Remembrance Day - November 11
In Australia the 11th of November is a day to remember those who died in war. The 11th of November 1918, saw the end of WW1. Australians observe one minute’s silence at 11.00 am on Remembrance Day.
Remembrance Day, was originally called Armistice Day. After the end of WW2 in 1945, the Australian and British governments changed the name to Remembrance Day as an appropriate title for a day which would commemorate all war dead.
In 1993, to mark the 75th anniversary of the 1918 armistice, the Australian Government exhumed the remains of an unknown Australian soldier from the Western Front for entombment at the Australian War Memorial’s Hall of Memory, Canberra.
In 30 years from 1915, 100,000 Australians died in war service. Many of those died in action. Many also died through sickness and accidents. Many Australians came home with severe war injuries and died not long after, or had a greatly shortened life.
Over 500 Australians died in the Vietnam War, and since WW2, Australians have also seen action in places like Korea, Indonesia, Malaya, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Australians Killed in Afghanistan – Lest We Forget
Andrew Russell 33 – David Pearce 41 – Matthew Locke 33 – Luke Worsley 26 – Jason Marks 27 – Sean McCarthy 25 – Michael Fussell 25 – Gregory Michael Sher 30 – Mathew Hopkins 21 – Brett Till 31 – Benjamin Ranaudo 22 – Darren SMith 25 – Jacob Moerland 21 – Ben Chuck 27 – Timothy Aplin 38 – Scott Palmer 27 – Nathan Bewes 23 – Jason THomas Brown 29 – Grant Kirby 35 – Thomas Dale 21 – Jared MacKinney 28 – Richard Edward Atkinson 22 – Jamie Larcombe 21 – Brett Wood 32 – Andrew Jones 25 – Marcus Case 27 – Matt Lambert 26 – Rowan Robinson 23 – Todd Langley 35 – Bryce Duffy 26 – Ashley Birt 22 – Luke Gavin 27 – Blaine Diddams 40 – Nathanael Galagher 23 – Mervyn McDonald 30 – Stjepan Milosevic 40 – James Martin 21 – Robert Poate 23 – Scott Smith 24 – Cameron Stewart Baird 32
Stuart Nash, 21, was a Rifleman in the British Army. He was born in Sydney and was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2008. He is not counted in the list of Australian casualties above.