Melbourne’s iconic Lemnos Gallipoli memorial celebrated its tenth anniversary last weekend in a blazing sunlit winter day.
Committee President, Lee Tarlamis OAM MP, said it was a fitting celebration of the Memorial, Lemnos’ enduring link to Australia’s Anzac story and the local community who have supported its creation and continue to support each annual commemorative service.
“Our Committee is proud of all those who came along last Saturday to celebrate the anniversary of the Memorial’s unveiling. It seems like yesterday that hundreds gathered to witness the unveiling event in August 2015. It is heartening that the Memorial remains a cherished emblem for so many across the community,” Tarlamis said.
The creation of the Memorial was commissioned by the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee supported of all levels of government, numerous community organisations and generous individuals, with Australia’s pre-eminent commemorative sculptor Peter Corlett OAM undertaking the task. It was created to recognize the essential role of Lemnos and its inhabitants to the Gallipoli campaign. It was the major advanced base for the campaign, its great harbour at Mudros the marshalling point for the Allied fleet headed for Gallipoli, its shores and hinterland home to army rest camps, field hospitals and supply bases. Soldiers would continue their military training on the Island.
Locals would receive essential medical treatment in the military hospitals based there. And while on Lemnos the thousands of Allied service personnel would meet the welcoming locals, traversing the island and visiting its many villages, experiencing Hellenic culture, capturing these in their photographs and in their writings.
As expected this important service was well attended, with many dignitaries, representatives of service and community organisations and individuals, including many Australian Hellenes with connections to Lemnos. The custodians of the Memorial – the City of Port Phillip – were represented by Cr Rod Hardy representing the Mayor accompanied by Deputy Mayor Cr Brian Miers.
Parliamentary representatives included Josh Burns Federal MP for Melbourne Ports representing the Australian Minister for Veterans Affairs, Nina Taylor State MP for Albert Park representing the Premier of Victoria and Minister for Veterans, David Davis State MP for Southern Metropolitan Region representing the Victorian Leader of the Opposition along with Georgie Crozier State MP for Southern Metropolitan Region. Former State MP Bruce Mildenhall also attended the service. Diplomatic representatives included the Consul of the Hellenic Republic Dimitra Georgantzoglou and Oonagh Lewis Deputy Consul of the United Kingdom.
Service organisations included the Victorian Nurses RSL Sub-Branch President Colonel (Retired) Jan McCarthy ARRC and Victorian Hellenic RSL Sub-Branch Secretary Major (Retired) Terry Kanelos. The Committee was also glad to welcome descendants of veterans who served on Lemnos. These included the Committee’s Deb Stewart (granddaughter of Nurse Evelyn Hutt of the 3rd Australian General Hospital or 3rd AGH), Australian Army Captain Ryan Curtis (descendant of Scots-born Anzac Warrant Officer Archibald Monk also of the 3rd AGH) and Lee Tarlamis, both the descendant of the 4th Battalion’s Private Ted Tozer from Blackburn and the son of Sam who was born on Lemnos.
The service commenced by the assembly being called to order by the playing of the bagpipes by the Committee’s honorary piper Stacey Harris. She plays in recognition of the piping of Warrant Officer Monk who famously piped the newly arrived Australian nurses inro the 3rd AGH camp site in August 1915, the scene captured in the iconic photograph by the hospital’s Corporal Albert Savage. Stacey herself has recently discovered that she is the descendant of a young Anzac from Ballan – 12th Battalion’s Donald Robert Shillito – who came to Lemnos in March 1915, having sailed from Australia aboard the troopship Themistocles, taking part in the Anzac Cove landings on 25th April where he was sadly killed.
Given the Memorials connection to the role of Australian nurses at Lemnos, the Committee was glad to welcome a number of nursing organisation representatives to the service including lanna Ginnivan representing the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation Victorian Branch (a major funder of the Memorial), Pru Cox President of the Alfred Hospital Nurses League and Dr Elizabeth Lavender representing the Australian Nurses Memorial Centre.
A key role in the service is played by school delegations. Albert Park College has always regarded the Memorial as a special place, located as it is adjacent to the school grounds. Deputy Principal Duncan Box led the schools representation of School Captain James Keating, House Captain Alice Reid Rodrigues and College Vice Captain Oliver O’Connor.
The Oakliegh Grammar is also a regular participant in the service, with this year’s delegation led by the School’s Hellenic Culture Coordinator Natasha Spanos with Year 11 SRC member students Elena Logan and Tijana Karac.
