ANZAC Day in Tilba this year will be innovative and special.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Before and after the service there will be an exhibition in Tilba’s Small Hall based around World War 1.
It will feature two Tilba WW1 personalities who each have an interesting story of their time on the Western Front, as well as other displays relating to that “Great War” 100 years ago.
The ceremony itself to commemorate Anzac Day will be held at the Tilba District War Memorial in Bate Street, Central Tilba, commencing at 11am on Anzac Day.
It will be preceded by a march past of service personnel and Tilba school children.
All ex-service persons and currently serving service personnel from any location, as well as relatives of those who served and who wish to march in their memory, are warmly invited to join this march which will assemble adjacent to the Dromedary Hotel at 10.45am.
The march past will be led by a lone piper.
All members of the community are encouraged to come along and join in the service as a show of respect to those in our armed services, past and present.
The organizing Committee of the Exhibition is quite excited about the display.
It will tell the story of both Sister Pearl Corkhill, MM, and Bert Latimer who lost both legs below the knee on the Western Front.
Extensive information about Bert has been compiled by his Queensland granddaughter, Kaye Sackett who will be at the ceremony and says assembling the material has been a labour of love.
Despite his loss of limbs, Bert went on to lead a full life, marrying and having children, as well as quite remarkably owning and operating a bus service.
Sister Pearl Corkhill, MM, who nursed both in Cairo and on the Western Front is also noteworthy.
She was dearly loved by those in Tilba who knew her. She was awarded a Military Medal for calmness under fire when her Casualty Clearing Station was bombed.
An invaluable and most exciting exhibit in the display will be an autograph album which belonged to Pearl Corkhill.
The original, containing both autographs and pressed flowers, will be on display protected by a glass case.
A slide show will play beside this, scrolling through every page.
It is believed there were probably 24 identical albums made between July 1915 and January 1916, and they were sent to all 24 serving members, most of whom were already overseas.
They were a tribute to each of these persons for their service.
Page 2 shows the Album was compiled by Mrs Sampey of Wallaga Lake, a prominent local citizen.
On page 3 is the list of serving personnel at that time, and we assume that each of these received a copy of the album.
The album has been provided by Norm Hoyer of Central Tilba.
This innovative exhibition will be open for viewing from 10am to 4pm on Thursday, and then from 9am to 10am on Anzac Day, and again after the service until 3pm.