Scotch College

Moving Remembrance Day Service and Flag Dedication

Because ANZAC Day now falls in the Term 1 vacation each year, armed service to Australia by Old Scotch Collegians can only be formally recognised by current students at Remembrance Day services. This year's Remembrance Day was special in that a most significant event preceded the normal service.

In recent times, three Old Boys from the Class of '68 felt that the only indication of service to our country was the Honour Rolls on the walls, and that it would be appropriate for the flag and ensigns that Old Boys served under be placed in the Hall to complement the Honour Rolls.

After investigating the required protocols and making the necessary arrangements for the Australian National Flag and the Ensigns of the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force to be hung on the north wall of the Memorial Hall, it was decided that Remembrance Day would be the most appropriate occasion for their installation.

National Flag

The Australian Army is the custodian of the Australian National Flag which was presented by Lieutenant Colonel Bill Forbes, AM. Three years after leaving Scotch, Lt Col Forbes, a former Pipe Major of the Pipes and Drums, was a platoon commander in Vietnam. His distinguished service as a member of the Special Air Services Regiment was recognised when he was made a Member of the Order of Australia. He is resigning from the Army at the end of this year, and because his current posting is in Perth, he was unable to be present. Lt Col Forbes asked that he be represented by Colonel John James with whom he served here in Melbourne. While not an Old Scotch Collegian, Colonel James has joined the Scotch Family as the parent of a current senior school student.

Lieutenant Bill McAuley joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1970. He was commissioned on the General List in Executive Branch and served in Her Majesty's Australian ships Vampire, Adroit and Supply. While with HMAS Supply, he took part in the Australian Bicentennial celebrations in the United States before his resignation in late 1978. He currently serves in the Australian Army Reserve as a captain in the Royal Australian Engineers. He installed the Royal Australian Navy Ensign he presented to Scotch.

The Ensign of the Royal Australian Air Force was presented and installed by Flight Lieutenant Tony Clark, after service as a CUO in the Scotch College Cadet Unit, joined the Royal Australian Air Force and undertook pilot training in 1970. He flew Neptune maritime reconnaissance aircraft with 10 Squadron off the North Queensland coast, then spent the remainder of his time as a flying instructor with the Air Force before resigning in 1978.

After their blessing by the School Chaplain, the Rev Graham Bradbeer, the Australian Flag and the two Ensigns were in succession unfurled in place to hang in perpetuity in the Memorial Hall.

OSCA Guest

This year the OSCA official guest for the Remembrance Day Service was Dr Douglas Gauld ('33). A school prefect who was a keen swimmer, rower and skier, he graduated with honours in medicine from Melbourne University in 1939. On enlistment in the Army he saw active service in Palestine, Tobruk, El Alamein, Jerusalem and north Syria. A mine in Tobruk harbour sunk the ambulance transport ship which he was serving on. After the war Dr Gauld practised as a consultant chest physician until his retirement in 1986. At the Service, immediately preceding the Silence at 11:00 am, he read Laurence Binyon's "For the Fallen", best known for its familiar verse:

It had been an occasion to remember.