Annual ANZAC Service - 25th April 2010

Cannock Chase was the location of one of the several giant training camps established in the Great War.  By the end of the war, it had become the size of a small town, comprising, in addition to the hutted accomodation shops, NAAFIs, workshops, a cinema, a hospital, and even its own railway.

One of the colonial regiments which made their "home" there throughout the war was the New Zealand Rifle Brigade, and the CWGC cemetry on the Chase is the final resting place of many New Zealanders, as well as other UK and overseas soldiers.

 

The West Midlands Branch of the Military Historical Society re-established the annual ANZAC Day service at the CWGC cemetry on Cannock Chase in the 1970s, and remains involved each year.  The organisation of the event was taken up by the local Royal British Legion, and has continued to take place on the Sunday closest to ANZAC Day (25 April) up to the present time.

It is always well attended by local people and organisations, ex-service men and women, as well as representatives from the New Zealand and Australian High Commissions. This year 2010 it is 95 years to the day when the ANZAC's landed on the beaches in WW1.

 

The parade marches to the cemetery past the Lord Lieutentant James Hawley and the civic dignitries from all over Staffordshire & The West Midlands lead by Watchman V and his handler C/Sgt Greg Hedges 4th Battalion The Mercian Regiment

 

The Standards move into the cemetery past a member of the Military Vehicles Historical Trust dressed as a WW1 despatch rider.

 

Members of various Old Comrades Associations and the Royal British Legion together with the Navy, RM Cadets and Legion of Frontiersmen march to the cemetery.

 

The Standards are in place ready to receive the Lord Lieutenant & the Civic Leaders

 

The Lord Lieutenant and ANZAC Representatives followed by the Civic leaders enter the cemetery (Major Jeff Ashton Australia, Belinda Brown Deputy High Commissioner & Capt Colin Mason Chaplain of the NZDF)

 

The opening address by the RBL welcoming everyone to the service.

 

The Chaplain addresses those gathered for the service on the history of the ANZACs and leads the service into its first Hymn Praise My sole the King of Heaven.

 

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Padre Captain Colin Mason of the NZDF gives his thanks to all those who are in attendance for coming to the cemetery to remember the sacrifice given by the ANZACs

 

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Janet Elson a New Zealander by birth and MHS branch member reads the Exhortation.

They gave their lives - for that public gift
They receive a praise which never ages,
And a tomb most glorious -
Not so much a tomb in which they lie,
But that in which their fame survives,
To be remembered forever, when the occasion arises
For word or deed: The ANZACS

 

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The Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire James Hawley lay the first wreath

 

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The service having concluded in the cemetery Watchman V leads the Standards out.

 

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Members of the public and those not involved in the march dispearse after the service. 

 

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It has become a bit of a tradition over the years that Janet Elson has her photograph taken with the Military representative of the NZDF who attends the service.
The MHS West Midlands Branch would like to thank the Royal British Legion for the organisation of the service and we look forward to seeing even larger numbers of people attending next years service in 2011.