Anzac Day 2009
Section
2: The relevance of Anzac
Anzac—legal
protection
The use of the word Anzac is
restricted and protected by legislation.
The history
of Anzac Day
The Australian and New Zealand
Army Corps (ANZAC) landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 gave us the date
and name of Anzac Day. News of the landing saw outpourings of national
pride, and it became clear that its anniversary was the appropriate day
for commemoration.
Anzac Day was first observed
on 25 April 1916, as people came together to honour those lost at Gallipoli.
In
Australia,
some state governments organised events to commemorate the
occasion—but the Commonwealth did not. Acting Prime Minister Senator
George
Pearce
viewed Gallipoli as a failure, and believed that a later
battle might prove ‘more worthy of remembering’. He clearly
misjudged the importance to the people of this day.
The wartime Anzac Days were especially important for the bereaved. With
so many killed, the pain was palpable. Anzac Day was a moment to recognise
and acknowledge the sacrifice with services and simple acts of remembrance,
such as women tying ribbons onto the gates of wharves where they last
saw their sons, brothers or husbands alive.
Anzac Day was a fixture by
the war’s end. Politicians (some of whom had served, or lost loved
ones and friends) forged bonds with the Returned Soldiers’ and Sailors’
Imperial League of
Australia
(now the Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL)),
which assumed responsibility for the day. Rituals such as dawn services
and the march were developed, and gradually the families of the dead became
quite marginalised. While all people were encouraged to remember, the
day was in many ways for ex-servicemen to honour their dead. In Melbourne
during the late 1920s, women, including mothers of those killed, were
banned from the dawn service because of their wailing.
By the late 1920s, Anzac Day
was a public holiday in every state and territory. In the 1930s, there
was rhetoric about the need to pass the ‘Anzac spirit’ down
to the next generation. This was partly politically motivated, as there
was a feeling that people needed steeling for another war. In the Second
World War, the ‘sons of the Anzacs’ were welcomed, and the
day now honoured veterans of all wars. But despite greater number of veterans,
by the 1960s its popularity had waned, and many wondered if Anzac Day
could survive.
The resurgence started in the
1980s and 1990s. The RSL had been slow to welcome ‘others’—notably
those who did not serve overseas, including most ex-servicewomen, and
veterans of the ‘small’ wars. With a younger leadership, it
has relaxed the rules to be more inclusive. Governments have reinforced
the day’s significance with commemorative programs that reach out
to the community. Anzac Day has evolved into a day for Australians to
honour our war dead and veterans, and incidentally to show support for
serving members of the Australian Defence Force.
Dawn
services have become a popular event. Time will tell whether,
as veteran numbers dwindle, the march will continue in its present form.
The Australian War Memorial's
(AWM) Anzac
Day electronic encyclopaedia entry contains links to material on the
history and tradition of Anzac Day, details and photographs of ceremonies,
sound recordings of the Last Post and the Rouse, and educational resources.
The Department of Veterans'
Affairs website includes information on the origin of Anzac Day, silence,
poppies, rosemary, unknown
soldiers, national and state ceremonies and audio versions of the Last
Post, Rouse and the National Anthem.
Is it Anzac
Day or ANZAC Day?
The Anzac acronym comes from the initial letters of the Australian and New Zealand Army
Corps, into which Australian and
New Zealand
troops were formed in
Egypt
before the landings on Gallipoli in April 1915. What was
once commonly ‘Anzac Day’ is nowadays often referred to as
‘ANZAC Day’ (in homage to the Australian and New Zealand Army
Corps). Which is the more correct?
The official historian,
Charles
Bean,
who knew more about Australians in the Great War than anybody,
wrote of a day in early 1915 when a staff officer arrived at HQ seeking
a code name for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Having noticed
‘A&NZAC’ stencilled on cases and also rubber stamps bearing
this mark, a clerk suggested:
How about ANZAC?’ Major
Wagstaff
proposed the word to the general, who approved of it, and
“Anzac” thereupon became the code name for the Australian
and New Zealand Army Corps. (C. E. W. Bean, The
Story of ANZAC from the outbreak of war to the end of the first phase
of the Gallipoli Campaign, May 4, 1915 (11th edition, 1941) (Volume 1 of The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, , pp.124–25.)
As a proper noun, as well as an acronym, ‘Anzac’ entered the
vernacular of the Diggers and Kiwis. At Gallipoli, they called their position,
simply, Anzac; and the famous cove, Anzac Cove. They started referring
to each other as Anzacs too. Eventually, any Australian or New Zealander
who served in the war could be called an Anzac—although to them
a true Anzac was a man who served at Gallipoli (later issued a brass ‘A’
to stitch onto their unit colour patches).
