The PR Blog

The Last Post would be familiar to all Australians from an early age. It is played at every ANZAC Day ceremony by a bugler in an army uniform and frequently at funerals of soldiers and veterans.

Does the average civilian attendee understand the significance of this quasi musical interlude? Is it an entertainment piece that everyone expects to hear because it is always part of the programme like the hymn “Oh God our Help in Ages Past”?

The Last Post is one of the most ancient tools used by modern British founded armies and has its roots in the days of the Roman Empire when horns were used to play the hymn of the Goddess Diana and as signals to command troops on the battlefield. Even to this day, the French term for what we call Reveille is La Diana.

Ming The Merciless was a nick name given to one of our most outstanding Australian military commanders of WW2.

His name was Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie Morshead. He was the Commanding Officer of the 9^th Division of the 2^nd AIF, Commander of the garrison of Tobruk during its period under siege from April to December, 1941, the chief Rat of Tobruk one might say, and still in command when the 9^th got around the German defences to break the deadlock in the Battle of El Alamein in October, 1942.

He has been rightly described as “The Hero of Tobruk and Alamein”

His greatest achievements were against the German General Erwin Rommel, known as The Desert Fox but Morshead outfoxed him at every throw of the dice.

It is the 25^th April, and a German man and his wife from Munich are taking a motoring holiday to the South of France. They pass through the northern French city of Amiens. They observe much gaiety among the populace and are wondering what it is all about. 

They pass through the city and 15kms down the road they approach a small town. On the outskirts, they pass a cemetery which has a sign “Adelaide Cemetery”. 

Says the man, " that is not a French name. What does it mean? " 

 The 25th of April is a very important day for Australians and New Zealanders. It is called ANZAC Day and stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.  It is the day that we stand still for a minute's silence at dawn and remember our fallen in times of war. 

Throughout our two countries, millions of people will stand in quiet contemplation remembering those in our past who we knew or never got to know.  It is about Courage and Patriotism and Unity. Many will march in solidarity for those who are worthy of honour to this day. 

It is a day of giving thanks and showing respect for our forbears. It is one of the most important days on our calendar. 

It has been truly said that Australia arrived in Gallipoli as six separate States and returned as a Nation with its own national identity. In achieving this, of the over 50,000 Australians who served at Gallipoli during a period of 260 days, there were 8,159 deaths in total, comprised of 5,482 killed in action, 2,012 deaths from wounds, and 665 deaths from disease.   

To the armchair Revisionists, these are merely numbers and not men who gave their lives for their country and are buried in a far-off land.  

More than a hundred years ago, in the fields of the Somme, a whole generation of young men who came from the other side of the world fought and fell   

Among them, out of a population of five million souls, 416,000 young Australians answered the call of duty under the banner of the Commonwealth and 295,000 served bravely on the Western Front in the mud and poppies of northern France where they paid a heavy price.