ANZAC DAY 2024
Blacktown honours
by John Horne
On ANZAC Day , we honour the bravery , sacrifice , and resilience of all those who have served and continue to serve in the defence of our nation . Their dedication and courage remind us of the enduring values of mateship , loyalty , and service to others .
Let us take this day to reflect with gratitude on the profound contributions and profound sacrifices made by our service men and women , past and present .
Lest we forget .
On behalf of the Blacktown RSL sub-Branch , I would like to invite all our Blacktown community to our ANZAC Day Dawn Service .
DAWN SERVICE COMMENCES 5.30AM
LOCATION : Blacktown War Memorial , located in the Club Blacktown ( trading as Blacktown RSL ) grounds .
Mick Reid Senior Vice President Blacktown RSL sub-Branch
Anzac Day on 25 April is an annual public holiday in Australia and New Zealand .
The first Anzac Day wasn ’ t a holiday but the day in 1915 when troops from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps took part in a British-led invasion to capture the Dardanelles in Ottoman Turkey ( today ’ s modern Turkey ). When the British , Australians and New Zealanders The West brothers . landed at Gallipoli they suffered very heavy casualties that day and afterwards during the nine months that they stayed , neither advancing any further or retreating in the face of very determined Turkish resistance .
Thousands of young Australians and New Zealanders were killed and wounded in the many battles fought in the Gallipoli Campaign . April 25th became commemorated and Semakh , Syria . today is a National Day of Commemoration in both countries . The cost in blood and loss was too terrible to be forgotten .
One of Blacktown Shire ’ s Gallipoli Veterans was Ross Raynor West from Seven Hills . He was the first to volunteer from the Shire and the first to return home after he was wounded .
On the day of the Gallipoli landings on 25 April 1915 , Ross was serving with the 1st Australian Infantry Battalion . His unit landed after the initial attack and followed the first soldiers to land , running and climbing up the slopes behind the short beach into the gullies and hills to join the fighting . It was here that a piece of exploding shell caught him on his left wrist and hand and ended his ability to fire
Sergeant Hubert Walker .
or even hold his weapon . He returned to the beach and was evacuated on a hospital ship and taken to the Number One General Hospital at Heliopolis in Egypt where his medical treatment continued . In September 1915 he was sent home to Australia to be discharged from the Army because he was no longer able to be a soldier .
When Ross returned home to Seven Hills , he couldn ’ t work , so in March 1916 he was awarded a war pension . However , his disability did not stop his trying to do his duty as a soldier . He travelled to the Dubbo region in New South Wales to be a Recruiting Officer and encouraged other men to enlist . He himself tried several times to re-enlist but every time he was rejected because of his Gallipoli wound . His persistence finally paid off on 17 June 1916 when he was accepted and joined the 56th Battalion on the Western Front in Belgium and France .
Ross West was killed in action on 25 September 1917 while he was serving with the 14th Light Trench Mortar Battery . His commanding officer wrote to his parents stating that Ross West was fixing a waterproof sheet over the door of a pillbox on Glencorse Ridge near Ypres when he was killed by an exploding shell .
His body was not recovered and he has no known grave . Instead , his name is inscribed on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres along with the names of tens of thousands of other soldiers who have no known grave .
Back in Toongabbie a memorial service was conducted in St Mary ’ s Anglican Church for Ross R . West and Arthur H . Willmot who were both from the district . A memorial tablet was unveiled and its
18 ISSUE 37 // APRIL 2024 theindependentmagazine . com . au BLACKTOWN CITY INDEPENDENT