A moving commemoration address was given by local resident Major Peter Butler AM RFD, at the Kangaroo Valley ANZAC Day Service..
Peter joined the RAAF while he studied law at the University of Melbourne as a Cadet Officer. He transferred to the Australian Army Reserves as a member of the Legal Corps. He has conducted the defence and prosecution of many cases in the ADF, and several ADF Courts of Inquiry.
He has been the National Chair of Starlight Children’s Foundation and has led several other major charities in NSW and Victoria.
He was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 1995, the RFD in 1996, and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2018.
Peter and his wife Jill have three daughters. He is a lawyer and has lived in Kangaroo Valley since 2006.
Commemoration Address
Today, we gather to commemorate a day that holds a special place in the hearts of Australians and New Zealanders. We honour the sacrifice and show our gratitude to those who served.
But we also remember the families and loved ones left behind. And we remember with deep gratitude those who returned, many of who carried the scars, physically and emotionally, of their service. We say to them – thank you for your service.
I want to take a moment to remember – especially – the soldiers from Kangaroo Valley. As I did my research for this address, I read the stories of those whose names are engraved in stone on the memorial behind me. These stories are, in a way, our stories. They are from our community. They are very moving. I do want to record my gratitude to Garth Chittick, President of the Kangaroo Valley Historical Society, the Pioneer Museum, and a book written by Geoffrey Todd called The Valley Boys.
Our small tight-knit community of Kangaroo Valley was hit harder than most by the effects of the first war. 58 young men enlisted, and 22 – more than a third of them – were killed. Of those who survived, many came with lifelong injuries, physical or emotional. Kangaroo Valley had a small population then, as it does now. The devastating effect of these terrible losses on the community of Kangaroo Valley can only be imagined, especially for the families that lost a number of sons. In this war to end all wars, several families lost two boys, and one extended family, the Lumsdens, lost four.
I wish I had more time to say something about each of these soldiers, but I will mention one, Private Eric Tate, who through marriage is related to my wife Jill and me. He was brought up on a dairy farm on Upper River Road, called ‘Oakdale’. Eric enlisted in the army in 1915 and was deployed to France to fight in the trenches. He was tragically killed in battle, probably through friendly fire when a British shell fell short. There is a photo of him in his uniform on his promotion to sergeant at the Pioneer Museum – earnest, young, ready to go back to war and do his duty. And do it he did. When Eric didn’t come home, his mother, Emma, who was a widow, tried to manage the farm without him, but it was too much for her. In September 1919 the farm was broken up and sold.
Eric was a good letter writer and many of his letters can now be inspected at the War Memorial in Canberra. I have read some of these letters. One I found particularly sad.
Surrounded by the slaughter that was the trenches, he wrote:
“My word the Valley boys are being cut about. It seems a shame that such young boys as Huxley, Gordon, and the Scots should be sent over here. I don’t think they are nearly old enough in the head for this game”.
The boys he was referring to were barely 18.
In my research for this address, I also came across this article in the Kangaroo Valery Times – the predecessor of the Kangaroo Valley Voice.
I will read a few lines – it tells us something of the spirit of the times. It was August 1915.
“One of the most enthusiastic gatherings ever seen in Kangaroo Valley assembled in the … Hall on Friday night, … to wish Godspeed to a dozen brave lads who are leaving for the front, and to make presentations to them before their departure. The recruits were Privates F. Wright, W. Cox, D. Kelly. T.Brooks, P. Lidbetter, Eric Tate, J.Bowcock, W. Mathers, W. Merchant, W. Walker, and G. Garratt.”
It seems it was a good send-off. As a small gift from the community, they each received a wallet with their initials engraved on it. There was much clapping and cheering, and the crowd sang Auld Lang Syne.
But, within a few months, a quarter of the young men who received their wallets at this gathering – many of them just 18 – were dead.
These soldiers and many others from Kangaroo Valley are the embodiment of the ANZAC spirit – the courage, resilience, and mateship that we hold dear.
They are our grandfathers, grandmothers, fathers, mothers, our sons, our brothers, sisters, families and friends. They walked this street, they went to the post office, they no doubt had a drink at the pub with their mates. Perhaps they worshipped at our churches.
Borrowing from a long ago future Prime Minister, John Gordon, who spoke 80 years ago in another place:
We stand in a beautiful place we love, Kangaroo Valley. I want you to forget it is I who am standing here. And I want you to see instead young Eric Tate or Fred or Thomas Wright, or Peter Scott – or any of the other young men and women from our Kangaroo Valley whose names are recorded forever in the stone to my right. Now close your eyes. And behind them, I want you to see an army; regiment on regiment of young men, and women, now dead. They say to you:
“We gave the last full measure of devotion. We bought your freedom with our lives. So, take this freedom. Guard it as we have guarded it, use it as we can no longer use it, and with it as a foundation, build. Build a world in which meanness and poverty, tyranny and hate, have no existence. Build a world in which decency, and kindness, and the best of our values are the things that really matter. To seek a better and more peaceful world”.
If you see and hear these men and women behind me – do not fail them.
Rather, let us strive to be worthy of their legacy.’