A handful of hand-knitted poppies could find themselves on the graves of Shellharbour soldiers during this year’s Anzac commemorations in Gallipoli.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
More than 1000 of the iconic red and black flowers have been lovingly knitted or crocheted by residents following a Shellharbour City Council ‘pledge for poppies’ appeal earlier this month.
Most of the poppies will form a large Anzac Day display at the Shellharbour City Library from Friday. However, six of them are heading to Gallipoli with Donna Brotherson and Sandra Huer.
The pair are part of a group of NSW Rural Fire Service volunteers chosen by the Department of Veterans Affairs to help with next week’s commemoration services.
“I watch the dawn service in Gallipoli on the TV every year,” Ms Brotherson, from Oak Flats, told the Mercury.
“You hear the water lapping on the beach and you see the people there at the service, and you try and imagine what it would have been like over 100 years ago now. Of course you can’t imagine that, but the place looks so serene.
“I think to be able to stand there and see the place now, and imagine what it was like back then it’s going to be very moving, very touching. This [taking the poppies] will just give that bit of extra purpose to it and personalise it a bit.”
Ms Brotherson contacted the council after seeing its social media call for residents to make poppies for the display, and asked if she could take some with her.
The 52-year-old doesn’t have family buried at Gallipoli, and doesn’t know anyone who does, but she has vowed to search for Shellharbour soldiers’ graves and leave a poppy.
“Identifying one person makes it a bit real. It’s not just a name or a number,” she said.
“Hopefully it means something for them [those who donated poppies] that … there’s something local going over there and hopefully onto the graves of the soldiers who once lived in this area.”
Council records show 29 Shellharbour soldiers served at Gallipoli. Not all of those who died have a known grave.
At the very least, Ms Brotherson plans to take a photo of the handmade poppies at Gallipoli to pay tribute.
Shellharbour mayor Marianne Saliba said the gesture was “beautiful”.
“To know some of these poppies ... will be making the journey to Gallipoli to honour the local men who sacrificed their lives on our behalf is very special,” Cr Saliba said.
Identifying one person makes it a bit real. It’s not just a name or a number.
- Donna Brotherson
SHELLHARBOUR SOLIDERS
- Percival Edward Addison
- Leonard John Banfield*
- Frederick Henry Bennett
- Henry Thomas Walter Brown
- Ernest Alfred Foreman
- John Robert Fraser
- Andrew Fuller
- Colin Dunmore Fuller
- Charles Harper
- Wilfred Charles Healey
- Lancelot Vicary Horniman
- Robert Geoffrey Horniman
- Robert David Jones*
- Robert Rolton Lindsay
- Edward MacFarlane MacFarlane
- George Henry Mears
- William Stanley Missingham
- Milton James Leslie Morrison
- Robert Roxby Parkinson
- Frederick William Abraham Peachey
- Sydney Bernard Rae
- Selwyn James Rogan
- William Stanley Rogan
- Walter John Thomas
- Patrick Francis Timbs
- Percy Uden*
- Leslie Herbert Wallace
- Henry Gunning Webb
- Frederick Albert Weir