Remembrance Day: Albany pauses to honour the fallen with hundreds gathering for moving service on York Street

Albany paused on Tuesday morning for Remembrance Day to honour and remember Australians who died in armed conflict, on the 107th anniversary of the end of World War I. The Albany RSL hosted the annual service at the Albany War Memorial on York Street, with attendees filling the gardens of St John’s Church and the footpaths along York Street and Peels Place. The visiting crew of HMAS Perth III marched down York Street from the Albany Town Hall to begin the service, escorted by the 705th Squadron Air Force Cadet drum corps. Albany resident Kevin Gomm read a letter his great-grandfather Harry Gomm wrote home to his daughter Kit from the battlefields of France, just days before the armistice was signed that would end the years-long conflict. Piper Andy Davis accompanied the wreath laying, standing on the roundabout on York Street, while Albany dignitaries attending included O’Connor MHR Rick Wilson, Great Southern police Supt Jon Munday, Great Southern Fire and Emergency Services Supt Diarmuid Kinsella and City of Albany mayor Greg Stocks. After wreaths were laid, Steve Edmonds read The Ode and the gathered crowd observed a minute’s silence at 11am. The Albany Aero Club performed a flyover to break the minute’s silence, the small group of planes coming from over Princess Royal Harbour. Retired Brigadier Phillip White delivered the keynote address, recalling his family’s connection to WWI, including the tragic Battle of Fromelles. Mr White’s great-uncle served in the Australian 5th Division, who were new to the trench warfare of the Western Front when they were called into the Battle of Fromelles in 1916, which is still considered one of Australia’s great military disasters with more than 5500 casualties. He reminded attendees of the importance of remembering those who had died in service. “Albany holds an important place in our nation’s history and the Anzac story,” he said. “For it was from here on the first of November 1914, that nearly 30,000 Australian and New Zealand troops departed, catching their last glimpse of Australian soil before heading to the battlefields of Gallipoli, the Middle East and the Western Front, many as we know never to return. “So it is that Remembrance Day is a significant event in our national calendar, and it’s important that we come together as a community on this special occasion, not in celebration, but rather in memory of the hundreds of thousands of Australian men and women who, having departed from our shores, made the supreme sacrifice in defence of our great nation.”