A short report on an even shorter RSL Remembrance Service
The MC this year was Ms Aileen Phillips who is a print and digital journalist at RSL Victoria. At the end of proceedings, State President Dr Robert Webster thanked her for bringing a certain, er, spirit to the service. We wondered whether the spirit was some sort of avgas which accelerated the speed of the event.
The cost of avgas must have also curtailed the promised flypast which was supposed to comprise enough aircraft to form a cross. In reality one plane appeared, flying the length of the cemetery and then a minute later, coming back over us at right-angles thus forming an imaginary aerial budget cross.
We noticed that the audience was the smallest we’d seen in years so dubbed it RSL Lite. It was so lite there wasn’t even one Lighthorseman nor a single khaki kitted colleague. Compared to previous years, politicians were conspicuous by their absence but they were probably somewhere else important, kissing babies or wearing hi-vis jackets.
A student told the assembly about The Poppy Legend but we had our own. Keilor collector Barry McMahon had mercifully brought his own tray of poppies and insignia to sell and did a roaring trade. Sixteen choristers formed the choir and special thanks should go out to Men About Two Towns Tim Todhunter and Barry Leviny, representing the Bendigo chapter.
Sub-Lieutenant Todhunter wasn’t wearing any medals but Nasho Naylor was and Graham Hickman had an impressive array. Many thanks to Geoff Roberts for bringing the truck, the size and colour of which I always use as a marker when entering the site. Thanks to him and his helpers for setting up and dismantling the hop-ups. We were also pleased to see Covid comebacks Dev and, boosting the audience numbers, probationer Chris Norton, with wife Sueie.
The Dandenong City Band were set to appear but were struck by Covid so a pickup group of musicians, aka the Stonnington City Band, were pressed into service at short notice. We had worked with them before and their leader Kevin was eminently professional in conducting them as well as us in O God Our Help in Ages Past.
Chaplain John Raike read the Commemoration to the Fallen Prayer, including the words “in this 103rd Anniversary year.” Was this also light by a year, we wondered?
The address was also much shorter. Dr Bart Ziino, a Deakin University historian, spoke about the Australian War Graves Commission and how well they looked after the various sites around the world. Dr Ziino, despite having two i’s in his name, was not at all an egotist nor a naval rating and his speech was well-ordered and educational.
After the official wreath laying we were keyed up to sing again but, to our astonishment, when it came time for Abide with Me, Kevin’s raised baton had to be quickly lowered as there was no mention of the hymn and Dr Webster went straight to The Ode. It seemed no time at all before the bugler had roused us into the National Anthem, the Catafalque Party marched off, Closing Remarks and the Benediction given, before the Laying of Private Wreaths was allowed. This was the slowest part of the entire occasion, thanks in part to a very elderly lady having to take her time in wrangling a walker up and down a step. This was actually the best part for us, as the band played a selection of wartime ditties and we sang along.
Who’s Your Lady Friend? indeed.