On 25 April 1916, when people
paused to observe the first anniversary of the landing and pay solemn
tribute to those who had died at Gallipoli, by common accord it was Anzac
Day, in honour of the men (not ANZAC Day, in reference to the corps.)
The NZ Returned Soldiers’ Association, for example, had an ‘Anzac
day sub-committee’; the King sent a message to be published ‘on
Anzac Day’; and songs and poems honoured ‘Our Anzac Boys’.
As many more died on the Western Front, the day evolved to honour all
Australians and New Zealanders in the war (that is, not just those of
the ANZAC, which actually ceased to exist after Gallipoli). Later still,
Anzac Day encompassed every other conflict.
The ANZAC landing on 25 April
1915 gave us a legend and a date of commemoration, but the day has long
been about so much more of our history and so many more of our people.
This day is for all Australians to honour all who have served and died
for our nation in the Anzac tradition.
The modern penchant for ‘ANZAC
Day’ may reflect the influences of the Australian War Memorial and
the RSL whose websites and publications now consistently refer to ‘ANZAC
Day’ and to ‘the ANZACs’. Many people do not realise
that the acronym is one which has only an initial capital and that this
usage is enshrined in The Protection of the Word 'Anzac' Regulations.
This is the word gifted to us by the men who forged the Anzac legend.
‘Anzac Day’ reflects the history of this special word and
the true meaning of the day. What is important is that the remembrance
continues to be observed.
Traditions
and rituals of Anzac Day
While there were no specific
traditions and rituals to begin with, by the late 1920s, most of those
that we now associate with Anzac Day had developed in one form or another.
The manner in which Australians and New Zealanders observe this day has
continued to evolve, and will continue to do so as the veteran and wider
communities change further.
The
Dawn
service
This first commemorative event
of Anzac Day is the dawn service at 4.30 am. This is coincidentally
about the time men of the ANZAC approached the Gallipoli beach. However,
the origin is the traditional ‘stand-to’, in which troops
would be woken so that by the first rays of dawn they were in position
and alert, in case of an enemy attack in the eerie half-light. It is a
ritual and a moment remembered by many veterans.
The first dawn service was
in 1923 at Albany, Western Australia, conducted by the Reverend
Arthur
White,
Rector of St John’s Church, and formerly a padre with
the 44th Battalion on the Western Front. The dawn service caught on, and
the first official dawn service at
Sydney's
Cenotaph occurred four years later. The simple ceremony was
for veterans to assemble before dawn for ‘stand-to’ and two
minutes of silence. Nowadays, all are welcome, and the dawn service has
grown in popularity and in meaning for the community.
The
story of the dawn service and its origins is found in the article 'In
honour of Anzac Day: Grave History of Dawn Service'. (Air Force
News, vol. 44, no. 7, 25 April 2002)
Kerry
Neale,
'In
the cold light of dawn', discusses the significance of the dawn service
continuing to grow while questions remain over its origin in
Australia.
(Wartime, no. 38, 2007, pp. 38-39)
History of the ‘gunfire
breakfast’, held after the dawn service on Anzac Day
Many communities follow the
dawn service with a ‘traditional’ gunfire breakfast.
'Gun Fire' is a British tradition
and was
the usual term for the early
cup of tea served out to troops in the morning before going on first
parade, whenever possible. In the War [WWI] recruits in training always
had "Gun Fire” supplied to them, the work before breakfast
being found particularly trying. The morning gun in a garrison town
suggested the name probably. (From Edward Fraser and John Gibbons, Soldier
and Sailor Words and Phrases including slang of the trenches and the
air force; British and American war-words and service terms and expressions
in everyday use; nicknames, sobriquets, and titles of regiments, with
their origin; the battle-honours of the Great War awarded to the British
Army , Routledge, London, 1925, p.113.)
The 'gunfire breakfast' seems
to have evolved from the above, and comprises whatever is available at
the time—it could be ‘coffee and rum’ or ‘stew,
sausage and bread’, or even ‘bacon and eggs’ (which
is served by the War Memorial for their ‘gunfire breakfast’
on Anzac Day).
A Victorian
Parliamentary Committee investigating licensing laws in that State
in 2002, made the following comments, indicating that alcohol is served
at the breakfast:
The existing liquor licensing
regime for ANZAC Day is, in effect, one that observes the sanctity of
ANZAC Day morning, but provides for discretionary exceptions. The Committee
received evidence that there are special circumstances where morning
liquor trading is reasonable. In particular, there are instances where
liquor trading is complementary to the conduct of an ANZAC morning ceremony.
A particular instance of this is the holding of a gunfire breakfast.
