Tarwin Lower's community-led Anzac Day march and service was a great success with a substantial attendance, stirring music and singing, and poignant stories of those who served, with a splash of good-natured humour included.
Wonthaggi Citizens Band played the emotional hymn ‘O God Our Help in Ages Past’.
Bugler Alicia Fox and singer Terry Teylor added to the stirring service.
Tarwin Lower Primary School student leaders recited the Anzac Requiem and the local area’s strong emergency service presence was on show, with CFA, ambulance and police representatives marching along with other community members.
Local IGA owner Frank Keily shared stories of his family’s involvement in war, his uncle John ‘Jack’ Wilson Keily fighting in WWII and Jack’s son Mark serving in Iraq and Kuwait.
Jack belonged to the 10th Squadron, having already been in England for training purposes when war broke out.
He flew Sunderland flying boats doing reconnaissance, and targeting enemy U-boats with depth charges.
Frank shared a legend that sprang up in the family about the glass eye Jack returned with after the war.
“My family always thought he lost his eye in battle,” Frank said.
The tale of how Jack acquired his glass eye was fuelled by the fact he had been shot down a couple of times.
However, Frank got a surprise answer when he eventually conjured up the courage to ask what happened, with his uncle then in his eighties.
It turned out the crew got on the grog and tried to impress a couple of local ladies, unfortunately running a plane into the pier in the process, with Jack losing an eye in the accident.
“He was away at war for six years and he lost his eye out of guys having a bit of fun as larrikins do,” Frank said.
Venus Bay resident and local councillor Sarah Gilligan spoke of South Australian Tom Whyte, a successful lacrosse player but best known as a rower, who died at Gallipoli on the day of the Anzac landing.
Tom, who signed up shortly after the war began, aged 28, wrote a moving letter to his fiancée Eileen on April 24, 1915 in the hours before going into action.
“My Dear Sweetheart, I thought of writing this in case I went under suddenly,” he began, noting he hoped the letter would never be necessary.
“The thought that hurts worst of all is of you and your sorrow,” Tom said, advising Eileen that should the worst happen to “Just think of me as non-existent in spirit, blotted out completely; it would soften the last thoughts if I knew you would be really happy again.”
Yet he was still remembered 109 years later in Tarwin Lower, as he no doubt was by his fiancée for the rest of her days.
Tom was one of the valiant men rowing others ashore at Gallipoli, shot as he did so and dying aboard a hospital ship that evening.
Although not an RSL event, Tarwin Lower’s Anzac Day service was an equally worthy tribute to those who have served.
