ANZAC DAY 2024
Anzac Day in 2024
inscription stated : ‘ To the glory of God and in loving memory of Arthur H . Willmot , killed at Gallipoli , December 1st , 1915 . ALSO , Ross R . West , killed in France , September 25th , 1917 . They died for King and country . Greater love hath no man than this .’
The grief of his parents did not end there . Their other son , Hubert Walker West had joined the Australian Light Horse on 13th August 1915 and gone to fight the Turks in Palestine . He was killed in action a year after his brother ’ s death on 25th September 1918 . Initially he was buried at Semakh in Syria , overlooking the Sea of Galilee , but after the war his body was moved to the Haifa War Cemetery that is now in modern Israel .
The day Sergeant West was killed , a Turkish machine gun was firing on the 11th Light Horse Regiment near Semakh . Sergeant West took a machine gun and its crew forward to fire on the Turks , however , they could not get a clear shot , so he and Farrier Daniel Toohill crawled forward to snipe them .
The horrors of war leave huge casualties on all sides .
When they were 50 metres from the Turks , they charged with fixed bayonets . Most of the Turkish gun crew fled but Sergeant West was shot and killed . Farrier Toohill was shot through his shoulder and the opposite hand , but he captured the Turkish Officer and the rest of the gun crew .
Farrier Toohill was awarded the Military Medal for his actions but soldiers in his section believed he should have received the Victoria Cross . Lieutenant Patterson of the squadron stated that Sergeant West ’ s actions were worthy of the highest decoration also , but he received no posthumous award .
On
this day we honour those who have sacrificed so much for Australia
A sacrifice that must always be remembered .
BLACKTOWN CITY INDEPENDENT theindependentmagazine . com . au ISSUE 37 // APRIL 2024 19