In 2014, 100 years after the landing at Gallipoli Coorparoo State School opened an ANZAC memorial garden for future generations to visit and to pay their respects. The memorial includes a 100 years of ANZAC commemorative panel with a commemorative plaque overlaid onto a field of poppies. The panel also incorporates the Gallipoli coastline and silhouettes of our ANZAC.
Standing behind the panel is a Lone Pine Tree planted in 2006 from seeds collected in Gallipoli. And finally, next to the garden space is a World War one Roll of Honour which names past CSS staff and students who enlisted in World War One.
There are 112 names on the roll, and these will be projected onto the screen behind me during the wreath laying. Of these, 23 were killed in action.
This week we share the stories of some of our brave past students.
In memory of Harold James Young, who enlisted in the 25th Battalion of the Australian Army on the 15 February 1916.
Harold Young enrolled at Coorparoo State School on the 28 August 1899. His family lived on Macrossan Avenue in Coorparoo.
Harold's unit departed from Brisbane on board HMAT Itonus in August 1916 and after a short time in England, Harold departed for battle on the Western Front in France.
Harold was killed in action on the 10 June 1918, aged 24. He is buried the Beacon Cemetery in Sailly-Laurette in France. In 2016 a wooden cross with a handwritten message by our own year 6 students was placed on his gravesite. His name appears on the roll of honour on panel 106 at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra as well as on our own roll of honour here at school.
We will remember him.