(Victoria,
Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee, Parliamentary
Review of ANZAC Day Laws, October 2002)
Anzac Day march
From cities to small towns,
the march has long been the centrepiece of Anzac Day. Marches were held
during the Great War, and became popular with veterans in the 1920s, to
honour lost friends and publicly express comradeship. The RSL organises
the marches. While it was traditional for veterans who saw active service,
it was later relaxed to include those who served in
Australia
in the armed services or ‘land armies’, during
WWII. It has been relaxed further, with some encouragement or acceptance
of children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren marching, to assist
aged veterans or to represent those no longer with us.
Follow-on and Two-up
The march may be followed by
reunions and lunches put on by local establishments. This is also the
one day that the traditional Australian gambling game of ‘two-up’,
or ‘swy’, may be legally played at venues. Bets are placed
on how two pennies thrown into the air will fall. The ‘Ringer’
(in charge) will explain rules and betting procedures. Any persons of
legal gambling age are welcome to participate. The entry on 'Two-up'
from the Australian Encyclopaedia describes the 'game' and its
origins.
Wearing medals
Only the person awarded or
issued medals may claim those medals as his or her own. This is enshrined
in law. He or she wears the medals on their left breast. Others (those
who did not earn the medals) may honour the service of a relative by wearing
medals on the right breast. Some veterans may be seen wearing medals on
both breasts—their own on the left, and a relative’s on the
right.
An ANZAC Commemorative
Medallion and Badge was issued in 1967 to surviving Gallipoli veterans.
Wearing rosemary
Rosemary
is an emblem of remembrance. It is traditional on Anzac Day
to wear a sprig of rosemary pinned to a coat lapel or to the breast (it
does not matter which side, but left seems most common), or held in place
by medals. Rosemary has particular significance for Australians on Anzac Day as it grows wild
on the Gallipoli peninsular.
Laying a wreath or flowers
A wreath or a small bunch of
flowers is traditionally laid on memorials or graves in memory of the
dead. They might contain laurel, a traditional symbol of honour, and rosemary,
or they may be native or other flowers. In recent years, it has also become
popular to lay a wreath of red poppies—formerly associated with
Remembrance Day, 11 November. Any of these wreaths or flowers are acceptable
as a gesture of remembrance.
The Ode
The Ode comes from the fourth
stanza of the poem ‘For the Fallen’ by the English poet and
writer,
Laurence
Binyon.
It was published in London in The Winnowing Fan: Poems
of the Great War in 1914. It was used in association with commemorative
services in
Australia
by 1921.
The Ode
They shall grow not old,
as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
At the Anzac Day ceremony,
an invited speaker often recites The Ode and upon his or her completion
of the recitation, those present repeat the last words ‘We will
remember them’. After a short pause this is followed by ‘Lest
we forget’.
The Last Post
This is one of a number of
bugle calls in the military tradition to mark phases of the day. Traditionally,
it marked the ending of a day. The Last Post was incorporated into funeral
and memorial services as a final farewell, and symbolises that the duty
of the dead is over and that they can rest in peace. On Anzac Day, it
is followed by one or two minutes of silence, then a second bugle call,
Reveille (also known as The Rouse).
The story of the Anzac
bugle calls is told in Valley Voice, 19 April 2002.
The Anzac Biscuit
The original Anzac Biscuit,
also known as the Anzac wafer or tile, was a hardtack biscuit or long
shelf-life biscuit substitute for bread. These were not necessarily popular
with soldiers at Gallipoli, but there are now recipes for more edible
domestic versions.
The meaning of Anzac
The entries in the Oxford
Companion to Australian Military History on Anzac
Day and the Anzac
legend provide good summaries of the importance of the day and of
the legend.
In 'Bean's
'Anzac' and the making of the Anzac Legend', the author, David Kent,
argues that the image of the Anzac was the careful creation of the official
historian, C.E.W. Bean who, as editor of the enormously popular 1916 publication, The Anzac Book, acted as a prism through which Australians were
presented with an oversimplified view of the realities of war and its
effect on men.
In ‘A
possession for ever: Charles Bean, the ancient Greeks, and military commemoration
in Australia’
Peter
Londey
argues that the Australian official war historian drew parallels
between the deeds of the Australian Imperial Force and ancient
Greece
in the 5th Century BC. (Australian Journal
of Politics and History, vol. 53, no. 3, September 2007, pp. 344-349)
In ‘Re-reading
Bean’s last paragraph’,
Martin
Ball
discusses the last paragraph of C.E.W. Beans’ official
history which has ‘long been appreciated as a concise yet effective
statement about
Australia's
response to its war experience’. Although the volume
which contains it was published in 1942, the last paragraph was actually
the first to be written in 1919. (Australian Historical Studies,
no. 122, October 2003, pp. 231-247). Bean’s last paragraph reads:
What
these men did nothing can alter now. The good and the bad, the greatness
and smallness of their story will stand. Whatever of glory it contains
nothing now can lessen. It rises, as it will always rise, above the
mists of ages, a monument to great-hearted men; and, for their nation,
a possession for ever. (C.E.W. Bean, Official
History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, Vol. VI, Chapter
XXII, Sydney, Angus & Robertson, 1942, p. 1096)
In his 1988 article, 'Anzac
and the Australian military tradition', historian, Professor K. S.
