Garth Pienaar, SAMVOA WA Regional Chairman, has sent the following from the 2011 Remembrance Day service in Perth.
This year marks the 93rd anniversary of the end of World War 1, the so called “ war to end all wars.”
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Once again it was an honour and a privilege to lay a wreath on behalf of our fallen at the Flame of Remembrance in Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia.
The SAMVOA Veterans (above) who attended the parade were (L to R) Shaun Porter, Eric Le Grange, Michael Lord, Kevin van der Mescht, Garth Pienaar, Riaan de Villiers, Donovan Roets, Ben Opperman, Ian Higley and Peter Colvin.
[Click on the picture ABOVE to get a larger image; then click 'back' to return to this page]
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The article below was forwarded to me recently and I am sure, will be of interest.
“Over time it has become customary to remember the Fallen by observing a symbolic silence. Not only soldiers but also civilians are honoured in this way.
"In South Africa one of the first instances where this tradition was honoured was at a church service in Cape Town. The city was in mourning after the publication of South Africa’s first casualty list from Word War 1 in 1916. A local businessman, Mr. J.A .Eggar, proposed that the congregation at a church service should keep a minute’s silence to honour the Fallen. At the time it received no publicity.
“The famous South African author, politician and mining financier, Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, is credited with the idea of a two-minute silence. His eldest son, Major Percy Nugent George Fitzpatrick, was killed in action in Beaumitz, France, in December 1917. On 27 October 1919 Sir Percy, through Lord Milner, the former High Commissioner for South Africa, proposed to King George V that a moment of silence be observed annually on November 11, in honour of the dead of World War 1. On 17 November, King George proclaimed that ‘at the hour when Armistice came into force, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, there may be for the brief space of two minutes a complete suspension of all our normal activities ... so that in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead.’
“The 1st minute of the silence period is in thanksgiving for those who have survived, while the second minute is to remember the Fallen.”
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________We will Remember Them.
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Garth Pienaar
SAMVOA