Did you wear a poppy on November 11, Armistice Day?
The wearing of that poppy has ben a long, proud tradition in Australia for more than a century, but we are losing sight of its meaning and its importance.
It is a simple, powerful symbol of some our greatest qualities, and it is not, in any sense at all, a celebration of war. It is a symbol of grief, and of pride, and a recognition of some of the finest qualities of humanity. This is not just an Australian tradition, either. It is worn at ceremonies in many, many countries.
It honours such qualities as courage and pride, dependability, mateship, respect and, yes, patriotism. Those are eternal qualities in mankind, but we need sometimes to be reminded of them.
We need to be reminded of the men who went off to war because it was the right thing to do. The cause was clear. It is true that many went for the imagined adventure as well, but that willingness to adventure overseas was a good quality, too, especially in a country where few native-born had ever travelled overseas.
When the Great War broke out Australia's population was less than five million, and yet a staggering 416,809 men enlisted. There was no conscription. These men were all volunteers. Just over 300,000 served overseas. Of that, 62,000 were killed and 155,000 were wounded.
These soldiers of the empire, as they were, had a one in two chance of being wounded. They had a one in five chance of being killed.
The day was initially Armistice Day, marking the signing of the Armistice that ended the Great War on November 11, 1918. The first Armistice Day observances were held at Buckingham Palace in 1919, and that established the two-minute silence, a custom we still observe 106 years later.
On the next Armistice Day, in 1920, the remains of an unknown British soldier were buried with great honour in Westminster Abbey. More than a million people paid their respects. We did the same in 1993, and that is an important story I will tell one day soon.
The name of the day, and the wearing of the poppy were recognised in 1919 across Australia, led by the newly formed Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial League of Australia. In 1940 this organisation became the Returned Soldiers, Sailors and Airmens Imperial League of Australia, We know it now as the RSL, the Returned and Services League.
It was the RSL that promoted the name change in 1946, when Armistice Day became Remembrance Day, so that the name and the underlying thoughts and emotions were inclusive of the men and women who served in the Second World War and it has continued to bring to our thoughts those who have fought in a dozen conflicts since then.
Up into the 1960s the silence was observed fairly strictly across Australia, but now the roar of traffic passing services at our memorials can be deafening, and disappointing. We should all remember a time when we were brave and bold, when we loved our country for all its faults and when words like courage, duty and faith did not make us feel uncomfortable.
After World War II the name of the day was changed to Remembrance Day, as it was now a day of also mourning, and honouring, the nearly one million Australians who had signed up to fight for democrat and individual freedoms, in the Second World War.
Casualties were much lower, but still terrible. Just over 27,000 of us were killed, 40,000 were wounded and 22,000 were taken prisoner by the Japanese and one third of those men died in captivity. Almost 8000 were captured in Europe, and just over 2000 died in captivity.
They were not just part of our young nation. In a very real sense they were part of all of us, too, even now.
Somewhat oddly, the name was only formally recognised when our Governor General, The Honourable Sir William Patrick Deane AC KBE officially announced the adoption of the name Remembrance Day. That was in November 1997, 52 years after the name had been adopted by the Australian people. Sir William asked at the same time that Australians observe he traditional silence, using the time for reflection on what the day really means.
For some unknown reason the name was not formally changed to Remembrance Day until 1997. The Governor General proclaimed the 'new' name but it had been in formal use since 1949.
There were many poems, many songs, and many books generated by the Great War but two excerpts have become the property of all of us, and hopefully they serve as a reminder.
"In Flanders fields the poppies blow, between the crosses, row on row…" comes from Canadian Lieutenant Colonal John McCrae, who served as a surgeon on the Western Front, in conditions we cannot even imagine in the Australia we now share.
"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."
This is known to us as "the Ode" and we hear it every night in every fair-dinkum RSL, on ANZAC days and on Remembrance Days. It is from a poem, "For the Fallen", by Laurence Binyon and it dates from 1914, when England was reeling from the dramatic casualty lists suffered almost immediately in France, as we soon were.
We repeat "We will remember them", but do we? Do you?
Did you war the red poppy on Remembrance Day this year?
Remembrance Day is an international day of mourning, too, celebrated in remarkably similar ways in places as far-flung as Kenya, Brazil and Norway. In New Zealand, and I don't know why, the poppy is worn on ANZAC Day instead of on Remembrance Day. In the United States it has morphed into Veterans' Day.
Of my own mob in Vietnam half have left us.
I remember these good men and I mourn their passing as time takes it toll. We are all old men now, but we get together, about 50 of us, each year – and we remember.
I wear the red poppy. Do you?
