ANZAC Day 2013
And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Words and music by Eric Bogle
This popular folk song about an Australian who fought and was badly wounded at Gallipoli, losing his legs, included the final verse:
And so now every April, I sit on me porch
And I watch the parades pass before me
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march,
Reviving old dreams of past glories
And the old men march slowly, old bones stiff and sore
They’re tired old heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask ‘What are they marching for?’
And I ask myself the same question
But the band plays Waltzing Matilda, and the old men still answer the call
But as year follows year, more old men disappear.
Someday no one will march there at all.
Someday no one will march there at all….
I’ve noticed a lot of chatter about ANZAC Day and how it should or will evolve as time goes on. Fast approaching its 100th year, this got me thinking about how I feel about it and if I support the changes or if I would fight to help keep it as it has always been. Then I did a little looking at the history and found that it’s always changing and the truth is, it can’t stay the same.
In the immediate years following World War One it would have been an extremely sad day and very hard on all that had just lived through such a terrible time in history. None of them knowing that within 20 years this horror would play out again in the Second World War.
For me ANZAC Day has always been a day to focus my thinking on events that happened long before I was alive, so the way I feel about it has always seemed to be a bit out of focus. I think this comes down to the fact that I cannot ever even come close to feeling how a person that lived through this time in history would feel. Nor do I ever want to.
Reading about boys of 16 or younger lying about their age and going off to war, or listing to the song “I was only nineteen” and realising that at this young age I was free to have fun and never once stopped to think I would be put in this situation, I can only feel thankful for the freedoms I have.
I Was Only Nineteen
by Australian folk group Redgum
So I feel that even with its focus on World War One it to me has always been inclusive of all war and a time to remember the fallen. This year, along with all the many men and women, fallen and returned, that have served in past and present wars, I would like to make a special remembrance of my pop
Arthur Donald “Mick” FREE
28 September 1923 – 27 December 2003
My last post Spotlight On: Arthur Donald FREE had me going over his war records and looking up ships that he sailed to and from Australia on. I also did some reading on the islands he was posted to during the Second World War, then I realised that my memories of ANZAC Day are not about World War One or even my grandfather’s war. My ANZAC memories are about watching people like my grandfather having seen war, honouring the people that didn’t return.
I can only imagine the feelings that Pop had on days that made him look back at his memories, feel the pain that they reminded him of, and then have to go on with life… Maybe I’ll always be a bit out of focus!
My Pop to me was never one to talk about the war and even in his last days when I sat with him getting small bits of info to help with the family tree, this was one area that I could not get him to talk about. I’m not surprised really and maybe it’s better I don’t know.
Pop always had a smile for me and I never got to see his pain, so this next little article makes me have a little laugh and I’m sure if I found it before he had passed away he would have had a great little story to go with it.. Good One Pop
ANZAC Day 2013
Lest We Forget
Last Post
The bradyfamilytree site includes a number of Military Records and a List of War outline that will link you to each of the known people in the tree that served in that war. I you have someone in the tree that I don’t have the service history linked to, please email me any info you may have and i would be happy to update it.
