Add Category
Retired rear admiral Guy Griffiths from Castle Cove was deployed in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
Loading
“I marched last year but this year I didn’t think I’d quite make it. I didn’t want to stop halfway along, so I am in one of the cabs this year,” he said.
“I was a midshipman in the battle cruiser Repulse, which was sunk [by Japanese bombers] on September 10, 1941, off Malaya as it was then. I was one of the survivors. It wasn’t easy getting out. I was down below and got out a porthole and slipped down the ship’s side and swam for a while until I got to a destroyer, HMS Express.”
Gordon Richardson, 99, from Belrose who served with the RAAF in World War II said he was feeling sad about his wife, Frances, a nurse he met in the Celebes Islands.
“My last march was with my wife 10 years ago in wheelchairs,” he said. Asked why he had turned out this year, he said, “I had to, she’s up there looking down on me.”
Crowds line Elizabeth Street in Sydney’s CBD to watch the Anzac Day march.Credit:Kate Geraghty
Valerie Ireland, 97, in one of the front wheelchairs had a sign saying Ack Ack. She served in the Second World War in an all-female heavy anti-aircraft battery at Stockton Beach, Newcastle, because the BHP plant was considered a target for the Japanese.
She said, “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
Her words were echoed by many. It was a day of memories, some good, some not so good.
Loading
The memories for some resonated even more with a second, slower but less noisy, flypast of a DC3, Catalina, Gruman Tracker and Caribou aircraft.
The crowd was almost, but not quite, done clapping as the last of the marchers came past at 11.40. In the rear guard was the Serbian Soldiers and Chetniks contingent (best hats on the march), the Turkish Chapter Cumberland Sub Branch, Rhodesian veterans and last, but not least, the SES.
The RSL said there were 9242 participants in the march compared to 4000 last year (COVID restrictions) but there were 14,690 in 2018.
Merrilyn Taylor (“like Elizabeth”) from Glenwood is a veteran watcher of 35 Anzac Day marches despite having no military history in her family. Sitting on the wall next to the Grumpy Baker on Elizabeth Street she picnicked on a roast pork and tomato roll brought from home.
Merrilyn Taylor (red top) and Sylvia Campbell watching the Anzac Day march.Credit:Tim Barlass
“It was a lot shorter this year with not as many bands,” she said. “They are coping with COVID and it is the school holidays. I just like to come and support them, I think that’s very important.”
Friend Sylvia Campbell (who brought a ham, lettuce and tomato sandwich) is originally from the Isle of Wight but now lives in Wentworthville. She said her father served in the Second World War in Malta, where he met his wife, a school teacher.
“I absolutely love [the march]. It makes me almost cry when I see these old guys still walking along.”
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.