"SPIRIT OF REMEMBRANCE"
Here in Australia, as in many countries around the world, we stop to remember the day the guns fell silent on the Western Front… An Armistice was signed, leading to the end of the First World War...
The Spirit of the Unknown Soldier embodies all that have lost their lives in the service of their countries…
Australia’s Unknown Soldier is totally unknown and unknowable yet remains a very powerful and poignant symbol of loss but also of faith in the almost incomprehensible sacrifice humans are willing to make so that the freedom we have come to enjoy is protected.
In the Remembrance Day commemorative address on 11 November 1993 the then Prime Minister the Hon Paul Keating MP stated: We do not know this Australian's name and we never will. We do not know his rank or his battalion. We do not know where he was born, nor precisely how and when he died. We do not know where in Australia he had made his home or when he left it for the battlefields of Europe. We do not know his age or his circumstances – whether he was from the city or the bush; what occupation he left to become a soldier; what religion, if he had a religion; if he was married or single. We do not know who loved him or whom he loved. If he had children we do not know who they are. His family is lost to us as he was lost to them. We will never know who this Australian was.1
Yet he has always been among those whom we've honoured. We know that he was one of the 45,000 Australians who died on the Western Front. One of the 416,000 Australians who volunteered for service in the First World War. One of the 324,000 Australians who served overseas in that war and one of the 60,000 Australians who died on foreign soil. One of the 100,000 Australians who have died in wars this century. 1
He is all of them. And he is one of us. 1
- The Unknown Australian Soldier, whose remains rested on the Stone of Remembrance outside the War Memorial while this eulogy was delivered, is one of about 18,000 Australians who died in the Great War but who have 'no known grave'. According to the Department of Veterans' Affairs, approximately 35 per cent of Australia's war dead from World War I and II have no known grave.2
- Although bringing home an Australian unknown soldier was first proposed in the 1920s it was the forthcoming 75th anniversary of the end of the Great War that galvanised action. In 1993 the remains of an unknown Australian soldier were exhumed from Adelaide Cemetery near Villers-Bretonneux in France and brought to Australia. After lying in state in King's Hall in Parliament House the soldier was transferred to the Australian War Memorial for the ceremony.2
- After the eulogy the Unknown Australian Soldier was entombed in the Hall of Memory at the War Memorial in a moving ceremony laden with symbolism. He was buried in a Tasmanian blackwood coffin with a slouch hat and a sprig of wattle on top. Soil from the Pozières battlefield was scattered in his tomb by World War I veteran, Robert Comb, who had served in battles on the Western Front.2
- The ceremony took place on the anniversary of a highly significant day in Australian history– the day the armistice (a truce to discuss peace terms) was signed in 1918. Formally completed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the armistice marked the end of the hostilities of the Great War. Originally called Armistice Day, it was renamed Remembrance Day in 1945 at the end of World War II.2
- By 1919 the observance of 2 minutes' silence on 11 November had gained particular importance as a symbolic way of remembering all those dead service personnel whose remains were unidentified and have no known grave. In 1920 both France and Great Britain interred an unidentified body: the French Unknown Soldier lies at the Arc de Triomphe and the British Unknown Soldier at Westminster Abbey.2
Painting Details:
Title: “SPIRIT OF REMEMBRANCE”/“THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER”
Artist:John “Rowdy” Wylie – Port Elliot / Fleurieu Peninsula South Australia
Medium: Oil / Timber Board – Framed
Size: W 70cms x H 90cms
Date: 11th November 2024
Rowdy Wylie explains his thoughts about his painting: Once again.. my thoughts for this years' “Remembrance Day” painting… “Spirit of Remembrance” / “The Unknown Soldier”…. is specifically about how quickly time passes and the importance of recording war events for future generations appreciation.. understanding and respectful knowledge... This composition of “Remembrance” focusses on the education through “story telling” by utilizing the mediums of written documentaries and visual art… “war painting compositions”.... by creating a respectful “Remembrance” and awareness of the “bravery” and “selflessness” of our ANZACS and the catastrophic events they experienced during the wars… for our home land security… democracies and the wonderful freedoms of today…Hopefully.. I have portrayed this “Remembrance” with the visual “elements” of the composition.. focusing on the brave unknown soldiers… the men and women who didn’t survive & return to their homelands & loved ones…….
We will Remember Them
Lest We Forget
For more information, you can review the full text of Keating’s speech on the Australian War Memorial’s website.
And if you haven't already checked out the Australian War Memorial site please do so as it contains a vast catalogue of material related to Australia's involvement in conflicts throughout the world.
Rowdy has also completed the painting shown below for the "Coorong Military Service Memorial Association”- Hindmarsh Island for their upcoming “Remembrance Day” Service 2024.
This association encompasses the local “First Nations Clan” of the South Australia Coorong Region… the “Ngarrindjeri People”. Hindmarsh Island is historically an intrinsic part of the Coorong waterways in South Australia.
Below you can see Rowdy's wonderful painting insitu as part of the Memorial Podium helping to: encapsulate the story magnificently of a community united in “Remembrance” of the military service men and women who unselfishly performed in time of conflict….
Credits
1. Remembrance Day 1993: commemorative address 11 November 1993 Prime Minister the Hon Paul Keating MP: https://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/speeches/keating-remembrance-day-1993
2. National Archives of Australia: https://www.naa.gov.au/students-and-teachers/learning-resources/learning-resource-themes/war/world-war-i/entombment-unknown-australian-soldier-eulogy-prime-minister-paul-keating