File information | File dimensions | File size | Options |
Original JPG File | 2983 × 2983 pixels (8.9 MP) 25.3 cm × 25.3 cm @ 300 PPI | 2.6 MB | Download |
Low resolution print | 2000 × 2000 pixels (4 MP) 16.9 cm × 16.9 cm @ 300 PPI | 1.1 MB | Download |
Screen | 800 × 800 pixels (0.64 MP) 6.8 cm × 6.8 cm @ 300 PPI | 232 KB | Download |
Preview | Full screen preview | 232 KB | View |
1644
Open
Yasmin McDonald
09 November 18
Archives
Attribution-NonCommercial CC BY-NC
Assembly notes
A Remembrance Day Service took place on Friday the 9th of November 2018 to signify one hundred years since the end of World War One. The Armistice, ceremony usually takes place on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month since 1918, signifying the end of the Great War, remembering the women and men who perished and sacrificed their lives, also signifying a moment to reflect on world peace.
The College K-12 and dignitaries met on the Memorial Ground Oval (The Playing Fields) to pay their respects to the Old Scotch Collegians and Scotch College Masters (Teachers) who lost their lives in WW1.
The dignitaries attending the Service:
Speakers:
MrMichael Silbert, President, Old Scotch Collegians
Dr Ken Michael
Mr Zan Gamble, SAS Resources Fund
Members of Council:
Mr Mark Paganin, Chair
Simon Anderson
Carissa Paganin
Headmaster:
Dr Alec O'Connell
The service remembered out the OSC's and Masters, including:
"One hundred years ago, the first World War ended. People called it “The Great War”. They had never seen anything like it, and when it was over, they hoped that they would never see it’s like again.
Every corner of the British Empire responded to help. Australia sent men – barely older than you boys – and at home, their mothers, and sisters supported them. In the country, those who stayed behind farmed and sent produce. In the factories, we changed from producing cars and machinery to making arms and artillery.
Scotch College was a much smaller school then – with less than 230 enrolled students. Nevertheless, 475 Scotch old boys had enlisted by end of the WW1.
104 were commissioned. 34 were decorated for bravery. 78 students and 4 staff died.
So what does that have to do with us – and why are we here today. Why are we right here?
Have you ever stopped to think why these beautiful sports grounds are called the “Memorial Grounds”?
After the Great War had ended, a fund was set up to raise money for a memorial for all the Old Scotch Boys who served in the war. The School Council decided that a sports ground would be appropriate, and so these Memorial Grounds were created out of Butler’s Swamp. Behind us, Lake Claremont is what remains of Butlers Swamp.
The Old Boys Memorial Fund raised £948. But by the time the swamp had been filled in and the ground levelled, almost all the money had been spent. It was due to the efforts of Mr Campbell and PC Anderson, as well as the regular Saturday morning gangs of boys (the record was 86 one morning), that the lawn was planted and the grass tennis court was laid.
Some time after, in 1926, Thomas Crofton Brown was the Captain of School. He was the captain of Cricket and an editor of the Reporter. I want to read you a poem that he wrote, which explains the Memo Grounds. In it, you will hear that Thomas talks about how, when we play sport here, we should remember those Scotch boys and men, including Scotch teachers, who went to war, and who had also played footy, cricket, tennis, rugby and their other sports right here, just a few years before. Some never came back to their friends and families. In the poem, these Scotchies are called “the unreturning brave”.
In particular, the poem talks about how Scotch boys learned – through playing sports – the value of teamwork and of self-sacrifice. And how those values were also shown on the battlefield.
The Memorial Ground:
Some years ago a useless swamp there lay,
Where now extends a green and grassy field,
Sacred to men who bravely fought and died
For School and Country. Better monument
Could not be made. For every boy who now
Plays on that field, respects the memory
Of those who came before him, and took part
In the same sports in which we now indulge.
They also fought their fights, and, as at school,
They learned to play the game as Scotchies should,
So in the greater conflict were content
To sacrifice themselves for others' sakes.
'Tis to their glorious efforts that we owe
The privilege of being at the School
Where they themselves were scholars.
So may we,
While playing on our new Memorial Ground,
Appreciate the sacrifice they made,
And keep the Ground a sacred heritage
In honour of "the Unreturning Brave.'''
Thomas Crofton Brown OSC1926
The 1926 Scotch College Reporter.
Boys, you will all be Old Scotch Collegians one day. And we pray that you will not need to go to fight in brutal wars the way others have done who have gone before you.
But while you are here, and while you play on these Memorial Grounds, it is your n responsibility to remember, occasionally, how they came to be here, and who they commemorate.
And while you play your sports here, you will continue to learn the lessons that games teach you. Sacrifice. Teamwork. Humility. The pleasure of competition and the satisfaction of victory, and the sting of defeat.
Take those lessons and apply them to your lives, wherever you are led.
That is what you owe to those Old Scotch boys who played here, and who went to war, so many years ago.
And that is how you can remember them."
Michael Silbert
President of The Old Scotch Collegians
9 November 2018
Remembrance Day Service
Scotch College Memorial Grounds
"Australia’s involvement in the First World War began when Britain and Germany went to war on 4 August 1914, and both Prime Minister Joseph Cook and Opposition Leader Andrew Fisher, who were in the midst of an election campaign, pledged full support for Britain. The outbreak of war was greeted in Australia, as in many other places, with great enthusiasm.
The first significant Australian action of the war was the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force’s (ANMEF) landing on Rabaul on 11 September 1914. The ANMEF took possession of German New Guinea at Toma on 17 September 1914 and of the neighbouring islands of the Bismarck Archipelago in October 1914. On 9 November 1914 the Royal Australian Navy made a major contribution when HMAS Sydney destroyed the German raider SMS Emden.
On 25 April 1915 members of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) landed on Gallipoli in Turkey with troops from New Zealand, Britain, and France. This began a campaign that ended with an evacuation of allied troops beginning in December 1915. The next year Australian forces fought campaigns on the Western Front and in the Middle East.
Throughout 1916 and 1917 losses on the Western Front were heavy and gains were small. In 1918 the Australians reached the peak of their fighting performance in the battle of Hamel on 4 July. From 8 August they then took part in a series of decisive advances until they were relieved in early October. Germany surrendered on 11 November.
The Middle East campaign began in 1916 with Australian troops taking part in the defence of the Suez Canal and the allied re-conquest of the Sinai Desert. In the following year Australian and other allied troops advanced into Palestine and captured Gaza and Jerusalem; by 1918 they had occupied Lebanon and Syria and on 30 October 1918 Turkey sued for peace.
For Australia, the First World War remains the costliest conflict in terms of deaths and casualties. From a population of fewer than five million, 416,809 men enlisted, of whom more than 60,000 were killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner" Reference: The Australian War Memorial taken on the 14.11.2018 https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/atwar/first-world-war