Right: Junior members of Australian Air League, Cranbourne Squadron, laid a wreath at Cranbourne’s Remembrance Day service.
By Bridget Cook
CASEY residents turned out in force on Friday to honour fallen service people at a Remembrance Day service in Cranbourne.
Hundreds of people, including students from most local schools, gathered at the Cranbourne cenotaph for the service to pay tribute to the men and women who had lost their lives in war and conflict.
Following on from the playing of the Last Post, the crowd stopped for a minute’s silence – 93 years on, at the hour, from when the guns ceased firing and the killing stopped with the end of World War I.
Lyndhurst Secondary College school captain Jayden Lynch-Cooper was chosen to read out The Ode of Remembrance at the service.
City of Casey councillor Amanda Stapledon gave the Remembrance Day address.
“Today, we remember solemnly and with gratitude the men and women who have given their lives for us in the many conflicts that have afflicted us in the past century, and continue to do so to this very day,” she said.
“And we remember in particular those that fought and suffered in the First World War.”
“They are no longer among us, how best can we honour their gift of sacrifice? It is by making sure that the lessons they taught us to their great cost are always in the forefront of our minds, that we in our generation pass on those lessons to our children and to remember for all time that the standards they set for us by their sacrifice are the bases upon which Australia has become the great nation she is.
“Then they canrest content.”
Members from the RSL, community groups, representatives from local schools and residents then laid wreathes and poppies at the cenotaph site.
Holt MP Anthony Byrne laid a wreath at the service.
“It was great to see so many local students like Jayden demonstrate a strong connection with Remembrance Day and get involved in the ceremony by laying wreaths,” Mr Byrne said.
“It is particularly important that young Australians are involved in Remembrance Day ceremonies in order to ensure the legacy of honouring fallen servicemen and women continues.”
