You're Invited - Lemnos Honoured on Anzac Day in Melbourne 2017

Oakleigh Cenotaph, re-dedicated by Lieutenant-General Sir Ned Herring who served in Greece in both world wars. Photo Jim Claven

Across Melbourne and Australia thousands of RSL's and communities will participate in Anzac Day ceremonies. This is to advise that our Committee has been formally invited to participate in two Anzac Day ceremonies in 2017.

Arlene Bennett as the Nurses Memorioal Centre memorial to nurses who served and suffered in war. Photo Jim Claven

Nurses Memorial Centre
Melbourne's Nurse Memorial Centre will be holding its annual Anzac Commemorative Service on Sunday, 23rd April 2017 at 2pm. The service will be held at the Centre - Suite 11, Fawkner Towers, 431 St Kilda Road, Melbourne. The Service will to honour Victorian and other nurses who have made sacrifices of life and health, both in times of peace and war.
It is particularly relevant for our Committee to participate in this service given the role of Australia's nurses on Lemnos during the Gallipoli campaign, many of whom were exposed to disease and illness during their service. And also because of the support of the Nurses Memorial Centre for our various projects, including the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial in Albert Park.
Our President will lay a wreath during the service.
This Service will be followed by a presentation by one of our Committee members (and Board member of the Nurses Memorial Centre) on her recent visit to Banka Island and the memorial service held there for the Australian nurses murdered there by Japanese forces in 1942.
All are welcome to attend the Oakleigh-Carnegie Dawn Service. It would be great to see a good turn-out of our Committee at this event.
Oakleigh Dawn Service and Breakfast
The Oakleigh-Carnegie RSL in Drummond Street, Oakleigh, will hold its traditional dawn service at 6am on 25th April 2017.
Our President, Mr Lee Tarlamis, will lay a wreath on our behalf. This is particularly poignant in Oakleigh for two main reasons.
Firstly, Private William Withers is one of the diggers who served in the Gallipoli campaign who tragically died and is buried on Lemnos. He and his family are connected to Oakleigh. After representation by myself on behalf of the Committee is name has been added to the Oakleigh-Carnegie RSL Honour Board.
Secondly, the Oakleigh Cenotaph was re-dedicated by Lieutenant-General Sir Ned Herring, an Australian artillery officer who served on both the Salonika Front in the First World War and in Greece during the campaign there during the Second World War.

Oakleigh's William Withers, his grave on Lemnos. Photo Jim Claven

All are welcome to attend the Oakleigh-Carnegie Dawn Service. It would be great to see a good turn-out of our Committee at this event.
You can read more about William Withers and Oakleigh from my previous Anzac Dawn Service address at Oakleigh in 2014 by clicking here.
Mr Tony Tsourdalakis will also lay a wreath, on behalf of the Melbourne-based Battle of Crete and the Greek Campaign Commemorative Council, in recognition of the role of local diggers in those campaigns in 1941. Melbourne's Anzac Day Parade
A number of members of Melbourne's Greek-Australian community will join with the veterans and descendants of Australia's 6th Division diggers who served in the Greek campaign in 1941 during Melbourne's Anzac Day parade.
If you would like to meet some of these veterans and descendants, they will assemble to the eastern side of St Paul's Cathedral on Flinders Street, prior to marching off at 9.45am.
Below are some photos of last years parade, showing members of Melbourne's Cretan community with the 2/7th Australian Infantry Battalion Association. 

 

Jim Claven
Secretary, Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee
Member, Battle of Crete and the Greek Campaign Commemorative Council