The dawn service is the rawest piece of ANZAC Day. Pre-dawn cold, the Last Post, the silence. The accepted story: it started on the beach at Gallipoli in 1915, soldiers gathering at first light to remember the mates lost in the landing. Held by the diggers themselves. Carried home in 1919. Reverently observed every 25 April since. The original act of remembrance, set in the place of the original sacrifice.
The dawn service did not start at Gallipoli. It started in 1923 in Albany, Western Australia, eight years after the landing, organised by Reverend Arthur Ernest White at the request of returned servicemen who had departed from Albany in 1914 and wanted to remember their mates at the place they last saw the Australian coast. White led a small service at dawn at the top of Mount Clarence, looking out over King George Sound. Brisbane held one in 1928. Sydney's first official dawn service was 1927. The Gallipoli dawn service many Australians associate with the tradition was added decades later, in part as a deliberate ceremonial echo of the Albany original. The service is older than the World War II generation, but younger than the war it commemorates. It was made in Australia. It was not brought back from Turkey.
Reception
Sources
- Australian War Memorial: Dawn Service Origins REFERENCE
- ABC News: First Dawn Service Albany REFERENCE