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Our Committee is raising funds to create a lasting legacy telling the story of Lemnos' link to Gallipoli and Australia's Anzac story. Our projects include the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial in Albert Park, the publication of a major new historical and pictorial publication and more. To make a donation you can also deposit directly by direct debit into the Committee's bank account: Account Name: Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee Inc; Bank: Bendigo Bank; Account No: 188010037; BSB No: 633000; Include your surname in the reference section. For further information on our legacy projects or to make a donation please contact either Lee Tarlamis 0411553009 or Jim Claven 0409402388M

Friday 25 May 2018

Lemnos' Australian Pier Unveiled and Lemnos' Gallipoli Heritage Trail Announced

The Australian Pier Memorial following its unveiling. Photo Jim Claven 2018

Last month saw two major achievements by our Committee, working in concert with the authorities on Lemnos and in Australia. 
These were the erection and unveiling Lemnos' new commemorative memorial to the Australian Pier and the announcement of the future creation of the Lemnos Gallipoli Heritage Trail on Lemnos.
The Australian Pier Memorial Plaque, Lemnos. Photo Jim Claven 2018
The announcement took place following the unveiling on the 20th April of the new memorial on Lemnos commemorating the Australian Pier near Mudros. This Pier was built by Australian soldiers and engineers in March 1915 as part of the transformation of the Island into the advanced base for the Gallipoli campaign. 

Myself (left) and Mr Tarlamis (right) with Mr Giarmadouros, Sub-Prefect of the Northern Aegean. Photo Jim Claven 2018

The Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee delegation with Mr Marinakis, the Mayor of Lemnos. Photo Jim Claven 2018
In their joint announcement, Mr Evagelos Giarmadouros, Sub-Prefect for the Northern Aegean, and Mr Lee Tarlamis, President of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee, stated that the creation of this heritage trail is a vital new step in not only commemorating Lemnos’ link to the Gallipoli campaign but also in facilitating awareness of the link to a new generation.

“Our Committee has worked for many years to build awareness of the Lemnos’ link to Anzac in both Australia and Greece. The creation of the Lemnos Gallipoli Heritage Trail will be the culmination of this work and we look forward to working with the Lemnos authorities to make this a reality,” Mr Tarlamis said from Lemnos.

Mr Giarmadouros said that the Trail would assist Australians to walk in the footsteps of their forebears who came to Lemnos over 100 years ago.

“The Lemnos Gallipoli Heritage Trail will form a bridge between Australia and Greece – as well as those from the other nations connected to the Gallipoli story – and build greater understanding of our joint heritage. There are many bonds between Lemnians and Australians and I know that this initiative will be welcomed both on Lemnos and in Australia. I look forward to working together with the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee to bring this trail to a reality,” he said.

The Committee will work with both the Prefecture of the Northern Aegean and the Municipality to make the new Lemnos Gallipoli Heritage Trail a reality.
 
This year’s Anzac commemorations on Lemnos took place on the 20th April. The commemorations were attended by over 200 people, from both near and far. They were attended by the Australian Ambassador to Greece, other consular and parliamentary dignitaries and senior representatives of the Hellenic Armed forces. The latter included Vice Admiral Ioannis Pavlopoulos, HN, Commander in Chief of the Hellenic Fleet, who travelled from Athens for the event. Some of my photos of the commemorative service at East Mudros Military Cemetery and at Mudros Harbour are reproduced below.







A delegation of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee traveled from Australia to take part in the events. The delegation was led by Mr Tarlamis and myself, and included Ms Deb Stewart, the grand-daughter of Sister Evelyn Hutt who served on Lemnos in 1915, and Mr Malcolm MacDonald, who has written about Second Lieutenant William Davis, a former Victorian trade union official who served and died at Gallipoli.

The commemorations included a formal commemorative service at East Mudros Military Cemetery, a short service at Mudros’ harbour-side Anzac memorial, a historical presentation by Dr. Vassiliki Chryssanthopoulou and a visit to the impressive Lemnos Gallipoli display at the Maritime Museum at Mudros. Mr Tarlamis laid the wreath of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee during the service at East Mudros.
However the main feature of this year’s event was the unveiling of the Australian Pier Memorial, at Aghios Pavlos, north of Mudros. The proposal to build this new Memorial grew out of my own research into the story of the Australian Pier and its erection was jointly funded by the Victorian Government, the Prefecture of the Northern Aegean, the Municipality of Lemnos and the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee. 

I became aware of the story of Lemnos' Australian Pier as a result of my researches through the archives into Lemnos' link to Anzac and the Gallipoli campaign of 1915. The story of the pier is recounted in a short article which I wrote and which was published in Australia's national Greek community newspaper Neos Kosmos. I produced a special brochure on the story of the pier for the unveiling ceremony. You can view and download a copy of the brochure by clicking here.

At the invitation of the local authorities, Mr Tarlamis gave the keynote address at the Memorial immediately prior to its unveiling.To read Mr Tarlamis' address at the unveiling, please click here.  The Australian Pier memorial was unveiled by Her Excellency the Ambassador to Greece Ms Kate Logan, assisted by the consular representatives of New Zealand, Canada and France as well as representatives of the Prefecture of the Northern Aegean and the Municipality of Lemnos and Mr Tarlamis. Also present were representatives of the Hellenic Parliament and Mr Khalil Eideh, MP, representing the Victorian Parliament.
The Australian Pier memorial unveiled. Photo Jim Claven 2018
The commemorations concluded with an event at Mudros’ new amphitheatre which looks out across Lemnos’ great Mudros Bay. Amongst other presentations, it was my pleasure to address the assembly telling the story of my discovery of the Australian Pier, from an obscure reference on a naval map held in British Library in London to the archives of Australian military units that served on Lemnos held in Canberra’s Australian War Memorial. 
I particularly thanked my colleagues in Greece – Mr Dimitris Boulotis and Ms Liza Koutsaplis – in assisting my research into the Australian Pier.
To read the address by our President Lee Tarlamis please click here  and to ready my own address please click here.
The Australian Ambassador addresses the crowd at the new ampitheatre at Mudros. Photo Jim Claven 2018
And how appropriate it was to give this address in a re-created traditional classical Greek amphitheatre, looking out across Mudros Bay, which was filled with over 200 Allied ships on the eve of the landings at Gallipoli 103 years ago.

