Maleny District Sport & Recreation Club Community Newsletter
Monday, 9 November 2020
Maleny District Sport & Recreation Club Community Newsletter Lest We Forget! Remembrance Day, November 11 each year, is the day we remember and pay tribute to our Australian soldiers, sailors, airmen and airwomen who did not return home from their service for our country. On 11th November Maleny RSL Sub branch will be holding a service at the Cenotaph from 10.45 am. It’s the day the Great War armistice was signed, 101 years ago. Memorials fulfil our need to recognise, remember and learn about the profound losses of war and the memories of service personnel from around the Sunshine Coast are captured in memorials throughout the community. Memorials also serve as a place where we can remember their lives, honour their service and leave a tribute.
During and following World War I, the people of Maleny wanted to create a memorial to the young men who had enlisted from the district, and money was donated by the community with the first subscriber's meeting held on March 20, 1920 - the Maleny Soldiers Memorial Hospital was opened as a private hospital on August 1, 1920. All returned men and women who served in World War I were treated without charge.
One of the most poignant poems regarding WW1 is 'In Flanders Fields’. The poem was written by Canadian Medical Corps doctor, Major John McCrae, who was serving with a Field Artillery Brigade in Ypres. The death of one of his friends in May 1915, buried in the cemetery outside his dressing station, affected him severely and he wrote his poem as a way of expressing his anguish at the loss. He was dissatisfied with the poem when he finished it and threw it away,
During the Boer War 1899-1902, men from the Sunshine Coast Continued on Page 2 enlisted in the 5th Light Horse Regiment in Brisbane. In Flanders Fields Their memories live on in the proud tradition of the 5th In Flanders fields the poppies blow Light Horse Regiment Between the crosses, row on row, Maleny Troop, with the That mark our place; and in the sky community gathering The larks, still bravely singing, fly together at the Maleny RSL Scarce heard amid the guns below. Hall’s Cenotaph each year. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. John McCrae
Maleny District Sport and Recreation Club Inc
https://malenysportandrec.org.au/