ANZAC Day Service 2021
Each year we commemorate the sacrifices and courage shown by thousands of young Australians and New Zealanders at the annual ANZAC services across this country and on the fields in far-away lands where Australian and New Zealand troops fought so bravely. On Wednesday 28 April boys from Year 6 to Year 12 gathered with staff in the Terence Butler Auditorium to pay their respects. In 2021 we were joined by Guests Captain Zachary Hucker, Infantry Officer posted in the 12th 40th Battalion at Anglesea Barracks and Musician Alec Beattie of the Australian Army Band Tasmania at Anglesea Barracks. Some of our Year 6 and Year 8 Leaders read the names of fallen old boys, followed by the Last Post and the Rouse. Seth James (Year 11) gave an explanation of the Ode.
What today is known as The Ode is taken from the fourth stanza of the poem For the Fallen written by Laurence Binyon. It was written in the early days of World War One.
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 and it was against this background that Binyon wrote his poem, For the Fallen.
The Ode is recited on behalf of all Australians on Anzac Day and during other acts of memorial and remembrance as a mark of respectful memory for those who on our behalf gave their lives in war and, in essence, it is a pledge from the living not to forget the great gift to us from those who served in war – the sacrifice of their lives.
Lest we forget.