This article was originally published in Old Melbournian Connect, a quarterly digital newsletter for the School’s alumni.
On Friday 26 April 2024 at 11.35am, 60 Old Melburnians, more than 1200 Wadhurst and Senior School students along with the Grimwade House 2024 Captains gathered at the South Yarra Campus to mark the historic day in 1915 that Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in WWI.
Grimwade House held their own moving Service on Wednesday 24 April 2024.
The South Yarra based ANZAC Service of Commemoration, which has been held at the School since 1929, is one aspect of a sombre day of reflection and contemplation.
Ted Blamey (OM 1963) gave the ANZAC Service Address, titled Australian Generalship through two World Wars, an exceptional speech about his grandfather, Field Marshal Sir Thomas Blamey, widely considered to be Australia’s greatest and most important soldier, and the only Australian to reach the rank of Field Marshall.
Ted ended his address with these words, which were followed by sustained applause.
“Perhaps Field Marshall Sir Thomas Blamey’s story, Australia’s most decorated commander, the drover’s seventh child from Wagga Wagga, will inspire you too, no matter how humble your beginnings – to use (as our school prayer entreats) the talents committed to your charge to the welfare of your fellow-creatures – so to bring determination, resourcefulness, humility, strength in leadership, courage and loyalty to serve your mates, this fine school and your nation – in your own way, in your own time.”
“Carry On”!
Read the full transcript here.
At the lunch following the Service, Martin Scott KC (OM 1980), President of the Old Melburnians, addressed guests with a moving speech about Old Melburnian, Eric William Tulloch (OM 1899), renowned for rowing in the very first Melbourne Grammar First VIII in 1899, and then 20 years later as Captain of the 11th Battalion that landed on the Gallipoli shores on 25 April 1919.
Martin’s speech concluded:
“On behalf of the Old Melburnians’ Council, my thanks first to the School for honouring the condition of the gift that requires the service we attended this morning. It is honoured to the letter of the condition but in spirit, it does more. The solemnity and dignity with which the living school conducts itself is a tribute to the School.
Secondly, my thanks to those representing those who served. You are an important and tangible reminder of service and its human context.
Thirdly, thanks to those present who now serve or have served in the uniform of the ADF. I am not alone in this room in thinking that there is no higher form of service to our country.”
Read the full transcript here.
