For some reason over and above the other horrors and events of WWI (and WWII), this campaign, location and date has become the point of focus and remembrance for Aussies and Kiwis
cheers D
Well, I’m not the most informed person on this subject but piecing together snippets I’ve read, been told and heard on the radio, the main reason is because the first Anzac Day was held on the 25th of April 1916, just a few months after the campaign had finished. In between times, nothing much else happened, the Kiwis didn’t arrive in France till April 1916, so parents back home had no more to grieve about except Gallipoli at that stage.
Anzac Day came about not for any national significance or Government decree as such, but as can be imagined for many families it was some time before they even heard their loved ones had been killed, and the shock of the campaign had begun to hit hard nationally by the turn of 1916, especially when it was then know to have been in vane and a defeat, and many soldiers were returning wounded and telling of the campaign.
Most families and friends of those killed had trouble coming to terms with this shock – remember it had never happened before in these countries. The idea of a significant day of rememberance was mooted as a way of being a collective funeral, for everyone to go through the grieving process properly, as no bodies could be returned. I believe someone within the RSA – which was brand new then – had the idea in NZ, and it started independently for the same reason in Australia from what I believe.
Wellington or somewhere like that reported they were to mark the day with a special ceremony. This news spread through the press, and soon everywhere wanted to do it. They were generally small ceremonies, and really just for the families and friends. It was never expected to carry on but as the years progressed and more and more of our soldiers were killed, it continued to be necessary till it just developed into an annual national day of mourning and rememberance.
Apparently here in cambridge when the first Anzac Day was being arranged by a local soldier who’d returned from Gallipoli minus his arm, he wanted to bring all the churches in. There was a huge spat over denominations, as there would have been in those days, and in the end he quit and gave up. But people said it HAD to happen so they threatened the churches and eventually it came to pass that memebrs of congregations from all churches were allowed to attend, so long as the word God and any religious aspect was not mentioned. Crazy story, but there you are.
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