- Just four WWI vets remain -
10.11.2004 14:32:32
Only four Australian survivors of World War I remain to observe tomorrow`s
86th remembrance of the armistice that ended the bloody conflict.
Two of the venerable old Diggers, West Australian Peter Casserly and Gilbert Bennion of NSW, are 106.
The other two, Victorians John Ross and William Allan, are 105.
Mr Casserly, who was born in January, 1898, holds seniority among the quartet.
Like many veterans he lied about his age to sign up with the Australian Imperial Force in 1917.
He saw action as a sapper on the Western Front at Ypres, Armentieres and Amiens.
Mr Bennion, of Tweed Heads, enlisted at Townsville and spent five months training but was discharged at war`s end without seeing overseas service.
Mr Ross, a wireless operator, also underwent training before his discharge at the end of the war.
Mr Allan, the youngest of the four, joined the navy as a boy sailor when he was only 14 years old.
He was a crew member of HMAS Encounter from 1915 until 1918, sailing in the Pacific and Indian Oceans escorting troop ship convoys.
The Department of Veterans Affairs says all four are too frail to participate in Remembrance Day ceremonies tomorrow, when Australians will observe the tradition of pausing on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to remember the country`s war dead.
World War I claimed the lives of more than 60,000 Australians. In all, 331,781 served overseas.
Services will be held around the country but the principal national Remembrance Day event will be held in Canberra on the newly refurbished parade ground in front of the Australian War Memorial.
Prime Minister John Howard will deliver the commemorative address.
Others attending include Governor-General, Major General Michael Jeffery, Opposition Leader Mark Latham, High Court Chief Justice Murray Gleason and Australian Defence Force chief General Peter Cosgrove.
This will be the first big event for the new-look war memorial parade ground which has undergone a six-month-long transformation, prompted by the escalating numbers attending Anzac and Remembrance Day events.
It features better seating for the disabled, improved access and better floodlighting.
The Australian War Memorial expects at least 2000 will attend the event.
In Sydney, a service will be held at the Kokoda Track Rose Garden, recently desecrated by vandals, while public figures will also gather at the Cenotaph in Martin Place.
Across the Tasman today, the remains of an unknown New Zealand soldier killed in France during World War I arrived in Wellington to an emotional Maori and military welcome.
He will be entombed at the National Warrior Memorial in Wellington tomorrow after lying in state and a funeral cortege through the city streets.
New Zealand will become one of the last participants of the Great War to create a tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Australia did so in 1993, bringing home an unknown digger soldier from a cemetery near Villers-Bretonneaux in France. He now lies in the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial.
acknowledge:
by The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au
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