19 Nov 2018
This speech was given by School Captain Hamish Lewis at Gregson Park for the Remembrance Day commemorations on Sunday 11 November 2018.
Silence falls ... the echoes die, the smoke-clouds thin and pass, The cannons are, like statues, dumb and cold: Silent the crosses wait, and in the grass The spent shells gleam like gold.
All spent he lay and dreamed till the moment came: Now, waking with a cry, he looks, all wonder To see the empty sky hurl down no flame:
To hear no crack of thunder.
Henry Weston Pryce, an Australian poet wrote those words 100 years ago, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day, in the eleventh month of 1918.
After four years of brutal carnage, a veil of silence had fallen over the trenches. The war that would come to be known as The Great War, The War to End All Wars and the First World War was over.
Inside a train carriage near Paris, an armistice had been signed, bringing the end to a conflict that claimed the lives of 16 million people. Around the world, ordinary citizens took to the streets in jubilation, singing songs of celebration, waving flags and laughing.
It must have felt as though a great weight had been lifted from the shoulders of the world. So 100 years ago the citizens of the Allied powers rejoiced.
But, their joy was not to last. As the soldiers began to trickle home from the front lines, sharing their noble stories of the futility of war, of devastation and of sacrifice, the grief they had experienced festered beneath their facades and integrated within the Australian psyche.
But as a country, Australia was unsure of how to mourn its devastating loss. There were no graves to lay wreaths at, only two bodies ever made it back to Australia from the battlefields of the First World War, and no monuments to promote reflection.
Some families never even got certainty of their loved one's death, for they were listed simply as missing. For years after the war had ended, the army received letters from hundreds of mothers, wondering how their child could just go missing in battle, never to be seen again.
They were trapped between hope and grief. In this way, the whole of Australia was caught in a desolate limbo. But it was the efforts of ordinary citizens that would help us overcome our loss as a nation and heal. It was the tenacity of men and women who raised funds and lobbied important people that led to the creation of monuments to commemorate the conflict of 1914 to 1918. Towns, villages and cities built memorials for those who served right across Australia.
Nowadays, one can hardly drive through a single metropolis, suburb or even a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ country settlement without passing an obelisk, plaque or statue that helped Australia heal after the first World War. These sites acted as places of mourning, and began the tradition of remembrance.
Nowadays, we tend to forget that some in society did not see the value in remembering conflict, but those who lobbied to begin the tradition of remembrance understood how significant the tradition would become and noted that it would cause the generations to come to reflect on what drew ordinary men and women to serve their country so nobly.
We are now ‘the generations to come’ that those who began this tradition described. And so, we must reflect on what drew the men and women who volunteered to serve this country, as soldiers and nurses in 1914.
For many it was a profound sense of duty to their country, for others it was a chance to see the world. For some, they felt forced into service by social pressure. But irrespective of the reason for their service, no matter how noble they were, and no matter how noble anybody who enlists to fight in any conflict for our country is, they are subjected to the same brutality. The brutality of war.
So, while the hundredth year anniversary of the armistice that ended the Great War provides many opportunities for us to look back and reflect on war, service and sacrifice, it also defines a clear point for us to look towards.
What do we want to see for the next 100 years of humanity? Do we want it to be the same as the last hundred? Or do we want to learn the lessons we need to learn from our history and move forward in peace?
I for one, feel that I know the answer. Because as important and as beautiful as the ceremony we meet at today is, it is here to record a tragedy of humanity that we haven’t yet learnt from.
So, in memory of the last hundred years, let us move into the next hundred with hope for humanity and respect for one another. Let us go forth in peace.
Thank you.