The Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee announced today the details for its forthcoming unveiling of Australia’s newest Gallipoli memorial – The Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial.
The event will take place at 11:00 am on Saturday, August 8, 2015 – a hundred years to the day that Australia’s nurses arrived in Lemnos to care for the sick and wounded from the terrible battle across the Aegean at Gallipoli. It will take place at the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial site – Foote Street Square, Albert Park.
The Memorial Sculpture will be unveiled in the presence of a number of descendants of nurses and diggers who served in Lemnos in 1915. The unveiling is a public event and all members of the public are welcome to attend.
The Memorial has been created by Australia’s pre-eminent commemorative sculptor Peter Corlett, who has created some of Australia’s most endearing and moving commemorative sculptures, such as Weary Dunlop in Melbourne’s Domain gardens, Cobbers at Fromelles in France, the Bullecourt Digger in France, Simpson and his Donkey 1915 in Canberra and the Australian Light Horse Memorial at Beersheeba, Israel.
The Memorial Sculpture consists of two statues – one of a nurse and one of a sick/wounded digger – standing and resting on a stone plinth. The Memorial statue site is complemented by an information board and flagpoles, the latter for commemorative events.
Lee Tarlamis, President of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee, said that this is a proud moment not just for the Committee but everyone interested in the further recognition of the role of Lemnos in the Gallipoli story and specifically the role of Australia’s nurses.
“For too long this aspect of Australia’s Gallipoli story has been either ignored or lightly treated. The vital role played by Lemnos as the forward base for the Gallipoli campaign, the care of Australia’s nurses and other medical staff for the wounded brought to the Island in great numbers from the peninsula and the support of the local population for the Anzacs and other Allied soldiers, has deserved better recognition. Our new Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial Sculpture will form a long overdue lasting tribute to this service and the sacrifice of those 148 Australian soldiers who remain buried in Lemnos, in its two Commonwealth War Grave Cemeteries.”
In proposing and completing the Memorial, the Committee has received the financial support of the Australian Government, the Victorian Government and the City of Port Phillip, as well as a range of other organizations and many individuals.
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