ANZAC DAY 25 APRIL 2025
Australian and New Zealand troops (ANZAC) landed at Anzac Cove on 25 April 25 1915
On 7, 8 and 9 January 1916 all troops were successfully evacuated, many to the Western Front.
The casualty figures give a good understanding of who suffered at Gallipoli during those nine months:
Australia: Population 4.9 million, 18,500 wounded and missing - 7,594 killed.
New Zealand : Population 1.2 million, 5,150 wounded and missing - 2,431 killed.
British Empire (excl. Anzac) : 198,000 wounded and missing - 22,000 killed.
France : 23,000 wounded and missing - 27,000 killed.
Ottoman Empire (Turkey) : 109,042 wounded and missing - 57,084 killed.
The Australian army were all volunteers, and despite two attempts to introduce conscription in 1916 and 1917, the Australian public (including a majority of troops overseas) voted against the referenda.
My father, Ted Fairnie, volunteered in 1916 and because he was 31 and already father of 5 children, he was sent to serve as a Staff Sergeant in the Australian Field Hospitals in Egypt.
Recruiters focussed their efforts on populations centres throughout Australia encouraging men to sign up with their mates. This meant that in some of the battles on the Western Front from 1916, every male in a number of communities between the ages of 18-30+ died or were permanently incapacitated, leaving a population of mainly grieving widows and parents. In the early 1920’s, Ted Fairnie and several others set up a woollen mill on the banks of the Barwon River in Geelong, which preferentially employed hundreds of these widows. Ted raised funds for building the woollen mill by selling £20 shares, mostly to wool producers he visited in western Victoria, whose sons were excluded from overseas service because they were needed in an "essential industry".
The Mill’s foundation stone was laid by the Rt Hon. WM Hughes, Prime Minister, in 1922.
ANZAC DAY SERVICE AND GUNFIRE BREAKFAST: 25 APRIL, RSL HALL
