BULAHDELAH RSL sub-Branch commemorated Remembrance Day with a moving ceremony at the Bulahdelah Cenotaph.
Remembrance Day has been observed in Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War.
It is spent honouring members of the armed forces who have died in the line of duty.
“We are here to remember those who went into conflict over the First World War, Second World War, Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan,” said Bulahdelah RSL sub-Branch President Dennis Coulter.
“We had so many young people losing their lives unnecessarily and we are here to remember them and be respectful to them for what they did.”
The common British, Canadian, South African, and Anzac tradition includes a one-minute silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month (11am GMT on 11 November), as that marks when the armistice to end World War 1 came into effect.
“Please let [the silence] be filled with meaning. It is not an empty pause, it’s a living one,” said Stephen Rae in his address.
“It’s a show of gratitude. The silence says we have not forgotten.
“It says to the World War Two heroes, the Vietnam vets, every generation up to the young men and women of Timor Leste and Afghanistan, [that] your service mattered, your sacrifice endures and when we say ‘Lest we Forget’, it isn’t a phrase, it’s a promise.”
The service included floral tributes, the Ode and the Last Post, the National Anthem and the poem Flanders Fields.
After the ceremony, returned service members shared stories at a luncheon.
By John SAHYOUN
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