ORDER OF SERVICE

Guests arrive – Piper playing

MC Christina Despoteris – Vice President, Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee Welcomes Guests

THE LEMNOS GALLIPOLI MEMORIAL AUSTRALIA REMEMBERS LEMNOS

Mounting of the Catafalque Party Father Chris Dimolianis to commence the Memorial Service A prayer by Albert Park College School Captain Ava Thornley Cr Bernadene Voss - Mayor of the City of Port Phillip Welcomes guests to the City and ‘Welcome to Country’ Mr Lee Tarlamis – President, Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee The Hon. Gavin Jennings MP representing the Victorian Government The Hon Ted Baillieu – Chair of the Victorian Anzac Centenary Committee Keynote Address Wreath laying – Piper playing Ange Kenos to recite The Ode The Last Post One minute’s silence The Rouse Students from Oakleigh Grammar to sing the Australian and Greek National Anthems Dismounting of the Catafalque Party MC’s closing remarks Conclusion of event For more information visit: Web - lemnosgallipolicc.blogspot.com Facebook - Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

INAUGURAL ANNUAL COMMEMORATIVE SERVICE 11AM SATURDAY, 13TH AUGUST 2016

WELCOME

LEMNOS AND ANZAC

On behalf of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee, I would like to welcome all of you to the inaugural annual commemorative service at the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial, Foote Street Albert Park. This will be the first of our annual wreath-laying commemorative services.

The beautiful Greek Island of Lemnos, lying in the waters of the northern Aegean, was the essential base for the whole Gallipoli campaign. Some of Lemnos’ strong Anzac connections are the following:

It is 12 months since we unveiled our new Memorial and five years since we began our journey to erect this lasting memorial to the role of Lemnos in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915. This brochure explains the background to the Memorial and sets out the Order of Service for the commemoration. Photographs reproduced are from the collections held by the Australian War Memorial, the State Library of NSW and the private collections of former Nurses Mary McIlroy and Evelyn Hutt. I would like to thank our Secretary, Mr Jim Claven, for preparing this booklet, and our Vice-President, Ms Christina Despoteris, for organising this year’s commemoration, and all the other members of the Committee who volunteered their time and efforts. Thank you to all who participated in and attended this Commemorative Service to honour those who served on Lemnos, those who remain in its war graves and the local Hellenic population who assisted them. Lee Tarlamis – President

• 60,000 Anzac soldiers prepared for the landings, rested from battle and were cared for when ill and wounded on the Island; • Over 130 Australian nurses served there; • Lemnos provided a safe harbour for nearly 200 Allied ships, including Australia’s famous AE2 submarine; • It’s people welcomed the Anzac’s; • Lemnos was where the Anzacs walked in the footsteps of Greece’s epic past; • Lemnos was where the Armistice ending the war in the eastern Mediterranean was signed; and, • Lemnos is where over 200 Anzacs remain along with over 1,000 other Allied soldiers, honoured in the Island’s war cemeteries. Most importantly, Lemnos was the location of Australia’s major hospitals for the Gallipoli campaign. In these medical facilities, Australia’s nurses served to help the thousands of wounded and sick Anzacs returning from the horrors of the peninsula. And many suffered the diseases and privations of the soldiers they nursed. Many of these Australian nurses and soldiers have left behind a rich archive of photographs and writings, recording their time on Lemnos and with its villagers. As they walked the Island, many were aware of the stories of Homer and Odysseus, of Jason and the Argonauts. But mostly they speak of the first interaction of Greek and Australian people – a relationship that would go on to blossom into the strong cultural ties of today.

PORT PHILLIP, ANZAC AND LEMNOS

Our Memorials location in Port Phillip is significant, recognising the strong connection between the area and the Lemnos Anzac story.

THE LEMNOS GALLIPOLI MEMORIAL

Port Melbourne was one of the major departure ports for the Anzac soldiers and nurses on their way to Lemnos and Gallipoli. Over 4,800 men and women who served in World War One were born or enlisted in Port Phillip. Men like Privates Jack Bassett and Roy Woolcock would leave from Port Melbourne for Gallipoli – only to die at Gallipoli and be buried on Lemnos. They would join Albert Park – born and resident Private George Knight, a local electrician, who also died and is buried in Lemnos’ East Mudros Cemetery. The 37 nurses from Victoria who served in Lemnos’ Anzac hospitals caring for the sick and wounded departed from Port Melbourne. Nurses like 32 year old Port Melbourne-born Clara Louise Potter and 25 year old Clarise Jessie Daley from Beach Avenue Elwood, sailed from Port Melbourne to the northern Aegean in 1915 – who both served at the 3rd Australian General Hospital (or 3AGH) at West Mudros on Lemnos. Staff Nurse Daley served alongside Albert Park-born doctor, Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Wilson at the 3AGH. And while on Lemnos these nurses would nurse to health diggers like St Kilda-born and resident Captain Harold Burke, who would survive the horrors of Gallipoli and be awarded the Military Cross for bravery on the Western Front. They sailed from Port Melbourne on ships like the HMAT Demosthenes – the name evocating their destination in distant Greece. Of course, there is St Kilda’s future Mayor, Corporal Albert Jacka, who was awarded Australia’s first Victoria Cross in the War and who spent time resting on Lemnos between spells at the front, being famously photographed at Lemnos’ Sarpi Anzac rest camp. And Port Phillip would be the home of an Anzac couple, Sergeant Ernest Lawrence and Staff Nurse Clarice Jessie Daley, who married at West Mudros on Lemnos during the Gallipoli campaign, their marriage witnessed by the famous Matron of the 3rd Australian General Hospital, Grace Wilson – who would go on to be Matron of Port Phillip’s major hospital, the Alfred Hospital after the war. And the area saw the arrival of many of Melbourne’s large Greek community in the post-WW2 era, many from far-off Lemnos, with its Anzac connection.

The Memorial was sculpted by the renowned commemorative artist Peter Corlett, OAM. He has designed numerous other Anzac sculptures, such as that at Beersheba. It comprises two evocative bronze statues - one of a nurse and the other of a digger - one standing and one seated on a carved stone plinth, along with information signage and flagpoles. Peter has created a fitting memorial, combining the images of the nurses and diggers, with references to the classical sculpture of Greece. And he created it using the ancient Greek “lost-wax” technique. Our memorial is the first major memorial and a lasting tribute to the role of Australia’s nurses on Lemnos, soldiers they cared for, those who remain and the role of Lemnos in the Gallipoli campaign. It was unveiled on the centenary of the arrival of the nurses on Lemnos on 8th August 2015 in the presence of many of the descendents of the nurses and diggers who served there and the Lemnians who helped them.