Braidwood’s Remembrance Day commemorations culminated on Sunday with a stirring rendition of the piece of music written for the end of the First World War: The Battle’s O’er.
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Bagpiper Chris Nelson played at precisely 5pm, part of a worldwide synchronised performance of the piece, played in more than 2000 locations around the world. The event was set to 6am British time, and played in all the Australian capitals as well as many small and large regional towns and cities, by pipe bands as well as lone pipers.
The performance in Australia was coordinated by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Speaking through the DVA, the president of Pipe Bands Australia Chris Earl said the organisation envisaged thousands of pipers and drummers taking part, in shopping centres, on street corners, at RSLs and other places where communities gather.
“The Battle’s O’er is a poignant tune in the repertoire of every pipe band, signalling the end of the day and recalling the service of British and Commonwealth servicemen and women during the First World War,” Mr Earl said.
In Braidwood, a concert by Eric Bogle, the writer and singer of the ballad Joan Baez once described as ‘the finest anti-war ballad ever written’, And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda, paused for a few minutes so everyone could hear the piping from the bell tower of St Andrew’s Anglican church.
Earlier on Sunday a large crowd gathered in Ryrie Park for the ceremony of remembrance, led by RSL Sub-Branch president Ted Younger, with army veteran Bruce Keeley, giving the address on the significance of the centenary of the end of the ‘war to end all wars’.
Later, a two-up game at the Servicemen’s Club raised funds for Legacy, and the Eric Bogle concert wound up a day of local remembrance.
