The College Chaplain Rev David Williams gave a moving homily at the Newington College Centenary of Anzac Memorial service last week to a crowded audience of Newington boys, parents, Old Boys and family descendants of The Fallen 111 in Centenary Hall. 

One hundred years ago, on the 25th of April, 1915, the day dawned fine and clear. The first wave of Australians landed on the beach at Gallipoli and fought their way through scrub and gullies up the ridges of Anzac Cove.

The New Zealand soldiers, waiting their turn on landing-craft, were unstinting in their praise of the Australian advance: as a Kiwi Sergeant wrote; “There were no orders, no proper military ‘team work’, no instructions, just absolute heroism.”

It was late morning when the first New Zealanders began to land, into a scene of upturned boats, scattered gear, and dead men littering the beach. A private with the Canterbury infantry wrote in his dairy, “the noise was terrible, one continuous roar of rifle and shellfire mingled with the cries of the wounded and dying.”

Now 100 years later, we ponder the tragic absurdity of Gallipoli – the Anzacs being sent into a war zone, not knowing why they were going; just that they were ordered to be there by their generals, ordered to land on Turkish soil.

A tragic irony that would eventuate, after all the turmoil and suffering on both sides, was to see the enemy become a friend and brother. Even during conflict there are many stories of kindness and friendship being exchanged between Young Turks and the Anzacs. One of the moments that stood out for me from our Remembrance presentation just now, is that picture of an Australian soldier kneeling in the mud to give a wounded Turkish soldier a drink of water. That scene is so much a symbol of how the warring sides over the years have become united in a bond that flourishes to this day. What crazy madness, full of contradictions and unanswered questions – waste and misery and defeat.

And yet to this day – the 25th of April, and that particular battle at Gallipoli will stand forever, etched in Australian and New Zealand history, and in so many ways has forged our identity and character as nations.

It is a day, where from defeat there is a victory, and it is a victory which is writ large above each and every one of you, because for 100 years the call has been to ‘Remember them’, and here WE are, remembering them.

On that day 100 years ago, courageous Australians and New Zealanders gave us that first Anzac day, forging in bloody sacrifice the bond that ties our two nations so closely to each other.

They were a wonderful mix of men – miners, rouseabouts, railway workers, tradesmen, lawyers, timber cutters – they were atheists, agnostics, Roman Catholics, Protestants and Jews – but they went as one, in our uniforms, under our flags, and in our name.

Each one of them lies as a silent witness to the future they have given us. Indeed, ‘time dims not their sacrifice’. We honour them best by the way we live our lives today, and shape our nation for the future.

We have this one chance at life – as they did. To change our world for the good, to oppose evil in all its guises… to be the best we can be for each other, and to make our world a just, free and peaceful place.

To the Christian ear, I hope this approach to our “one chance at life” sounds very familiar, because within it you can hear the voice of Jesus talking about being prepared to lay down our life for others.

There is a story from the Western Front – a Sergeant Simon Fraser spent three backbreaking days bringing in the wounded from No Mans Land, rising from out of the fog and breaking through Fraser’s exhaustion came a lone voice calling out to him, “Don’t forget me cobber.”

Sargeant Fraser didn’t, we won’t, we never will. We will remember them.

Lest we forget

AMEN