By Eleanor Wilson
Overcast skies held back showers this morning, Friday 11 November, as Berwick paused at 11am to commemorate the 104th anniversary of the end of the First World War.
Members of the Berwick RSL, local community members, veterans and politicians were among a crowd of about 80 people to gather around the Berwick cenotaph to mark Remembrance Day.
In her address, Berwick RSL president Pam Phillips paid respect to the more than 102,000 Australians who have lost their lives in war and conflict.
“As we pause on Remembrance Day we reflect on the price that Australia and countries around the world paid through more than a century of war,” Mrs Phillips said.
“Our thoughts turn to wars’ enormous cost and the toll it takes, not only on those who fall, but those who have served.”
The commemoration included a recital of the poem In Flanders’ Fields, the Last Post and Reveille and the Ode.
A minute’s silence was then observed by a sombre crowd, before local politicians, veteran groups and community members laid a series of wreaths at the memorial.
Jason van Gameren, who served in the Australian Army from 2000 to 2011, laid a floral tribute for his fellow Afghanistan veterans.
He was deployed in the nation’s capital Kabul for six months in 2008 with the Royal Australian Corps of Transport.
Bill Peeler laid a wreath in memory of his “uncle Wally’ – Lance Corporal Walter Peeler, a Victoria Cross recipient decorated for his actions during the battle of Broodseinde, Belgium in October 1917.
Mrs Phillips said she was pleased with the turn out for the event, which seemed to have doubled in size compared to last year’s Covid-impacted service.
“I thought it went very well. The rain kept some people away but I think we still had a fair turn out,” she said.
“There were a lot of RSL members there, but also lots of members of the public, so I was happy.
The ceremony concluded with the playing of the Australian National Anthem, as flags at the memorial were lowered to half mast.
