Remembrance Day services were held across the Southern Highlands on Sunday, November 11, marking 100 years since the signing of the armistice agreement which brought an end to WWI.
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Several hundred people gathered at Bowral War Memorial Park where guest speaker, Commander Anthony Savage RAN spoke and members of the 816 squadron at Albatross provided the Catafalque Party for the morning service.
Commander Savage said it was important to gather "not to glorify war but to commemorate."
"All we ask is for simple recognition for those who valiantly fought for their country," he said.
Honouring the service, mateship, courage and sacrifice of our servicemen and women, without glorifying the tragedy of war was also acknowledged at the service in Mittagong, held at the Cenotaph.
Berrima District Historical Society archivist and vice president Linda Emery spoke of the sacrifice of one Mittagong family, who received news of the death of their loved one just two weeks before the armistice.
“One can’t help but wonder what Amy McCallum and her mother-in-law, Emma, were thinking on that day. Two weeks earlier they had received news of the death of their husband and son, Hector,” Ms Emery said.
“The armistice came too late for Hector, and his name was etched in granite on the war memorial here, one of 32 men in Mittagong who gave their lives,” she said.
Following four years of the “most horrific confrontation in human history”, it is believed the mayor of Mittagong preempted the official announcement of the armistice agreement, taking to the balcony of the Mittagong Hotel to share the news a few days early, across the street from where the Mittagong war memorial would eventually stand.
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“A spontaneous celebration erupted, right here in the main street and continued over the next few days until word came through on Monday, November 11 1918 that the armistice document had been signed and guns at the western front had fallen silent at last,” Ms Emery said.
“Trains at the station blew their whistles at full blast, Mittagong town band paraded through the streets and on the following day a procession of students from Mittagong Public School formed a tin can band, marching from the school and up the main street before performing the national anthems of Australia, France and the United States of America in an open air concert,” she said.
Towns and villages across the district erupted into celebration at the news the war had ended.
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