The Last Post gets me every time | Video

I have long stopped trying to fight the tear that rolls down my cheek as that melody drifts across the air.

Maybe the emotion is due to the fact that that melody represents so many who died so I could stand without fear in our Town Hall on a somewhat wet autumn day.

Young Town Band Bugle player Liz Boland (pictured) sounded ‘The Last Post’ beautifully on Tuesday and was ably accompanied by drummer Keith Doldissen.

I have only been in this town for a few months, but Tuesday’s ceremony filled me with pride as well as the normal sadness that I feel on this day.

Children singing the national anthem, diggers wearing medals and their relatives wearing medals for those who could not attend, crowds of people, families, the young and old saying ‘thank you’ to those who served.

My Grandfather fought in the second World War and usually at some time on Anzac Day my thoughts stray from the many to him.

He came home, married my Grandmother and they had seven children, many did not get that opportunity.

Gallipoli was part of the war that was supposed to end all wars. It was a war that was devastating in regards to the lives lost on both sides of the conflict, as are all wars.

Hearing the words spoken from the President of the RSL Sub-Branch to the Anglican Pastor on Anzac Day, that war should be commemorated but not celebrated, and seeing the nods of agreement from the gathered crowd, fills me with a hope that the sacrifice those diggers made when they landed in Gallipoli was not in vain.

War is futile and violence achieves nothing.