Toukley RSL Sub Branch has installed two new statues to honour the lives of the nation’s fallen and returned servicemen and women.
“The Sub Branch thought that it would be appropriate for the centenary of the signing of the Armistice, that occurs at 11am on November 11, to procure two bronze statues and have them mounted at the RSL Cenotaph,” said Sub Branch President, Bob Wilson. “They are exact replicas of the statues that are in Martin Place Sydney. “Not only will they serve as a reminder to all of the sacrifices so many veterans have paid for their country, but also they are eternal guardians to the ashes that are interred at this most sacred memorial site,” Wilson said.
Currently, the Cenotaph is the final resting place of 408 Toukley Sub Branch veterans. “This year for Remembrance Day, we will not only have a service for this most signifi cant event, but we are also having a dedication service for the installed statues. “We are very privileged to have as our Guest of Honour, Mia Thomas, a 16-year-old student from McKillop College, who is the great, great granddaughter of Alfred Shout VC, one of the original seven soldiers awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry at the Battle of Lone Pine.
“These Memorial Gardens are a place where lives are commemorated, deaths are recorded, families reunited, and love is undisguised. “Communities accord respect, families bestow reverence, and our heritage is therefore enriched. “Testimonies of devotion, pride and remembrance are cast in stone to pay a warm tribute to those who rest here after giving service to their country,” Wilson said. “The Memorial is a history of people, a perpetual record of yesterday and a sanctuary of peace and quiet today, and it exists because every life is worth loving and remembering always. “The addition to the cenotaph of the two bronze statues, is a fitting tribute to all those who served their country in time of war, so that we could have the life that we now live. “They will serve as perpetual guardians of all those at rest here today,” Wilson concluded.
Source: Media release, Oct 29 Bob Wilson, Toukley RSL Sub Branch