November 11, 2024
A small parade to the Memorial Rotunda marked the start of the Remembrance Day commemoration in Kingaroy on Monday morning.
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month commemorations are held around the world to mark the moment that an Armistice was signed to end World War I.
All towns in the South Burnett held services on Monday morning, but the Kingaroy event in Memorial Park was possible the largest, with a strong turnout of local schoolchildren bolstering numbers.
Guest speaker at Kingaroy was Major Mick Richards ARA.
He reminded the crowd of the horrific toll that Australia suffered in World War I … 60,000 killed and many thousands more wounded in body or mind.
He related the tale of Joseph Horrobin, born in England but who grew up in the Tingoora area.
Horrobin enlisted at the age of 26 and was drafted as part of reinforcements to the 25th Battalion, and found himself at Pozieres on the Somme.
The 25th Battalion had just lost 343 men while trying to take a blockhouse built on the site of a windmill when Horrobin joined them for a second assault on the target on August 4.
“As the troops moved forward in the twilight, heavy enemy artillery rained down. Although suffering almost as many casualties as the first attack, the objective was taken,” Major Richards said.
“When the Battalion was relieved, they had taken 690 casualties, either killed, wounded or missing.”
Horrobin was one of the missing and the whereabouts of his body were unknown.
About 12 years later, his remains were found and Horrobin was reinterred at the Serre Road Cemetery in France.
Major Richards said Australian soldiers lay in cemeteries around the world but “nowhere on earth do Australia’s war dead lie in greater numbers than in the soil of the Western Front in France and Belgium”.
He reminded the crowd that Remembrance Day now honours the fallen of all the conflicts and operations in which Australians have served.
“Today, the Australian War Memorial’s Roll of Honour lists the names of over 103,000 Australians who have lost their lives in war and conflict,” Major Richards said.
“As we pause on Remembrance Day, our thoughts turn to war’s enormous cost and the toll it takes, not only on those who fall; but on all who have served and their families.”
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