson; nor a Napoleon or a Frederick the Great - but a simple private soldier, and one who wasn't awarded a single military medal. *7

*1 Bean, C.E.W. (1940). The official history of Australia in the War of 1914-1918. Volume 1 The story of Anzac. (10th ed.) Sydney: Angus and Robertson. Pp 553-554.
*2 Curran, T. (1994). Across the bar: the story of 'Simpson', the man with the donkey: Australia and Tyneside's great hero. Brisbane: Ogmios. P 368.
*3 Australian dictionary of biography. (1983). Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. V.9 p 612.
*4 Letter from Jack Simpson to his mother, dated 13 Sept., 1914. [Date file]. Retrieved 4.3.08 from Australian War Memorial web site

http://www.awm.gov.au/education/simpson/k5.htm

*5 Letter from Jack Simpson to his mother, as quoted by Adam Smith, p. in (1978) The Anzacs. Melbourne: Nelson. P 123.
*6 Letter from Captain H. Kenneth Fry, 3rd Field Ambulance Gallipoli to Annie Kirkpatrick, dated 2 Sept. 1915. Retrieved 4.3.08 from the Australian War Memorial web site

http://www.awm.gov.au/education/simpson/fry_letter.htm

*7 Curran, T. (1994). Across the bar: the story of 'Simpson', the man with the donkey: Australia and Tyneside's great military hero. Brisbane: Ogmios. P 369.

Procedure for Flying the Australian National Flag

The Australian National Flag must be accorded the dignity required by a national symbol, and as such, correct procedure should be carefully adhered to.

Below are a few points that are worthy of note in reference to the flying of the flag, and following these is an illustrated guide to help citizens, clubs, large organisations and companies correctly and effectively display it.

The flag should not be allowed to fall or lie on the ground.

The flag should never be flown when in damaged, faded or dilapidated condition.

The flag should be flown aloft and free, with all parts of the flag able to be readily seen.

It should be raised quickly and lowered slowly and ceremonially.

It should be well illuminated if it is to be flown at night.

It should be flown on all Commonwealth Government buildings during working hours.

It is encouraged that companies and private citizens also fly the Australian National Flag.

When the Australian National Flag is flown with flags of other sovereign nations, it should be of the same size and fly at the same height as all other flags.

If more than one flag is flown, each flag should fly on a separate flagpole with the Australian National Flag taking place of honour.

The Australian National Flag should be the first flag raised and the last flag lowered unless the number of flags allows them to be raised and lowered together.

When the Australian National Flag is flown alone in front of an establishment where there are two flagpoles, it should be flown on the flagpole on the left as one faces the flag.

If there are more than two flagpoles it should be flown in the centre or as near to it as possible. This is so whether the flags are positioned in the grounds or on the top of buildings.

When the Australian National Flag is flown with those of other sovereign nations, the Australian National Flag takes the prime position. If it is flown with one other flag of sovereign nation the Australian National Flag should be on the left as one faces the flags.

If the total number of flags flown is even, the Australian National Flag should be flown on the left as one faces the flags in front of an establishment.

If the total number of flags flown is odd, the Australian National Flag should be flown in the centre.

If the flagpoles are arranged in a semi-circle, the Australian National Flag should fly in the centre of those of other sovereign nations.

If the flagpoles are arranged in a complete circle the Australian National Flag should fly opposite the entrance of the building, the arena, or other structure responsible for the display.

If there are two Australian National Flags available, one should be flown at either end of those of other sovereign nations.

If the Australian National Flag is flown with flags that are other than those of sovereign nations, it should fly on the left as one faces the flagpoles. For example, it could be flying with state flags, pennants, flags representing clubs and so on.

In a procession the Australian National Flag should always take the lead, or have the prime position.