Many Australian Hellenic community organisations were represented including the Greek Community of Melbourne, the Lemnian Community of Victoria, the Imvrian Society of Melbourne, the Cretan Brotherhood, the Merimna of Pontian Kyrion Oceania, AHEPA Victoria, the Pammessinian Brotherhood Papaflessas, the Federation of Messinian Organisations of Melbourne, the Australian Hellenic Memorial Foundation, the George Treloar Memorial Committee and the Battle of Crete & Greece Commemorative Council. Some of the individuals present included celebrated commemorative artist Geoge Petrou OAM, George Ballas OAM and Lambis Englezos AM who recently had a path in the French village of Fromelles named in honour of his tireless advocacy for the missing of the battle of Fromelles.
Tarlamis performed the role of Master of Ceremonies commending the service by pointing to the significance of this year’s event and to the fact that it is the first major memorial commemorating the role of Lemnos in the Gallipoli campaign in Australia.
Formal addresses were made by the dignitaries. Cr Hardy remarked on the local connections of the Memorial citing residents who served on Lemnos as soldiers and nurses and expressed the continuing pride of the City in the Memorial. Josh Burns MP also remarked on the local connections to the Lemnos story but added the importance of acknowledging the indigenous part of our Anzac story, including those who served on Lemnos. Nina Taylor MP expressed the continuing support of the Victorian Government for the Memorial and the commemoration of Lemnos.
David Davis MP restated the support of the Opposition for the work of the Committee. Both Josh Burns and David Davis acknowledged the significant work of the Committee’s historian Jim Claven OAM on behalf of the Committee and the veteran community. These were followed by the address of the Consul of the Hellenic Republic who pointed to the importance of acknowledging the Hellenic link to Australia’s Anzac story as part of the deep connections between Australia and Greece.
The keynote address at the service was delivered by the Committee’s Deb Stewart. She spoke of the war service of her grandmother Nurse Evelyn Hutt including her time on Lemnos and on other fronts. She reflected on how the Lemnos experience had a profound effect on her, referencing the many wounded and sick soldiers she treated at the hospitals on Lemnos’ exposed Turks Head Peninsula. Her moving address was well received by those in attendance.
The service then proceeded to the annual reading of the commemorative poems. Albert Park College’s School Captain James Keating read The Sisters on Lemnos by Vera Brittain and House Captain Alice Reid Rodrigues read In Flanders Field by Lieutenant Colonel John McRae. These were followed by the formal reading of the Ode by Colonel (Retired) Jan McCarthy supported by Captain Ryan Curtis and the playing of the national anthems of Greece and Australia. This was followed by the laying of wreaths and books assisted by the Committee’s Arlene Bennett and Vicki Kyritsis. Those who chose the option of laying a copy of Lemnos & Gallipoli Revealed were both financially contributing to the Committee’s work and raising further awareness by gifting the book itself to a worthy recipient.
Lee Tarlamis thanked all for their attendance and pointed to the Committees many projects, including the Australian Pier Memorial on Lemnos and the publication of Lemnos & Gallipoli Revealed. He also thanked all for supporting the Committee’s recently released WW2 Greek campaign documentary Anzac The Greek Chapter, acknowledging the presence of one of its creators Dr Peter Ewer to the acclamation of the crowd.
Tarlamis stated the work of the Committee was not over. The new Anzac Trail on Lemnos which will be inaugurated next year was first advocated by the Committee and Jim Claven was engaged in the project as historical consultant. He pointed to the new Lemnos & Gallipoli exhibition (with four of the total of nineteen boards displayed at the service) which will come to schools and other public venues over coming months. Finally he announced the arrival on Lemnos of the Committee’s new Royal Australian Navy commemorative plaque which will soon be installed on the island as an important addition to Lemnos Anzac infrastructure.
The service ended with a group photograph surrounding the Memorial. As an aside, two local residents who witnessed the service talked of their own personal family connections to Anzac and Greece, one the descendant of an Australian nurse who served on the major Salonika Front in WW1. These sort of Hellenic links to Australia’s Anzac story are everywhere.
*Jim Claven is a trained historian, freelance writer, published author and Secretary of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee. The author of Lemnos & Gallipoli Revealed, he has been researching the Hellenic link to Australia’s Anzac story across both world wars for many years in Australia, Greece and elsewhere. He can be contacted via email – jimclaven@yahoo.com.au
