A time for reflection and remembrance. If we are travelling around April 25, we will try to seek out an appropriate place to spend some time in reflection.

In 2008, we were humbled to be present at the first dawn service held at Villiers-Bretonneux. We visited the Australian National Memorial the previous day to look around at our leisure, and then braved an early 3:30am start to be part of the memorable occasion. See post 380 Euros for more travel tales of that day.

While at Villiers-Bretonneux, we sought out the grave of Private Horace Starkey of Wilmington. Killed in action aged 24. Not a relative, but a connection via my hometown of Wilmington. A loose connection, providing the many graves and many names on memorials a more personal meaning.

In 2016 we were in England. Anzac Day + England = Rainy Day

Typically, the weather started to set in as we drove to the National Memorial Arboretum near Alrewas, about a 1-hour drive from Hanley in Stoke-on-Trent. We took the scenic route via Burton-on-Trent – accidentally; shouldn’t have trusted that early version of online maps – that’s not a convenient intersection, it’s a flyover!

Attended the noon Gallipoli Service of Remembrance. Not a large crowd, but one of the few Anzac Day commemorations we could find in the area. The creator of the Gallipoli Memorial was at the service and read the words of Atatürk – both in English and Turkish. Wreath laying ceremony followed, with the Last Post played. Nicely done.

My sisters’ birthdays are just before Anzac Day. In 2018, we celebrated their birthdays and attended the Wilmington Dawn Service. Lynette did a reading in the service that year. Some of our travel memorabilia was in the display in the Wilmington Soldiers’ Memorial Hall. Over the years, we have sought out the graves and memorials of those who died in service who came from the Wilmington area.

2020. COVID saw us commemorating Anzac Day with community silence, shared in driveways along the street. Our photo from that year was too dark, so here’s a photo of Anzac Biscuit baking later that day.

Gallipoli has always been on our “bucket list” of places to see. So, being able to travel again post COVID, we enjoyed our trip to Turkey in 2023. Although not there for Anzac Day, it was still memorable. See post Geography and History for more of our Egypt and Turkey trip.

We visited several sites on the Gallipoli Peninsula: Anzac Cove – including the Atatürk Memorial near Air Burnu Cemetery, Anzac Cove Cemetery, Lone Pine, The Nek, Chunuk Bair (NZ Cemetery).

We had the paperwork for Private James McNamara (from Hammond, near Wilmington), but didn’t have access to a cemetery map. Strolled through the graves at Lone Pine and somehow came across it.

This year, 2024, we went to New Zealand. A trip based primarily around cricket, but an opportunity to be tourists as well. We can thoroughly recommend the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, in particular the Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War exhibit. The larger-than-life figures, together with individual stories, make for a remarkable and moving exhibit.

We seek to honour the contribution of Australians and New Zealanders: those in our community, of our relatives – not just those from previous generations, but also those who are currently serving in the forces. Even now in April 2024, we wonder what impact current conflicts might have on us, our community and our loved ones. Sometimes the conflicts seem far away and inconsequential to our immediate day-to-day life, but time will tell.

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives. You are now living in the soil of a friendly country therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, 1934