Lest we forget: Seymour RSL Sub-Branch vice-president Matt McLaughlin.
Photo by
David Rak
People gathered across the region on Thursday to mark Remembrance Day, paying their respects to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
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There were smaller crowds than normal in Seymour, Broadford, Avenel and Nagambie due to COVID-19 restrictions, but the significance of November 11 remained.
Remembrance Day marked 103 years since the Armistice to end World War I was signed in a French train carriage in Compiègne Forest.
That document and the even more severe Versailles Treaty the following year set up what historians have now labelled the impossible peace.
The irony of 20th century hindsight was the seeds of World War II were planted there and then.
As the signatures of the great powers were being inscribed on the formalisation of the peace, the famous French military commander Ferdinand Foch declared to anyone who would listen: “This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years.”
He was off target by just 65 days.
World War I saw about 40 million military personnel and civilians killed.
By the time World War II was over, as many as 85 million people lay dead, Europe was in ruins and the number of displaced persons roaming the continent and Asia tallied in the tens of millions.
There have been wars since — just as brutal, but not as big — in Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War, and insurrections and civil wars across the Balkans, South-East Asia, South America, Africa, the sub-continent and the Middle East.
Australians have been in nearly all of them, continuing the proud tradition that had its beginnings in the Boer War and which crystallised into a national identity in the crushing defeat of Gallipoli before being resurrected on the Western Front by men such as John Monash.
Remember: Padre Don Kaus.
Photo by
David Rak
Salute: David Maddick.
Photo by
David Rak
Medals: Michael McCabe and Merv McAliece.
Photo by
David Rak
Poppy wearers: Ruth Hall and Eileen Williamson.
Photo by
David Rak
Important day: David Gregson and Joan and John Coombs.
Photo by
David Rak
Smiles: Puckapunyal Primary School’s Harry Osmond, Brandon Hyville-Schaffer, Eliza Thompson and Evie Birks.
Photo by
David Rak
Representing: St Mary’s College Seymour’s Mia Nuttall, Gabriella Marrinan, Cooper Lynch and Wyatt Lynch.
Photo by
David Rak
Remembering: John Miller, Bob Edwards and Gary Doherty.
Photo by
David Rak
Paying respects: St Joseph’s Nagambie’s Jordan, Eoin and Ayla.
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Contributed
Wreath bearers: Nagambie Primary School’s Dylan, Jack, Bridie and Brooke.
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Contributed
Tribute: Nagambie RSL Sub-Branch’s Greg Oakenfull and Michael Newman.
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Contributed
Solemn message: St Mary’s College Seymour had a display of poppies.
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Contributed
Sombre: A smaller crowd than normal due to COVID-19 restrictions gathered in Seymour to pay their respects on Remembrance Day.
Photo by
Wayne Herring