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Anzacs of Greece Memorial Plaque, Emmaville

Anzacs of Greece Memorial Plaque, Emmaville
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Description / Background

A marble plaque inscribed with a classical Greek quote and the English translation, accompanied by a framed explanatory poster. 

From the Glen Innes Examiner, 6 December 2016, p.4: 

On 28 October 2016, the Emmaville RSL Sub-branch was invited by the Greek Consul General for Australia to the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park, Sydney, to receive a Greek Marble Plaque to recognise all those Australians who fought and died in the battles for Greece and Crete.

The plaque was then placed in the Emmaville Mining Museum as a permanent loan alongside the Second World War Honour Roll.

Inscription

Plaque

ANZACS OF GREECE

[Classical Greek quote]

Doing battle besides the Hyellespont these men lost their shining youth. They brought honour to their homeland, so that the enemy groaned as it carried off the harvest of war and for themselves they set up a deathless memorial of their courage.

LEMNOS - MACEDONIA - CRETE

Poster

Consulate General of Greece Sydney

ANZACS OF GREECE

This marble plaque is offered as a gesture of gratitude from the Greek-Australian Community for the Australians and New Zealanders - Anzacs - who defended democracy in its birthplace during both World Wars. More than 64,000 Anzacs set off from the Greek Island of Lemnos for the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign. More than 45,000 Anzacs fought in Greece during World War II. Of these extraordinary men and women, 795 Australians and 1,200 New Zealanders lie in Greek soil nearly half of the Australian war dead have never been found or their remains identified.

The original inscription in Classical Greek is part of a longer inscription commemorating the sacrifice of Athenian warriors who died fighting at the Hellespont (Dardenelles) in the mid 5th century BCE. In 1932, Australian poet and Classical Greek scholar Christopher Brennan brought the inscription to the attention of Robert Innes Kay. He in turn, brought it to the attention of Charles Bean. All three were struck by how aptly the inscription related to the Anzac experience despite being written over 2,000 years earlier.  A plaster replica was arranged by John Treloar in 1935 and placed on display in the Australian War Memorial.

LEMNOS - MACEDONIA - CRETE

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Address
Emmaville Mining Museum
86 Moore Street
Emmaville NSW 2371
Local Government Area
Glen Innes Severn Council
Setting
Building – inside
Memorial type
Board/roll/plaque/tablet
Recorded by
Graham Wilson OAM
Conflict/s
First World War, 1914–18
Second World War, 1939–45