By Tyler Wright
Over 300 knitted poppies lined the fence and entrance to Monbulk RSL this Remembrance Day, with the community gathering for a minute silence to remember those fallen in the first and second world wars, and in the following conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Korea among others.
Veterans, locals and emergency service personnel stood in unified silence at Monbulk RSL on the morning of Friday 11 November, as RSL president Bill Ford Last Post played into Monbulk’s Main Street, followed by the Australian national anthem.
Monbulk RSL Vice President and Vietnam War veteran John Surridge recited The Poppy by D Rothwell, with secretary Craig Vandenberg reading the powerful In Flanders Fields in tribute to fallen soldiers and veterans, with wreaths laid at the RSL’s shrine.
“Remembrance Day is just as important as Anzac Day,” Monbulk RSL President Bill Ford said.
“You remember all people lost in war, whether It’s in England, New Zealand, South Africa, the Middle East, Gallipoli…and you remember colleagues who have passed away in recent years.”
The community outpour of support for Monbulk RSL and neighbouring leagues in Upwey, Yarra Junction, Warburton and Healesville and Lilydale has been nothing short of incredible, with locals buying poppies and backing their veteran’s charities “to the hilt”.
“It doesn’t matter where I sit…I had people come in last night and this morning to get a poppy – a special effort,” Mr Ford said.
“Most members of the community had a grandfather, a great grandfather, or a father who has served, and now the younger generation, their grandfather’s are all us ([from] the Vietnam veteran era).
“We have people who buy poppies, and they visit the cemetery today a 11 o’clock and put a poppy on their loved one’s grave; that’s what it means right throughout the community.”
Monbulk RSL Vice President John Surridge said through the RSL he was able to meet a fellow Vietnam War veterans who served in the same transport platoon as him, only two years prior.
Mr Surridge also said numbers of RSL members are dwindling.
But despite this, the ability to remember the fallen continues to bring the community together for Anzac Day and Remembrance Day.
“Everyone has a common interest, remembering family members from previous wars, so it’s really good to see everyone getting involved,” Craig Vandenberg said.
“We all rally around each other… in times of need, you can always bank on the Monbulk RSL to come forward and help anyone out.”
Monbulk RSL member Wendy Dennison began a poppy display on the year of the centennial Anzac Day in 2014 which has grown every year since, from a few poppies on the gate, to a few poppies in the garden, and now balls of poppies at the RSL entrance.
It seems the tradition of knitted poppies – an emblem of honouring the dead and helping the living – will continue on in years to come.
“[Wendy] had a band of ladies crocheting and knitting poppies and they’ve already started knitting for next year, she’s got something else in mind,” Mr Ford said.
