Melbourne’s Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee has announced that its annual commemorative service will be held this year on Saturday 12 August, the event commencing at 11am. The service will be held at the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial at Lemnos Square, Foote Street, Albert Park.
The President of the Committee, Lee Tarlamis OAM MP, stated that the Committee had had many services over the years since the official unveiling in 2015.
“Many dignitaries from here and abroad have visited our Memorial and paid their respects, including the current Chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff, General Konstantinos Floros. General Floros was present when Councillor Bernadene Voss, the then Mayor of the City of Port Phillip announced the formal naming of the Reserve, on which our Memorial is located, Lemnos Square”, he told Neos Kosmos.
“You will recall that this bronze Memorial, of a nurse protecting a weary soldier, was sculpted by renowned artist Peter Corlett OAM. It recognizes the important role of the Greek island of Lemnos in Australia’s ANZAC story and is dedicated to the Australian nurses and soldiers who served there during the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915; to the 148 Australian soldiers who remain buried there; and to the local community who supported them”, Mr Tarlamis said.
The program for the 2023 Commemorative Service at Lemnos Square will include an address, a wreath-laying ceremony, the national anthems of Greece and Australia and the reciting of the Ode.
Copies of Lemnos Gallipoli Revealed ($50) or Grecian Adventure ($30) – both authored by Secretary Jim Claven – will be available for purchase at the event. These may also be purchased in place of a wreath and can then be gifted to a school or organisation by the purchaser after the event to continue educating the wider community about the Hellenic connection to the Anzac story.
Those who would like to lay a wreath should contact Mr Tarlamis via email – leetarlamis@hotmail.com.
