Remembrance Day - Veterans Day - Armistice Day 2024

[mike carey]

Today marks the 106th Anniversary of the Armistice that was signed in a railway carriage at Compiègne, and which came into force at 11am, drawing a close to the 'War to End all Wars'.

I am just watching the broadcast of the National Remembrance Day service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. The Address was given by Her Excellency Sam Mostyn, the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Here in the small town where I grew up, the Eleventh Hour was marked by the siren at the local fire station sounding for one minute, a commemoration that I had forgotten occurred.

As the hour for commemoration approaches around the world, I wish all those who served and those who love and care for them the peace of a period of quiet reflection on the sacrifice that they and countless others made. The optimism of those who 106 years ago dared to hope that the memory of what they had witnessed would make further wars unthinkable has sadly been unfulfilled. We can but hope that those who follow us will continue to strive to achieve what we and those who came before us have not.

Lest We Forget

[mike carey]

After the ceremony, Her Excellency and the Prime Minister announced that His Majesty the King had approved the award of the Victoria Cross for Australia to the late Private Richard Norden, for most conspicuous acts of gallantry in action in Bien Hoa Province on 14 May 1968. Private Norden was killed in a motor cycle accident in 1972 while on duty as a police officer in the Australian Capital Territory Police Force.

May he rest in peace.