Radical Service to Others

Greater love has no one than this:
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

John 15:13

Shore’s Remembrance Day Service, falling on the anniversary of the Armistice which brought World War 1 to a stop on 11 November 1918, gave reason to consider Shore’s deep connection, not only with the Great War, but also with the deeply entrenched concept of serving others which is such a central part of Shore’s DNA. 

The occasion was graced by our Guest of Honour and Speaker, Sir Peter Cosgrove. Sir Peter has known war as a combatant; he became Chief of Army and then Chief of the Australian Armed Forces and then, subsequently, Governor-General. Our first thought was to publish his address (he has kindly granted permission) in either the Torch Bearer or the Shore Report. Both are, however, too far advanced towards publication for that to be possible, hence, it features in this edition of the Shore Weekly Record. 

Top image: Dr Collier, Sir Peter Cosgrove and The Hon Dennis Cowdroy AO KC (’61)

Dr John Collier
Headmaster

Remembrance Day – Saturday 11 November 2023
Address by General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK CVO MC (Retd)

Greetings to the Headmaster, Reverend Sirs, Head Prefect, Senior Under Officer and men and women of the Shore Grammar Cadet Unit, Chair and Members of the School Council, ladies and gentlemen.

Lynne and I are honoured to be invited to join you for this occasion here at this famous School, with the occasion being added in lustre today by the presence of the group of Wenona women among your ranks.

l am particularly delighted that a significant part of the opportunity you extend to me today comes from a great man of Shore, retired Justice Dennis Cowdroy, whose uniform service was with our Navy and with whom I formed a friendship in the lead-up to the Centenary of World War I when he and I were advising the New South Wales State Government on its plans and arrangements.

This Chapel is a beautiful, solemn place —a place of aspiration and contemplation and sometimes consolation. There is no better place for us to gather all these many years after the end of the “War To End All Wars”.

The first sense of commemoration of the new nation Australia at war, was naturally enough resting on our first major campaign of the great war, Gallipoli, 25 April 1915. It might be said that the first commemoration of what became known as Anzac Day took place on the banks of the Nile in 1916.

What happened on 11 September 1914? The Battle of Bita Paka took place on the island of New Britain. This battle with the German reservists and Melanesian police was the first Australian action of the First World War. This battle also saw the first Australian fatal casualties of the First World War. A doctor, 24-year-old Captain Brian Pockley AAMC from Wahroonga in Sydney, was killed by another bullet as he tried to assist the wounded, having selflessly given away his Red Cross brassard to his orderly. This brave young man, this giver and saver of life, this archetype of all those who followed, was a paladin for you all, a man of Shore.

Can you remember your first Anzac Day? I remember watching Granddad and Dad march in the 50s. I remember attending the 90th anniversary of the Anzac landings in 2005. At the time, people were concerned about dwindling enthusiasm to mark the day.

Australians are instinctively communal, collegiate, and compassionate. We are not a martial country — there is no pseudo-Spartan ethos about us. We have an enormous sense of human dignity, of freedom, of its opportunities, its fragility, and its obligations. We have often ventured forth far from our shores to defend that freedom or recover it for others.

Over 60,000 of our forebears lie in foreign fields or in far-off seas.

We have, from 1914 onwards, steeled ourselves to the costs of those wars — of course, to our own but also to all those caught up in the struggle. In the aftermath of those conflicts, there is among us no great joy in triumph or even sorrow in defeat. Rather, there is perhaps a joyful relief in the struggle’s end. There is always a sober reflection on all that has occurred and always, always an overwhelming sense of obligation to those who went in our name and their loved ones. On this Remembrance Day, I say to you all that sentiment that we regard as such a precious part of what makes us Australians.

Whenever we have Mums and Dads, Grandads, and Grandmas to quietly pass on those sorts of insights, Anzac Day will remain in the hearts of our people.

We very much hope that none of our young men will ever see combat in war. However, the principle enunciated by Jesus, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13), is an ultimate expression of sacrificial love. Jesus, of course, spoke in the first instance of himself and his death on the cross as a saviour for humankind. His words have often been used to refer to the mateship of Australian service personnel in war. The spirit of giving to others contained therein is worthy of emulation throughout life. 

Dr John Collier
Headmaster

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