Remembrance Day Speech – “The Ties That Bind: Remembering Through Letters”
SHS student leader Beau Styles spoke at the service about some letters published in The North-Eastern Advertiser during the war.
By Beau Styles
Scottsdale High School
Today, as we gather in remembrance, we honour the courage, sacrifice, and service of those who have defended our nation — from the trenches of the First World War to the deserts, jungles, and battlefields that followed.
Over time, the nature of war has changed — the weapons, the uniforms, the distant places — but one thing has always remained the same: the longing for home. In every conflict, from World War I and II, to Korea, Vietnam, and modern operations, that connection was carried in the form of a letter.
While Tasmania is small in size around 15,485 men enlisted in WWI and about 31,000 Tasmanian men and women enlisted in WWII. Add to that the thousands of men and women who signed up or were called up into the Defence Forces serving with pride and strength during the very many other conflicts. Even now the 2021 census shows that 214 people (identified as previously served (not currently serving) in the Australian Defence Force.
One thing they have had in common was the need to reconnect with home. For those on the front lines, a letter from home was more than paper and ink. It was a piece of Australia — a mother’s words, a sweetheart’s hope, a child’s drawing. It reminded them of what they were fighting for. In return, the letters they sent back — often stained with mud or sea salt — brought comfort and reassurance to those waiting anxiously at home.
Our local North-Eastern Advertiser helped in their own way and with the approval of loved one’s they printed letters from loved one’s serving overseas.
In a letter to his parents at Scottsdale, Sergeant-Major Cyril Richardson wrote:— “I am as fit as a fiddle. Got two letters from home last week in fact it was the best mail I've had —five letters in all. There are two fellows here talking of what they will have when they get home : green peas, new potatoes etc.-, I've just thrown all my bully beef at them, and now they are round the corner out of range. It's about the quietest time we've had since we landed on this fly-infested stink heap.
The flies are in swarms. J. Kidd and H. Thurley came down to see me last Sunday. J.K, is just the same, but H.T. is bigger that ever. Vere is well, and doing well too. We often get talking for hours when we are off shift. When I get home I'll have a dug out in the garden, and when a sheet of iron rattles I'll take a header into it. After all a dug out is as good as a feather bed when the shells are flying.
19 December 1916 Pte A. Thurston, wrote home saying it had been some weeks since receiving wounds in France but that day he received some "North-East Advertisers" from home, and in one read his Major has thanked the folks for tobacco and cigarettes sent. It is a painful recollection to think of when I know he, was killed on the night of our charge on the second anniversary of the war. I am very sure the sympathies of the whole battalion and fellow officers will go out to his folks at home. I have had letters during the week from Les Lethborg and "Mick" Ranson, who are in camp on Salisbury Plains—A cold place too, I believe. Mick says he has five blankets and still cannot get warm; he is lucky to get such a pile of blankets.
Private Charles H.White wrote from the Dardanelles around June 1916 saying: I’m in the best of health. I suppose you know where I am by this time. We landed here the same day as the first expeditionary Force; they landed in the morning and we landed at night on April 25th. I was cut off in a charge on Sunday night May 2nd, and was reported missing for three days, but got back safe to our lines on Tuesday night, forty eight hours afterwards. Myself, with a few New Zealanders, came in ahead of some Turks. They were firing as they charged, but we were lucky enough to get back unhurt. There were a few of our fellows killed, while we were out, by the snipers, who were all round us. I was slightly wounded on my forearm but I had my arm close to my body when the bullet passed through it. I was only out of action a few days. It is nicely healed now. One soon gets used to being under fire; the fighting is not so bad, the worst is after a battle, when a fellow misses his mates, but of course a great majority of them are only wounded. I have received a fine lot of letters since I came here, and nine came yesterday. It is splendid to be able to get the news from home. There is a lot of news that I would like to tell you about this place, but if I did, you might not get the letters, so it is best not to chance it. Please remember me to all my old friends, and I trust you will all be spared until I return. It is a very nice climate here in the summertime.
Sargeant J. Kidd in a letter to his father at Springfield conveyed the different phases and feelings of a soldier’s life. He wrote “There has been heavy bombarding on the right last night, and all day to day. It has been one continual thunder. If I had paper and envelopes I could write home, but we can't get them here. I have been in hospital and am now at the convalescent home at Heliman, which is a tourist resort in wintertime, and is 15 miles above Cairo. It seems a strange irony of fate that this home, which is really a beautiful hotel, was built by a German company to cater for the German tourist traffic, and is now used as a holiday place for troops who have been wounded After a week or two I will be passed as fit, off I will go to Alexandria. All this means I will not see Gallipoli again until about another two or three weeks.
There were thousands of letters written and some even made their way to their destination. The simple acts of communication bridged thousands of kilometres and unimaginable hardships. They spoke of love, resilience, and the strength of the human spirit even in the darkest times.
As we remember all who served — the soldiers, sailors, nurses, and airmen overseas, the women and men of the Land Army, the Red Cross, the Volunteer Defence Corps, and those who kept life going at home — we honour the words that carried their hearts across oceans.
Remembrance Day is not only about battles fought or medals won — it is about connection, compassion, and the enduring ties between those who served and those who waited.