Feature Profiles
25 April, 2026
Names a sign of true gratitude
DOTTED on war memorials and honour boards in our local communities are many names, hundreds of young men who have stood up for Australia in war and conflicts since the late 19th century.
DOTTED on war memorials and honour boards in our local communities are many names, hundreds of young men who have stood up for Australia in war and conflicts since the late 19th century.
Sprinkled among them are a few nurses who saw frenetic action of a different type in World War One, World War Two and engagements in the 81 years since destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaka ended this planet’s last “all in” military brawl.
Names from respected and long-time local families, some surnames that have not made it to subsequent generations.
But names that are a sign of gratitude for service. The tangible polished boards and granite blocks carved with names filled by gold leaf glittering in the morning sun that will sprinkle uplifting reverence on Saturday’s Anzac commemorations.
Anzac Day is a time for unity. That’s what the names believed in and is the greatest enduring legacy today’s temporary custodians of their stories can carry on.
The only divisions these men, and women, really knew were those of the division they were assigned to as infantrymen, bombardiers, tunnellers, drivers or signalmen and of course, nurses.
There were distinctions, of course between officers and the enlisted personnel but the hierarchal pyramid of subordination only exists to build a cohesive team.
Some latter day historians may argue there was division on grounds of race - Aboriginals in frontline roles, those of Chinese descent who initially failed army enlistment tests in the early days of World War One. But countering that are the accounts of the soldiers who were there together in the heat of battle who bonded as a band of brothers no matter the background of the man standing next to them.
Those original Diggers at Gallipoli on April 25 1915 were not only forging the Australian spirit, just 14 years after a new nation had been created.
They were pioneers of inclusion, something that contemporary leaders across Australia have embraced as if new, different and better, No, Australia has a reputation for being tolerant, respectful and ... inclusive.
This Anzac Day is an opportunity to actually look closer at the names on honour boards and war memorials.
Explore the lives of those people, discover more about their guiding principles - influenced as they would have been by societal attitudes of the day - and compare with the foundations that underpin “principles” of the 21st century.
Ask ourselves: Are there differences? Are there similarities? What can we copy from them to make life better today?
Anzac Day is much more than buying a token, attending a service, dusting off grandfather’s old medals (worn on the right breast please!).
Our national day of remembrance, as Roger Paterson, a local RSL sub-branch president said this week, sets the tone for commemoration and remembrance across the whole year. So when the Last Post is sounded and its poignancy reverberates in the crisp morning air on Saturday, reflect the names and what guided them. They still have lessons for us, today’s generation.
Read More: Loddon Shire