Australian War Memorial

I don’t know what I can say that Emily hasn’t already. Like many war memorials, this one reminds the living of the sacrifices of the dead. This one does so in a unique manor — instead of listing the names of the dead, it lists the cities from where they came and from where they will never return. It brings to the forefront the impact on these cities, towns and families that will be felt by the absence of the sons and daughters they sent off to war.
Don’t just rush off under the Wellington Arch to Buckingham Palace without stopping here and thinking about those who gave their lives so that you can have your freedom. The 102,000 Australians who fought and died alongside the British during WWI and WWII.

With our walking boots on we embark on our (promised but not always taken) daily work home from South Kensington to Elephant and Castle.
We walk through the badly lit Hyde Park discussing the day and moaning about this and that and wonder what we’ll have for dinner.
As the dark park become the busy roundabout which is Hyde Park corner we take our chances and cross to the middle. Although we been through here many times before today we become more aware of the war memorials. One in particular stands out and we ponder why we haven’t ever taken a closer look.
We get closer and it’s hard at first to make out who we are supposed to be remembering. There are hundreds, thousands of names on this site. But they are not names of people, they turn out to be place names. In fact we learn that there are 23,844 names of the home towns that Australian men and women who served in WWI and WWII came from. It’s a little overpowering as you start thinking, not only of those who died, but of the families and communities that they left behind. Then we stand back and bigger names become clear, Gallipoli, Syria, Darwin to name only three of the forty-​seven. I don’t recognise a lot of these names but most seem a long, long way from Australia.
I reach out to touch one of the names and it’s as if it’s reaches back to touch me, to thank me for taking time to say hello. The water runs along my finger, down my hand and streams onto the ground.
It takes a little while to move on but we didn’t regret the stop. As we walk away we don’t debate whether war is justified or what we think about the current situation in Afghanistan. We do however reflect on how we could just walk past this most days and not think anything of it.

Sehr imposantes Kriegsdenkmal direkt am Wellington Arch südlich des HydeParks.
Hier wird den Australischen Gefallenen der unterschiedlichsten Kriegsschauplätzen gedacht. Die Namen der Gefallenen und der Orte ergeben bei Fernsicht die Schauplätze des Krieges. Und erst wenn man direkt davor steht — sieht man die Namen.