ANZAC Day service in Peterborough

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Transcript

00:00 [SILENCE]

00:06 We've been learning all about how he died and how he lived in World War I

00:10 and his contribution to the fight.

00:14 And why do you think it's important that people of your age

00:18 remember people who died like Thomas Hunter more than 100 years ago?

00:21 Well, if we don't remember, then the future generations won't remember.

00:25 And over time, people just get forgotten.

00:28 When people get forgotten, then there's all of the sacrifices that these people have made.

00:34 They died, they fought for us.

00:36 And if they're just forgotten, then there's no point.

00:39 And I think that it's really detrimental that we remember these people and celebrate them.

00:48 [SILENCE]

01:07 I think Anzac Day gives not only Australians and New Zealanders,

01:11 but our allies and our friends and family from all over the world

01:15 an opportunity just to take a moment and think and pay respects for the people who

01:20 lost their lives or were wounded in conflicts, both wartime, peacetime and humanitarian.

01:27 And not only that, it's also to take a moment to think about their families and their friends

01:32 who were also heavily impacted during all of those conflicts.

01:38 Is it surprising for people to see in a small city like this,

01:42 services like this with so many people and schoolchildren and things, is that a surprise to see?

01:46 It was an initial surprise and definitely a happy surprise.

01:50 I've been welcomed into this community and to hear that our soldiers who were so far away from home

01:57 were embraced and supported, especially in some of the most difficult times in the end of their lives,

02:02 really just tells us that it's not just Australia and New Zealand,

02:07 it is nations all over the world that uphold the Anzac spirit.

02:11 I'm Stephen Bell, the son of Dr Alexander Bell, who taught at Deakin School from 1920 to 1953.

02:37 I understand you've travelled quite a long way to be in Peterborough at the moment?

02:41 Yes, we've come from Australia and we made it because we were going to be here

02:46 on this particular day, we chose to be in Peterborough so that we could attend this ceremony.

02:54 And you're wearing your dad's medals.

02:57 These are my father's medals, yes.

03:00 And we're very proud to wear your father's medals at services like this.

03:03 Can you just tell us a little bit about your father and his service?

03:05 My father served in the infantry, just like the Staffordshire Regiment if I remember,

03:12 but as a private and then he was transferred as a second lieutenant

03:18 with a medical corps to help out in hospitals.

03:23 He was suffering from gas at the time and rather than being sent home and getting out of the

03:34 armed forces, he preferred to be transferred and stay there but was able to carry on with his life.