During their visit to Lemnos, I took members of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee on a day tour of the Island’s key Anzac sites and some of the villages visited by the Anzacs in 1915. Ms Stewart was particularly moved to walk on the Turks Head Peninsula where her grandmother was based during the Gallipoli campaign. I was assisted in the tour by Lemnos’ Petrides Travel.
Our party at the graves of the two Canadian nurses who died during their service on Lemnos in 1915. Photo Jim Claven 2018

Committee members Deb Stewart and Malcolm McDonald in Tsimandria, Lemnos. Photo Jim Claven 2018

On the Turks Head Peninsula - wear the Australian nurses and other medical staff served the sick and wounded in 1915. Photo Jim Claven 2018

Malcolm McDonald at the site of the Water Distillation Plant erected by Jewish volunteers from Palestine serving in the British Army on Lemnos in 1915. Photo Jim Claven 2018
Mr Tarlamis thanked the local authorities for their efforts in putting together this year’s commemorations.

“We have been participating in the annual commemorations on Lemnos for a number of years now and I can say that this year’s events were truly one of the best. It was an honour for me and our Committee representatives to take part in the commemorations. I especially want to congratulate Mr Giarmadouros and the Prefecture of the Northern Aegean as well as Mr Dimitrios Marinakis, the Mayor of Lemnos, for their efforts and their welcome to their beautiful Island,” he said.

As part of this year’s commemorations on Lemnos, the Victorian Government has provided $5,000 in much needed assistance to Mudros Senior Secondary College on Lemnos. This will provided two state of the art projectors and other educational aids for the students at this school. This school has actively participated in the recent visits to Lemnos by Victorian secondary students as part of the Victorian Premier’s Anzac Student Prize program. 

Mr Tarlamis and I visited the school to discuss the grant. The Director of the School, Mr Stylianos Karagioannis said that this assistance was most welcome.

“I look forward to continuing the links between my students and those from Victoria. Such interaction is an important part of our education program, opening our student’s eyes to the world beyond our Island and to appreciate the Anzac connection to Lemnos,” he said.

Mr Tarlamis added that the Committee was working to creating a link between Mudros Senior Secondary College and Melbourne’s Albert Park Secondary College, which is located next to the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial in Albert Park and who participate in the Committee’s annual commemorative service there. 
Christina Despoteris with the Principal of Albert Park Secondary College. Photo Christina Despoteris 2018
Ms Christina Despoteris, the Committee Vice-President, has recently held discussions with both schools to make this a reality. Ms Despoteris reported that the Principal of Albert Secondary College not only supports the proposal to link both schools but is hoping to visit Lemnos with a delegation of his students during the coming commemorations of the centenary of the Armistice of Mudros to be held on Lemnos in early November later this year.

“Our Committee is so pleased to have been able to facilitate this link between Victorian and Lemnian secondary school students. These sorts of connections are vital to preserving awareness of Lemnos’ link to Anzac in future generations,” Ms Despoteris said.

The visit by Albert Park students will coincide with the special Victorian Premiers Anzac Student Prize Alumni Tour to Lemnos during the Armistice commemorations. This will be the first time that the Armistice – which brought an end to the war between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire – will be commemorated and the first of an annual service on Lemnos and in Australia.
 On behalf of the Committee I have successfully proposed the establishment of an annual commemorative service at Melbourne’s iconic Shrine of Remembrance – designed in the image of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus – the first service to take place on the centenary of the Armistice’s having come into effect – at 12 noon on 31st October this year.

It is hoped that the progressive creation of the new Lemnos Gallipoli Heritage Trail will form the beginning of a new Anzac trail throughout Greece from Lemnos, through Thessaloniki, down through mainland Greece to the Peloponnese, to Crete and across the Aegean – linking the key Anzac and other Allied related site from both WW1 and WW2.

The Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee and the Prefecture of the Northern Aegean have now commenced the planning for the creation of the Lemnos Gallipoli Heritage Trail, including a number of additional memorials commemorating significant locations in Lemnos’ link to Anzac and other related initiatives. The Committee has also extended an invitation to the regional and local Lemnian authorities to visit Melbourne and our Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial. 

Jim Claven
Secretary, Lemmos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

Thursday 24 May 2018

You are Invited - Battle of Crete Commemoration - Shrine of Remembrance - 10am Sat 26th May


Australian Anti-Aircraft Battery Maleme airfield, Crete, May 1941. Photo: AWM
Australian nurses arrive on Crete following their evacuation from the Greek mainland, Suda Bay, April 1941. Photo: AWM

This Saturday 26th May will see the formal commemoration in Melbourne of the 77th anniversary of the battle of Crete.
The event will take place at the forecourt of the Shrine of Remembrance, commencing at 10am.
The Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee has again been invited to take part in this annual commemorative service by laying a wreath. Our Vice-President, Ms Christina Despoteris, will lay the wreath on behalf of the Committee.
This is an important part of the calender of annual events commemorating key elements in the Hellenic link to Anzac - stretching from Lemnos in 1915 to the battle of Greece and Crete in WW2.
All members of the Committee are urged to attend this public event.

Jim Claven
Secretary, Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee