{"initialResults":{"RSLQV2-Index-Dev_NewsPublishDate_dsc":{"state":{"facets":[],"disjunctiveFacets":[],"hierarchicalFacets":[],"facetsRefinements":{},"facetsExcludes":{},"disjunctiveFacetsRefinements":{},"numericRefinements":{},"tagRefinements":[],"hierarchicalFacetsRefinements":{},"index":"RSLQV2-Index-Dev_NewsPublishDate_dsc","filters":"template:E7B511A7-5184-4317-9BB3-D60300ED60DB","hitsPerPage":12,"page":0,"query":"","highlightPreTag":"__ais-highlight__","highlightPostTag":"__/ais-highlight__"},"results":[{"hits":[{"name":"The Ode of Remembrance","path":"/sitecore/content/rslq-r2r-microsite/Home/Blog/Articles Bucket/2026/08/18/02/07/The Ode of Remembrance","pageURL":"https://rslqld-v2-cd-v10-dev.dev-rslqld.org/blog/articles-bucket/2026/08/18/02/07/the-ode-of-remembrance","objectID":"b8872c45-6004-4d1c-b145-08c8e8a22892","template":"e7b511a7-5184-4317-9bb3-d60300ed60db","templateName":"News article","fields":{"MetaDescription":"If you’ve ever attended an ANZAC Day or Remembrance Day service, you'll have heard the stirring words of The Ode.","Heading":"The Ode of Remembrance","BreadcrumbTitle":"The Ode of Remembrance","MetaOpenGraphDescription":"If you’ve ever attended an ANZAC Day or Remembrance Day service, you'll have heard the stirring words of The Ode.","MetaKeywords-Topics":[{"text":"Commemoration","id":"986727d5-84db-4741-a6ce-02dadbbb15f9","value":"Commemoration","shortText":"Commemoration"}],"MetaKeywords-Commemorations":[{"text":"Remembrance Day","id":"4775a199-86d1-456e-9542-2ee7ec822471","value":"Remembrance Day","shortText":"Remembrance Day"}],"MetaKeywords":[{"text":"Commemoration","id":"986727d5-84db-4741-a6ce-02dadbbb15f9","value":"Commemoration","shortText":"Commemoration"},{"text":"Remembrance Day","id":"4775a199-86d1-456e-9542-2ee7ec822471","value":"Remembrance Day","shortText":"Remembrance Day"}],"BrowserTitle":"The Ode of Remembrance | Remembrance Day News | RSL","BlockContent":"

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
\nStraight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
\nThey were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
\nThey fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
\nAge shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
\nAt the going down of the sun and in the morning
\nWe will remember them.

The Ode of Remembrance – often referred to simply as The Ode – is actually only the third and fourth stanzas of Laurence Binyon’s poem, For the Fallen.

He wrote it less than two months after the outbreak of World War I, in response to the heavy casualties suffered by the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front. Appearing in The Times on 21 September 1918, the sentiments it expressed were in stark contrast to the tone of news reports and other poems at the time.

The Ode has been read at commemorative services in Australia since 1921, expressing the nation’s collective feelings of respect and loss for the service people who gave their lives during World War I, and in all conflicts since.

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They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
\nStraight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
\nThey were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
\nThey fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
\nAge shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
\nAt the going down of the sun and in the morning
\nWe will remember them.

The Ode of Remembrance – often referred to simply as The Ode – is actually only the third and fourth stanzas of Laurence Binyon’s poem, For the Fallen.

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Remember to Remember

This Remembrance Day (11 November), join millions worldwide in honouring those who died in service to their country.

Attend an RSL Sub Branch service, observe a minute’s silence at 11am or donate to the Poppy Appeal, and help keep our service people’s legacy alive.

Lest we forget.

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The medal that started a journey

Kalbar RSL Sub Branch member Tony Young descends from a military family whose service history stretches back hundreds of years. Following in their footsteps, Tony served in the Army for nearly two years and has also been a member of RSL Queensland for more than 45 years.

Having settled in Kalbar, he now fills his days by tending to his farm and researching the lives of Australian diggers. Unbeknownst to him, his research would lead him all the way to Europe.

“Several years ago, a World War I (WWI) Military Cross was found. It turned out to be a Fromelles Military Cross. The fellow who found it spent some effort trying to reunite this medal with the family, but he had no success,” Tony explains.

“For more than 30 years, I’ve researched and written service biographies for diggers, so this chap eventually handed the medal to me to see what I could do. I endeavoured to trace down the family and eventually I did.

“I got the medal returned and was invited to Sydney for the Fromelles commemoration. The family member I was handing the medal to was the main speaker and turned out to be General Sir Peter Cosgrove.”

As Tony shared this story with his fellow Sub Branch members, they suggested he attend the 2024 Fromelles commemoration in Ipswich. While driving home from this ceremony, Tony hatched a plan with fellow RSL member Stephen Pace to take their next Fromelles commemoration to the battlefields themselves.

$\"Kalbar$
\nKalbar RSL Sub Branch member Tony Young salutes during a ceremony at the Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery in Fromelles, France on 19 July 2025.

The book that formed the itinerary

As Tony and Stephen set about planning a remembrance trip, Kalbar RSL Sub Branch was busy publishing The Kalbar District Roll of Honour – a book they’d commissioned to memorialise the servicemen from their region who had served and sacrificed in both world wars. Details of each digger’s death, burial and memorialisation site were a key feature of the book.

“Our trip planning kicked into gear after the launch of that book. I suggested to Steve that in France we make a point of visiting every Kalbar man buried in France or Belgium, or at least where their names are memorialised. That was quickly adopted into the itinerary,” Tony recalls.

“The Kalbar district is primarily a rural area, so families would not have had the financial wherewithal to travel to France or Belgium to visit the graves back in the 1920s. There would be quite a number of men who have never had a visitor, so we also laid poppies at their gravesites or on their memorial walls.

“However, during my research I also found it wasn’t only Australia that got hugely traumatised by the losses of war. France lost 1.5 million men, so I said to Steve that I think it’s only right and proper that we also pay our respects at France’s premier WWI memorial site.”

While the three-week trip was going to be action-packed with these plans alone, Tony and Steve didn’t stop there.

$\"Kalbar$
\nKalbar RSL Sub Branch member Stephen Pace lays poppies at the AIF First Division Memorial at Poziers, France.

The coins that were presented in France

As trip planning was in full swing, Tony and Steve met with Paul Rogers, President of RSL Moreton District, to share their plans and their desire to acknowledge the French contribution to Australian military history.

“I discovered that there were a number of French citizens who had done outstanding work to ensure that the memory of Australia’s contribution and sacrifice during WWI was never forgotten. However, they’re quiet achievers; they do all this stuff but don’t get a lot of recognition for it,” Tony explains.

“As a direct consequence, Mr Rogers delegated us to formally present a number of RSL Queensland Coins of Appreciation on his behalf. There were three coins presented to people at the Fromelles Museum, two coins at the Franco-Australian Museum in Villers-Bretonneux, and four coins to the ANSA Museum in Beamont-Le-Roger.”

Tony and Steve were able to present all but one coin at ceremonial proceedings in France. Their efforts earned them a reserved seating invitation from the President of France to the Bastille Day Parade in Paris.

$\"Tony$
\nTony and Steve presented a number of RSL Queensland Coins of Appreciation to French citizens who had done outstanding work to ensure that the memory of Australia’s contribution and sacrifice during WWI was never forgotten.

The lessons taken away from the trip

Looking back on this journey of a lifetime, Tony is humbled by what he saw and experienced. As expected, the trip turned out to be life-changing.

“The sheer number of military cemeteries from WWI – it seems you can’t drive more than 5km and you come across one. That left a sobering impression upon me,” Tony says.

“A highlight for me was attending the Fromelles commemoration. I walked through the graveyard and looked at each of the headstones. I was given the honour of reciting the Ode of Remembrance at VC Corner, and that will go down as a highlight of my life.

“I think it’s important that we acknowledge and remember the sacrifices that were made – not just in WWI, but in all conflicts – because they have paid in blood for the lifestyle we live today.

“If we forget the sacrifices or the lessons that we learned, we’re bound to repeat them.”

$\"Visitor$
\nKalbar RSL Sub Branch member Stephen Pace lays poppies at the headstone of Kalbar man Corporal Andrew Curry McBride, who is bured at the Heilly Station Cemetery near Mericourt-l'Abbe, France. Andrew was a member of the 42nd Australian Infantry Battalion and killed in action on 5 April 1918.

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The medal that started a journey

Having settled in Kalbar, he now fills his days by tending to his farm and researching the lives of Australian diggers. Unbeknownst to him, his research would lead him all the way to Europe.

$\"Kalbar$
\nKalbar RSL Sub Branch member Tony Young salutes during a ceremony at the Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery in Fromelles, France on 19 July 2025.

The book that formed the itinerary

While the three-week trip was going to be action-packed with these plans alone, Tony and Steve didn’t stop there.

$\"Kalbar$
\nKalbar RSL Sub Branch member Stephen Pace lays poppies at the AIF First Division Memorial at Poziers, France.

The coins that were presented in France

The lessons taken away from the trip

Looking back on this journey of a lifetime, Tony is humbled by what he saw and experienced. As expected, the trip turned out to be life-changing.

“The sheer number of military cemeteries from WWI – it seems you can’t drive more than 5km and you come across one. That left a sobering impression upon me,” Tony says.

“If we forget the sacrifices or the lessons that we learned, we’re bound to repeat them.”

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Remembrance Day gives us the opportunity to reflect on those who gave their lives in service to their country. But among many RSL Sub Branches across Queensland, the act of remembrance is an ongoing commitment that spans longer than just one day and can take many different forms. One of the common ways in which RSL Sub Branches honour remembrance is through war graves and memorial restoration projects.

Memorialising the once forgotten

In Far North Queensland, Herberton RSL Sub Branch, Ravenshoe RSL Sub Branch and the Tableland Regional Council joined forces to restore a cenotaph that memorialises the World War I (WWI) soldiers from forgotten township Evelyn Scrubs.

Before WWI, Evelyn Scrubs was a thriving regional town and home to many farmers and timber getters. But in 1915, 41 local men – who made up 90% of the town’s male population – enlisted to serve their country. Of those who served, many returned with major illness or injuries, or didn’t return at all.

In 1919, Evelyn Scrub local Edward Daniel – father of Claude Daniel, who served in Gallipoli – decided to create a cenotaph to honour those 41 men.

Historian and Herberton RSL Sub Branch Treasurer Shaaron Lindwood says the town’s depleted workforce meant that Evelyn Scrub struggled to continue as it was before the war.

“Most of the men who returned were not able to work as they had before, which meant a lot of the families had to sell their properties and move out of town,” she explains.

“A number of farms were consolidated and became bigger, with fewer people to manage them. Then there were significant weather events that further impacted the shrinking town, which ultimately led to its end in the 1940s.”

In early 2025, efforts were made to refurbish the cenotaph in time for upcoming commemorations. As a part of this process, Shaaron has been researching the histories of all 41 men and their families.

“I enjoy the research; I’ve always been curious,” she says. “And I think it’s important to uncover their stories. They deserve to be heard.”

Now, Herberton RSL Sub Branch and others in the area use the memorial for local commemorations with the surrounding community.

“It’s a beautiful spot. Just this year we had a few hundred attend our ANZAC Day service,” Shaaron says.

“The memorial serves as a reminder of the impact war can have on small communities across Australia. It’s a reminder that sometimes, war can have an everlasting effect on communities and all we are left with are beautiful monuments like this one.”

$\"Evelyn$

Crosses of honour

In Pittsworth, a group of volunteers from the Pittsworth & District Men’s Shed are working tirelessly with Pittsworth RSL Sub Branch to restore the white crosses on the graves of fallen soldiers buried in Pittsworth Cemetery.

Pittsworth RSL Sub Branch Vice President and Army veteran Neville Cullen, who is heading up the project, says it has become no small feat.

“We had originally planned to replace 15 crosses with some spare ones that we had stored at the Sub Branch. But once we got out to the cemetery and noticed the condition the others were in, we knew something had to be done,” Neville says.

“We then counted that there were 140 crosses in the cemetery, but we had no verification that they were on the correct graves. So, when we sought out help from the Pittsworth Historical Society and their records, we then discovered there should be 207 graves that required crosses! It’s definitely become bigger than what we had originally planned.”

With the help of a handful of volunteers from the local Men’s Shed and the Sub Branch, each cross is refurbished, repainted, and drilled with a hole in the top so poppies can be tied onto the crosses during commemorations.