Inglis, describes the essential meaning of the word Anzac, its early use,
the Anzac tradition in schools between the wars, the relationship between
the Anzac concept and social class and between the Anzac tradition and
feminism, the continuity of the tradition from World War II through to
the Vietnam conflict, and the observations of writers, scholars, artists
and film makers. (Current Affairs Bulletin, vol. 64, no. 11, April,
1988)
In ‘ANZAC:
the sacred in the secular’,
Graham
Seal
argues that the resurgence of interest in Anzac Day has ‘only
served to emphasise the strongly secular nature of Anzac and its centrality
to widespread notions of Australian nationalism’. (Journal of
Australian Studies, vol. 91, 2007)
In 'Reflections:
a symposium on the meanings of Anzac', to mark the 75th anniversary
of the landings at Gallipoli, ten Australians discuss various aspects
of the meaning of Anzac to indigenous Australians and Vietnam diggers,
the place of Anzac in Australian society and the future of Anzac. (Journal
of the Australian War Memorial, no. 16, April 1990)
'Anzac's
influence on Turkey and Australia' was the keynote address given to
the 1990 War Memorial History Conference by
Bill
Gammage.
In it he explored the different ways in which Turks and Australians
remember Canakkale (Gallipoli), and how they regard each other as a result
of the campaign. (Journal of the Australian War Memorial, no. 18,
April 1991)
In 'Lest
we forget the cult of the digger'
Nick
Horden
discusses how the memory of past wars continues to shape
the Australian nation. (Australian Financial Review, 20
January 2000)
'What
is Anzac Day? It is the embodiment of the national ethos', retraces
the history of 25 April and the traditions of Anzac. (Stand To,
April-May 2002, pp. 4 – 5)
'Why
we will never forget'.
Graham
Cooke
talks about how, even after four generations since Gallipoli,
the Anzac spirit is still alive. (Canberra Times Magazine,
April 2003)
'They
shall not grow old',
Ken
Inglis
discusses how the Anzac legend grows rather than recedes.
(Age, 30 April 2004)
'The
mystique of Gallipoli',
Les
Carlyon
explains what makes Gallipoli so important to Australians.
(Canberra Times, 13 November 2004)
'History
should respect realities' by
Craig
Barrett
and
Martin
Crotty
—
It's perfectly possible to
reconcile reverence for Anzacs with low tolerance towards the untruths
that have tarnished the legend. (Australian, 1 February 2006)
In ‘The
Anzac myth: patriot act’,
Mark
McKenna
argues that ‘since the early 1990s Australians have
lost the ability (or inclination) to debate Anzac Day’. (Australian
Literary Review, June 2007)
Series on 'Our Anzac heroes'
published in the Daily Telegraph in 2004:
'Heavy
hearts when the Light Horse disbanded ', 20 April 2004
'The
living hell of a war that took so many lives ', 21 April 2004
'Sporting
greats who fought bigger battles ', 22 April 2004
'The
machines that brought destruction ', 22 April 2004
'Keeping
soldiers well fed was half the battle ', 23 April 2004
The
Simpson
Prize
The Simpson
Prize, honours
John
Simpson
Kirkpatrick
'the man with the donkey',
and encourages school students to consider what Anzac day means to them
and to
Australia.
Poetry
A selection of four World War
I poems by Leon
Gellert: Anzac Cove (written in January 1916) and three poems
about life and death in the trenches, from Volume 1 of Poetry in Australia.
The text of two
famous World War I poems:
In Flanders Fields written in 1915 by the Canadian physician and professor of medicine,
John McRae, who fought on the Western Front in 1914 but was then transferred
to the medical corps and assigned to a hospital in France. He died on
active duty in 1918;
and
For the Fallen by
Laurence
Binyon
who worked at the British Museum and wrote this poem in
1914. The fourth verse of For the Fallen is now more commonly
known as 'The Ode'. It was selected to accompany the unveiling of the
London Cenotaph in 1919 and by 1921 was already in use in
Australia
as an ode read on Anzac Day. It has been used at commemorative
services on Anzac Day ever since.
In 'They
also served - and wrote',
Steve
Meacham
discusses a book that is a compilation of Anzac poetry, commenting
particularly about Banjo Paterson and his association with
World
War
I.
(Sydney Morning Herald, 25 April 2002)
Links to sites
with details of commemorative ceremonies
End of section 2
For
copyright reasons some linked items are only available to members of Parliament.
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