Yesterday was ANZAC day, lots of remembering as it was 100 years since the first ANZAC day. Unusual for a nation to celebrate a defeat rather than a victory. Here is a statue of a real war hero: Edward 'Weary' Dunlop. It is at Benalla a great little town on the way from Sydney to Melbourne. It was his boyhood home.
'Lieutenant-Colonel E.E. ‘Weary’ Dunlop is an iconic figure in Australian memory of the Thai–Burma railway. Although only one of 106 Australian doctors captured by the Japanese and of 44 on the railway, Dunlop came to represent the self-sacrifice, courage and compassion which doctors and Australians more generally are remembered as displaying in captivity.'
A powerful monument.
ReplyDeleteThe is a lovely statue of him at the war memorial too. Made interesting by the surprising red poppy in the lapel of a bronze statue.
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