REMEMBRANCE Day or not, the Cowes ferry rocked and rolled on a changing sea as it approached the Cowes Jetty, shortly before 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month and was off and away again as the strains of ‘Spirit of the Anzacs’ by Lee Kernaghan rang out over the cenotaph.
It was Remembrance Day right across Australia and while some paused, a busy weekend of activity went on around them.
A good-sized crowd had turned out to honour, thank and remember our ex-service personnel at Cowes but, as Phillip Island RSL President Chris Thompson said afterwards, numbers attending Remembrance Day have not returned to their pre-COVID levels.
Anzac Day remains the premier remembrance event with community support returning to traditionally high levels.
But it was a well-organised, well-supported event all the same.
Chris Thompson led the service, with the likes of vice president Peter Paul in support, among other leaders of the local RSL Sub-branch. There was an honour guard from HMAS Cerberus, led by Petty Officer Debbie Barthelson and a corps of Australian Army Cadets in uniform, who marched in and stood to attention for the laying or wreaths and the national anthems of New Zealand and Australia.
Former service personnel, civic leaders and business representatives laid wreaths and the community was then invited up to place a poppy, which many did.
