St Kilda Football Club commemorated Remembrance Day by observing one minute’s silence at 11am in memory of those who died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts. Saints trainer and former Navy petty officer Dennis Campbell read the ode to players and support staff who paused their training session to show their respect to the fallen. Office staff also paused to observe one minute’s silence at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month.
This year is the 95th anniversary of the armistice on 11 November, which ended World War I. In honour of our diggers, ceremonies were held across the country with many Australians wearing a poppy as a mark of respect. The red poppies were among the first to flower in the devastated battlefields of northern France and Belgium in the first world war, the flower was also written about in a moving poem known as ‘Flanders’ Field’ which described the poppies that marked the graves of soldiers killed fighting for their country.
In soldiers’ folklore, the vivid red of the poppy came from the blood of their comrades soaking the ground.
New Zealanders commemorate the day hold wreath-laying ceremonies to mark ‘Armistice Day’. As part of these ceremonies, two minutes silence was observed at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in memory of those New Zealanders who died while serving their country.
