Remembrance Day reflection from Elizabeth Watson-Brown – Greens MP for Ryan:
This year for Remembrance Day I joined The Gap RSL for their ceremony in Walton Bridge Reserve, and took a moment to pause and remember all those who have served and sacrificed in wars and conflicts. The memorial there includes a plaque to Cor Infinitus, a remembrance of service men and women who committed suicide.
My remembrance includes my grandfather, James “Rocks” Robinson, so-called for his reputation of being as tough as nails, was a teacher when he was appointed as Lieutenant to the Australian Imperial Force, and sent to Gallipoli with the 26th Battalion, then to the Western Front where he was severely wounded in October 1918, but not before he led the battalion’s capture of the German tank Mephisto, which is now on part of the displays at the Queensland Museum.
Constituents, such as Robert King in Toowong, who served as an Able Seaman on HMAS Melbourne in the Malayan Emergency and lost an arm and a leg in an accident on board in 1960.
I remember the First Nations people who served, and the sacrifices of the people who stayed at home. The mothers whose sons never returned. The young brides who became widows. The traumatic experiences that bonded some, and changed everyone. And I remember that many wars are being fought today, and that tens of thousands of people have died in conflicts in 2022 alone, and millions more have been displaced.
Rocks Robinson returned from war with honours but never valorised war. He dedicated his life to education, and in retirement taught English and Maths to immigrants and inmates. As I reflect on the horrors of war, and the terrible cost to humanity, my thoughts turn to the fight for a world without war.
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