St John's Cathedral, Brisbane and the Anzac Legend

These memorials include stained-glass windows, artefacts, regimental colours and flags, and commemorative plaques. Together, they make St John’s one of Queensland’s most notable ‘Shrines of Remembrance.’ In commemorating our Defence Force personnel, the Cathedral has not sought to romanticise or glorify war. Jesus Christ said “ blessed are the peacemakers” and instructed his followers to invoke the power of love rather than enmity toward their enemies. Accordingly, as part of the Christian Church, the Cathedral advocates peaceful and non-violent means as the preferred way to resolve conflicts between nations, ideologies and communities and to achieve reconciliation and fraternity among all peoples. The great British wartime leader Winston Churchill once acknowledged in a speech to the United States Congress that war is evil, and indeed wars often bring horrific suffering to soldiers and civilians alike. Even the Gallipoli veterans themselves cautioned against romanticising war. The last survivor of the Anzac dawn landings, Sapper Albert Edward (“Ted”) Matthews, said just before he died in 1997 “The whole thing [Gallipoli] was a terrible mistake, so…when we’re all gone, don’t glorify Gallipoli”. 1 Many other Anzacs shared similar views about the horrors and suffering at Gallipoli, some even becoming pacifists as a result of what they saw and experienced at Anzac Cove. More recently, veterans’ groups in Australia have urged us to give as much attention to supporting present veterans dealing with the emotional scars of war as we do to Anzac Day commemorations. They note the comparatively higher suicide rates among returned soldiers, particularly those suffering PTSD or ‘Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is a potentially severe mental health condition common among those who have experienced significant trauma, but only now beginning to be fully acknowledged and reflected in improved services for veterans. Notwithstanding the very real trauma and terrors of war, historically democratic countries like Australia have on occasion found it necessary to take up arms against countries or groups which have sought to subjugate or terrorise communities through force. Waging war has seemed the lesser evil than allowing oppression to persist or tolerating the victimisation of the innocent. Australia has been among those countries willing to send military contingents to contain those who have sought to impose their will on peoples or nations through force or violence. This book depicts the Cathedral’s memorials to many historic military campaigns, battles and war time events in which Australians, particularly Queenslanders, have participated. Each of these memorials is described and what they depict. It is hoped that this book will encourage more people to visit the Cathedral and view the memorials for themselves. In doing so the contribution which our Defence Force personnel have made in the name of human freedom and dignity, as well as the stories of heroism, suffering and sacrifice which have accompanied their participation in war, may be kept alive. A key inspiration for this book has been the rediscovery that one of the memorials housed in the Cathedral is the last known flag flown at the evacuation of the Anzacs from Gallipoli in December 1915.

1 Quoted in Jonathan King, Gallipoli Diaries: the Anzac’s Own Story Day by Day (Scribe, Melbourne, 2014).

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