As Anzac Day marchers prepare for Friday, Glen Innes RSL Sub Branch president Gordon Taylor is putting the final touches on this year’s district events.
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With local World War II veterans Ian Moore and Jim Slaughter (DFC) joining fellow veteran Kenneth John Clarke, who served in New Guinea, set to lead this year’s Anzac Day march from the Glen Innes post office at 10.30am on Friday, Mr Taylor said he is looking forward to another successful Anzac Day service.
Beginning at the Glen Innes cemetery from 5am with the annual dawn service, Mr Taylor said the focus of this year’s ceremony will be on local veteran Lionel McDonald who was reported injured, missing and later killed in action after being taken captive in the trenches at Fromelles during World War I.
Mr Taylor said the circumstances surrounding serviceman McDonald’s mysterious history is sadly all too common during times of war, with a large number of soldiers lost in action and remaining unidentified.
Taking lead from a number of letters written at the time of McDonald’s service in Fromelles, Mr Taylor said he has managed to piece together a fairly consistent account to be presented during this week’s dawn service.
Mr Taylor said he is planning to also touch on the history of the dawn service in Australia and said, while there are a number of alternating accounts, he hopes it will speak to the ethos the Anzac and Australian spirit.
With both representatives of the 76th RAAF Squadron and Hunter River Lancers also attending, Mr Taylor said the 76th will perform an aerial fly-over during the march, while the Lancers will perform as the catafalque party, consisting of four members of the armed guard who will stand over the Anzac Park catafalque, with reversed arms, as a symbolic form of respect for those who have fallen.
With recent refurbishments to Anzac Park, Mr Taylor said the most recent Anzac Day monument will be open to the public, along with the recently refurbished Wartime Tea Rooms.
With breakfast and lunch served at the Glen Innes and District Services Club, as well as traditional two-up competitions, Mr Taylor said there will also be a small service in the club’s Memorial Garden.
Following the Glen Innes dawn service, Mr Taylor said the party will travel to Deepwater for the Anzac Day march and service to begin from 8.30am at the Deepwater post office, with service to be held at the Deepwater School of the Arts hall.