Neville says it’s important to him and the Sub Branch to restore these crosses to honour the legacy of the Pittsworth locals who’ve fought for Australia.

“To know that so many Pittsworth locals have fought for this country is nothing short of inspiring,” he says. “From what we’ve discovered, we’ve found one who served in the Boer War, a few from WWI, many from WWII and even some who served in Vietnam.

“Honouring and recognising their service through these crosses is incredibly important to the community as well. Throughout this project, our Sub Branch has worked with the Men’s Shed, the Historical Society and the local high school cadets in one way or another.

“It’s been great to work with these organisations who have volunteered their time for this project, because we all know that community involvement is the key to the longevity of a Sub Branch.”

Pittsworth RSL Sub Branch has also recently refurbished a plaque that was donated to the Sub Branch by the Pittsworth Pioneer Village. The plaque was discovered underneath a tree in the village’s garden and after some investigating, the Sub Branch discovered that the plaque honoured eight Pittsworth locals who were killed during WWI over a period of 12 months.

“We hosted a re-dedication on 20 October this year, which was the anniversary of the plaque, and had members of the community attend the service,” Neville says.

$\"Memorial$

Veteran graves restored

In the small country town of Kilcoy, community members have rallied together to refurbish the graves of veterans and previous Kilcoy RSL Sub Branch members who are buried in Kilcoy Cemetery.

A few years ago, community members who established Friends of Kilcoy Cemetery reached out to the local Sub Branch, as they had identified a few graves that belonged to veterans were in disrepair.

“Some of the graves had the RSL emblem, some were just a bit of concrete, some had names on them and others didn’t, but it was the state of some graves that was incredibly disheartening,” Kilcoy RSL Sub Branch President John Robinson says.

Through research, John found that a lot of the veterans in the cemetery were also entitled to an official war grave.

“We identified about 35 graves in the cemetery belonged to veterans or previous RSL members – some of whom were even entitled to an official war grave,” he says.

“For those, we’ve started that long application process and for those who are not eligible, we donate funds to assist with their graves’ restoration.”

Through their fundraising initiatives, Kilcoy RSL Sub Branch makes donations to Friends of Kilcoy Cemetery to assist with the restoration efforts where possible. The restorations can involve structural improvements as well as cleaning and general maintenance.

“As we’re only a small Sub Branch, we raise most of the funds for our Sub Branch through the selling of badges and other small initiatives of the sorts,” John says.

“But we help out Friends of Kilcoy Cemetery through donations as well as assisting in investigating the service history of the identified veterans.”

John says the collaboration between the Sub Branch and the organisation is a testament to the respect the community has for service personnel.

“Most members of Friends of Kilcoy Cemetery aren’t RSL members, but community members who have a familial connection to Defence,” he says.

“Our organisations have worked closely together for quite some time and that collaboration is something we’re incredibly proud of.

“As a Sub Branch, it’s our duty to ensure there’s a proper standard of preserving the memory of those who have died for Australia. And receiving such interest and support from the community in the restoration of these graves is a true indication of the way that the community regards its veterans.

“I’ve been living in Kilcoy for about 20 years, and it never ceases to amaze me how the community engages with the Sub Branch and comes together during commemorations. Kilcoy RSL Sub Branch is widely respected in the community.”

$\"Commonwealth$

Remembering their legacy

These Sub Branches are among many across Queensland that are passionate about honouring – through their projects, and on Remembrance Day – the service and sacrifice of Defence personnel.

“To me, Remembrance Day is bigger than ANZAC Day,” Neville says.

“It’s about honouring those who have fought and died in all wars, not just in WWI. And as a fifth-generation veteran who has recently investigated my family’s service history, having a day to commemorate the service of all campaigns my family has been involved in is quite powerful and means so much to me.”

“As a Navy veteran who grew up in a Defence family, it’s all about remembering the sacrifices that were made, catching up with your mates and upholding that legacy so that future generations can continue the traditions of honouring veterans,” John says.

“It’s wonderful to see people from Herberton, Ravenshoe and other neighbouring communities gather around the restored memorial for commemorations,” Shaaron says.

“Most people consider services here to be the most special, simply because of what this memorial symbolises: that we’re there, on the grounds of what used to be Evelyn Scrub, remembering the sacrifices of those men and all who’ve come after.”

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Remembrance Day news and stories