Monday, 1 September 2025
The Cenotaph, Martin Place
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC

Thank you, Ian.^[1]

Bujari gamarruwa

Diyn Babana Gamarada Gadigal Ngura

In greeting you in the language of the Gadigal, Traditional Owners of the land on which we gather, I pay my respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging, and extend that respect to the Elders of all parts of our State from which you travel. I pay tribute, also, to First Nations people who have served, and continue to do so with such distinction, in our Defence Force.

During the First World War, of the more than 330,000 Australians who served overseas, more than 60,000 lost their lives. Of these, only one was repatriated for burial in Australian soil.

Without a body, a funeral, a grave, at best—or perhaps worst—only a letter or telegram containing news every family hoped never to receive, a deep-seated human need for new rituals of mourning and memorialisation became imperative for grieving families.

It was a need answered, in part, by the erection of more than 4,000 public war memorials across Australia, almost all at the instigation of, and paid for by, local communities.^[2]

Around those monuments like this Cenotaph, in stone and brick, granite and marble, have grown our most important rituals of public commemoration. Those ceremonies—like the one we participate in today—not only honour the bravery of those who serve but also enact our Nation’s most solemn pledge. To remember today and forevermore their stories, their sacrifice, and the freedoms their service have helped forge.

They are rituals that both fundamentally express our collective national identity, as well vitally sustaining, as an active, ongoing and growing tradition, the highest ideals underpinning it. They are the same values that were, and continue to be, so fully embodied by those who serve.

Service and sacrifice. To look after your mate. To lend a hand.

Few returning from the battlefields of the First World War did so unscarred. In the years following the Armistice, to continue their camaraderie, to advocate for, and support one another, returning soldiers came together to form organisations and clubs.

Legacy was one such organisation, initially formed as a means of returning servicemen helping one another into employment.

Then, in 1925, one member stood up at a meeting and asked,

have you fellows thought that the dying wish of any of our cobbers would be that we should look after his missus and kids?^[3]

This lit a spark that, in the century since, has only grown.

As Legacy has changed and adapted through the years, the torch has been passed from those who have served to all of us, a torch embodying a simple but profound request: Look after our mates’ families.

This request is at the heart of Legacy’s mission and is the request that resonates across Australia during Legacy Week, which this ceremony launches.

Now iconic in our calendar, Legacy Week is an important opportunity for all of us not only to remember the promise central to Legacy’s origins, but also to help continue it: to make real in impactful ways the respect, the gratitude, and the compassion we hold for all who serve, as well as for the families who support them.

As proud Patron of Sydney Legacy, to all legatees past, present, and future, to Legacy’s supporters and donors: I offer the most heartfelt of thanks. Your efforts, your dedication, and your generosity help ensure that the families of our Veterans receive the support and advocacy they not only deserve but need.

To the beneficiaries… know that your loss, the cost of your loved one’s service, is respected and honoured. You carry yourselves with courage and dignity—your contribution in supporting your loved ones, as with their service, will never be forgotten. 

Lest we forget.

[1] Mr Ian Thompson, President, Sydney Legacy

[2] Ken Inglis, Sacred Places: War Memorials in the Australian Landscape, Melbourne University Press, 1999; Neil Radford, ‘War Memorials for World War I’, 2014, State Library of NSW website, available  here; Bruce Scates, ‘Bereavement and Mourning (Australia)’, November 2016, International Encyclopedia of the First World War online, available here

[3] Quoted in W B Russell, There Goes a Man: The Biography of Sir Stanley G Savige, Longmans, London, 1959, p. 131. The gentleman responsible is usually identified as Legatee Frank Doolan: Obituary for Frank Doolan, available here; ‘Legacy Club: Sydney President at Armidale: Address to New England Members,’ The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser, 24 June 1946, p. 6, available here