Australia, our stalwart ally Down Under, has lost a key piece of its history.
Eighty-seven years after the end of World War I, only a gossamer thread now links the nation to its baptism of fire and blood, after the death of the last Australian to go to the Great War.
Evan Allan died late on Monday night at the age of 106, leaving only one living connection with the “war to end all wars” – Jack Ross, 106, who enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1918, but who never saw a shot fired in anger.
Born in Bega, NSW, in July 1899, (William) Evan Allan enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy as a boy sailor at the outbreak of the Great War, when he was only 14 years old.
He served 33 years in the navy and was the sole surviving Australian veteran to serve in both world wars.
A statement from his family said he passed away peacefully.
The countdown to the passing of those Aussies from the first World War has been a painful but steadily progressing process, as history must be.
On a day when her predecessor, Danna Vale, attracted widespread condemnation for suggesting that a Gallipoli theme park should be established on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, with re-enactments of the Anzac landing, Veterans Affairs Minister De-Anne Kelly said: “With his passing, we have lost an entire generation who left Australia to defend our nation, the British Empire and other nations in the cause of freedom and democracy.”
In Bendigo, Victoria, Jack Ross’s daughter, Peggy Ashburn, offered condolences to Mr Allan’s family. “I just feel very sad, really,” she said.
The countdown to the last link with the Great War had been “a bit like the green bottles, standing on the wall”.
She said her father was a modest, unassuming man who had “answered the call” and enlisted in January 1918, two months before his 19th birthday.
Transferred to the Light Horse Brigade as a wireless operator, he was decoding German propaganda in Sydney when the war ended, and was demobilised on Christmas Eve, 1918, six weeks after the Armistice.
One by one, year after year, the Great War generation has slipped away, while holding no less a powerful grip on the national psyche.
The last battlefield Digger, Peter Casserly, died in Perth in June, aged 107. His death extinguished the nation’s last link with the slaughter on the Western Front. One newspaper marked his passing with the headline “All is quiet on the Western Front”.
The last Gallipoli Anzac, Alec Campbell, a boy soldier who upped his age to enlist, died in May 2002, aged 103.
At his state funeral in Hobart, the Prime Minister described Campbell as “Gallipoli’s last sentinel”. He spoke of a reflective silence and the gentle stirring of half-flown flags.
Obviously, we are talking about people who were youths from a different time, a different standard of patriotism.
At a time when Australia’s population was less than 5 million, 416,809 enlisted for the war (about half of the eligible men), 331,000 served overseas and 61,720 perished (all causes).
I, for one, mark the passing of Mr. Allan with the haunting Gallipoli-based tune “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” by the Pogues.
And now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams of past glory
And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, “What are they marching for?”
And I ask myself the same question
And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men answer to the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all
[full lyrics can be found here]
Contrary to the song, though, I would like to say that neither the heroes nor the war can or should ever be forgotten. History slowly but unfailingly slips by us — please find a veteran, thank and talk to the person. Hear, honor and remember the tales.