Standing side-by-side

A year after the end of the First World War, a beautiful baby girl, Vera Constance Parker, was born in the tiny town of Stapleford in Northern England.  But even as her father Walter celebrated her birth, he was already succumbing to the devastating wounds that would eventually kill him.

Walter had been mortally wounded with the ANZACs at Gallipoli at the Battle of the Landing.  He was a member of the Royal Naval Division.  Charles Bean, the legendary Australian historian, wrote of this Division:

“Young and but partly trained, thrown without preparation into a terrible struggle, overtried, gallantly but often needlessly exposing themselves, they had suffered heavily, and their dead lay thickly among the Australians and New Zealanders upon those dreadful heights.”

There would have been many more dead but for Walter’s courage. Time and time again he had risked his life traversing Gallipolis’ headlands to rescue diggers and toms from the withering fire of the Turkish defence. Time and time again he pulled the wounded from isolated shell holes to haul them back to safety. And time and time again Walter’s courageous but vulnerable frame was hit by shrapnel and shot.

On this ANZAC day I cast my mind to Australian and New Zealand colleagues who have stood at my side in Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan. Together we have escaped rebel territory in Sierra Leone, withstood the shattering effects of explosively formed projectiles in southern Iraq and defended compounds from Taliban onslaught in Afghanistan. Just as Walter would have done a century before, we have knelt to tend each others wounded and joined in silent salute as fallen comrades were carried from the field of battle.

Sadly, some things in this world still have to be fought for. But when our nations call and the fighting must be done, we will be there for each other.  Today we fight side by side in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and a dozen smaller conflicts. We work together on a range of regional issues and global challenges, including the fight against Da’esh and counting terrorism and extremism.  Today our servicemen and servicewomen reap the trust and friendship sowed by Walter and a million colleagues in years gone by.  Today our nations work together as we continue to seek that elusive peace that Walter dreamed of.

All too young Vera Constance lost her cherished father to the ravages of war.  Perhaps it was some small consolation that she lived her life bearing the initials of the medal he won in the maelstrom of Gallipoli; Lance Corporal Walter Parker VC.