Vic: HMAS Sydney veterans lead special tribute in Anzac parade

AAP General News (Australia)
04-25-2008
Vic: HMAS Sydney veterans lead special tribute in Anzac parade

By Kellee Nolan

MELBOURNE, April 25 AAP - HMAS Sydney veteran Allen Guthrie was "proud and humbled"

today as he led a special tribute to the sunken warship during Melbourne's Anzac Day march.

Frail with age and assisted by his two adult grandchildren, he climbed into the backseat
of an open air blue Rolls Royce alongside fellow HMAS Sydney veteran Ken Brown.

Together, the two 88-year-olds led the parade's naval contingent as a mark of respect
for the 645 men who were lost at sea when HMAS Sydney was sunk off Western Australia in
World war II.

Both Mr Guthrie and Mr Brown had been transferred for duties elsewhere before the ship
went down on November 19, 1941, after a fiery battle with the German raider Kormoran.

After the ship's wreckage was found last month, Mr Guthrie was proud to pay tribute
to its crew today.

"It's been exhilarating, and sometimes a little bit sombre, there's a lot to think
about," he said before the march.

"But I'm very proud and humbled."

Chris Roberts, 21, of Bendigo, marched today as part of a group of more than a dozen
descendants to pay tribute to the lost crew of the Sydney.

Representing his great-great-uncle Laurence Thomas Woolmore, Mr Robert said: "I was
very happy when they were found, and very proud and I'm honoured to be not only representing
Laurence, but also my family as well,"

More than 35,000 people today paid their respects to the Anzacs at today's Shrine of
Remembrance dawn service and the later march down St Kilda Road.

Victorian Premier John Brumby took part in the official dawn service party before marching
with his father, Malcolm, who served on HMAS Quiberon in WWII.

Mr Brumby said he felt "really proud and quite emotional" to march alongside his 83-year-old
father.

"I'm very proud of my father and he asked me last night if I would walk with him.

"He said he'd be really pleased if I'd do that with him, so it was lovely, it was just
a really proud moment."

Mr Brumby was joined by Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard to lay a wreath at the shrine.

For the first time in 30 years the parade also included descendants of those who fought
in the Boer War.

Among them were brother and sister Michael and Wendy Baden-Powell, the grandchildren
of Lord Robert Baden-Powell, who also founded the scout movement.

Michael said his grandfather had commanded British and Australian troops in one of
their "last lines of defence" at the town of Mafeking in 1899 and 1900, surrounded "nine-to-one"

by the enemy.

"For 217 days they held out, they were undermanned in terms of military power, outgunned
by fire, nothing was coming in and out, in short it was a pretty hopeless mess. But they
got through."

Australia's last surviving World War I soldier, Jack Ross, watched the Anzac Day march
today from his bed in a Ballarat nursing home while enjoying a cup of tea and an Anzac
biscuit.

Mr Ross, who turned 109 in March, last participated in an Anzac Day march two years
ago at Kangaroo Flat but is now too incapacitated to get in or out of a car.

His daughter Peggy Ashburn, 80, and other residents of the Golden Oaks Nursing Home
sat with Mr Ross as he watched the Melbourne march.

AAP kn/ce/jfm/bwl

KEYWORD: ANZAC VIC NIGHTLEAD (PIX AVAILABLE)

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