Honouring Our ANZAC

Hello and welcome to Van Life Devotions. Today is a moving day for me as we are in Gallipoli where so many Australians lost their lives in a failed campaigned.

According to the Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs, “The most successful operation of the campaign was the evacuation which ended on 19–20 December 1915, conducted under a well-planned deception operation.

Members of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) landed here at Gallipoli, at what became known as Anzac Cove, on the 25th of April 1915. 60,000 Australians served at Gallipoli. Some 8,700 Australians lost their lives and around 18,000 were wounded during the eight-month campaign.

One of those brave young men that fought here was Frank Maltby who was my mother’s uncle. As a young child, Frank, his two brothers and two sisters and his mother Susannah Maltby moved from England to Glebe in Sydney. Frank’s father had tragically drowned at sea.

On the 9th of February 1915 Frank and his brother George who both worked on a dairy farm signed up. They were aged 17 and 16 but like many others, put their ages up.  

I can’t imagine what their mother went through with both her young boys signing up.

For Frank, he was with the 18th Infantry Battalion. The 18th Battalion soldiers were drawn from NSW. Men everywhere flocked to sign up causing the first division being filled and so Frank was a part of the second division. In May 1915, the 18th sailed out from Sydney and arrived in Egypt in mid-June. There they trained and in late August the 18th was deployed to Gallipoli. The Battalion was to participate in the last action of the August Offensive known as the attack on Hill 60. The 18th Battalion landed on the 22nd of August and immediately went into battle on Chocolate Hill but Frank was badly wounded in the groin and was never seen again. That day Frank was killed. He was just 18. Nine months later his brother George was killed in Action at the battle of Bullecourt in France. He was 17. In May 2014 some of my family and I visited Villers Bretonneux Memorial and saw his name of the honour wall. That too was very moving.

The impact of the news Frank and George’s deaths on their mother Susannah and their siblings – Ada, Jesse, and Leonard would have been so sad and hard.

It is very moving to be here, seeing my great uncle’s name. My mum and dad were also here in 2007 paying their respects to mum’s uncle Frank as was my brother Mark this year. This is me being held by Lenard, my Poppy Maltby, whose brothers were Frank and George.

The events surrounding this place echo the cost of freedom fought in all wars that Australia participated. Today we remember those who have fought and those who have died in fighting to keep this nation and other nations free. I am reminded of the words of Jesus Christ: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends” (John 15:13 NIV).

Lest we forget.

Thank you God for our country, it’s freedom, for those who have fought and those who have died to keep our country free. We pray for those who today serve in the Australian Defence Force. We pray for peace in our world. Lest We Forget. Amen.   

Leisl Moyes